[Lingtyp] incipient ergativity conditioned by number of A

[David Gil]

Hi all,

Is anybody familiar with a case of split ergativity in which the 
conditioning factor is the number of the Agent NP?

My reason for asking:in Hebrew, especially in a journalese register, in 
a transitive A V P construction, when the A is semantically plural, 
typically denoting a collective entity, it is often marked with the 
locative proclitic /b-/ while the verb takes plural subject agreement in 
an apparent impersonal construction.For example, in a sentence about the 
Likud political party:

balikud muxanim lidħot et hamahapexa hamišpatit ...

LOC-Likud prepare:3.PLM INF-postpone ACC DEF-revolution 
DEF-legislative.F ...

idiomatically: 'The Likud is willing to postpone the legislative 
revolution ...'

literally: 'In the Likud they're willing to postpone the legislative 
revolution ...'

Such constructions are extremely widespread in journalistic writing.The 
above example, part of a newspaper headline, is followed by a string of 
several clauses all exhibiting the same construction, each beginning 
with a semantically plural agent marked with locative /b-:/ 'in the 
ruling party', 'in closed rooms', 'in the other side', etc. 
[https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/bk5kubsin#autoplay]

In the above construction, the locative proclitic /b-/ seems to be 
approaching the function of an ergative marker, albeit a rather atypical 
one: in particular, when the P is definite, as in the above example, it 
is marked with the definite direct object, thereby retaining accusative 
alignment.

I wonder whether anybody has come across similar constructions, in which 
an incipient or apparent ergative case marking system is licensed by 
number (rather than by more commonly-cited features such as aspect or 
person).

Thanks,

David

-- 
David Gil

Senior Scientist (Associate)
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig, 04103, Germany

Email:gil at shh.mpg.de
Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-526117713
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-082113720302
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20230601/91530b72/attachment.htm>