Feature GB070: Are there morphological cases for non-pronominal core arguments (i.e. S/A/P)?

Patrons: Jakob Lesage

Description ⇫

Summary

Morphological case involves any type of case marking (or flagging) that is phonologically bound (affixes, clitics, tone, alternation, vowel lengthening, etc.). Core arguments are those having S, A or P function. If a bound marker distinguishes S from non-S NPs, this counts for a 1 code. Optional marking and marking with portmanteau morphemes (e.g. a marker both indicates that a noun phrase is plural and that it has P function) also count.

Procedure

  1. Code 1 if core case is at least sometimes marked on noun phrases by means of bound markers (clitics, affixes, tone, etc.).
  2. Code 0 if core argument functions are only marked on noun phrases using phonologically free adpositions.
  3. Code 0 if core argument functions are only indicated by means of constituent order.
  4. Code 0 if case marking is not mentioned in the grammar or in the examples. Write 'not mentioned' in the comment column.
  5. Code ? if you have reason to believe that the author may have missed case markers or specific case-marking functions of other morphemes.

Examples

Warrongo (ISO 639-3: wrg, Glottolog: waru1264)

Warrongo has case markers on every element of the NP (Tsunoda 2011: 342ff) and is coded 1 for this feature.

ngaygo-ngomany-jo gando-nggo gamo       bija-n
1SG.GEN-ABL-ERG   dog-ERG    water.ACC  drink-NFUT
‘My dog drank water.’ (Tsunoda 2011: 358)

Mundang (ISO 639-3: mua, Glottolog: mund1325)

In Mundang, plural is only marked on nouns in non-subject functions. In other words, the plural marker also marks non-subject case (Elders 2000). Mundang is coded 1 for this feature.

mè   kō   bàl-rā       ɓè
1SG  see  elephant-PL  PRF
‘I have seen elephants.’ (Elders 2000: 393)

If the subject argument is plural, the verb carries the plural marker (Elders 2000: 394–396):

zá      ngɔ̀ŋ-rā       gíì
people  slaughter-PL  goat
‘The people slaughter a goat.’ (Elders 2000: 395)

Hokkaido Ainu (ISO 639-3: ain, Glottolog: ainu1240)

Hokkaido Ainu has no morphological cases whatsoever, and is coded 0 (Bugaeva 2004).

Further reading

Comrie, Bernard. 2013. Alignment of case marking of full noun phrases. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds), The world atlas of language structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Dryer, Matthew S. 2013. Position of case affixes. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds), The world atlas of language structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Haspelmath, Martin 2009. Terminology of case. In Andrej L. Malchukov & Andrew Spencer (eds), The Oxford handbook of case, 505–517. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Spencer, Andrew. 2009. Case as a morphological phenomenon. In Andrej L. Malchukov & Andrew Spencer (eds), The Oxford handbook of case, 185–199. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Note that Spencer does not count clitics as morphological case, while in Grambank they are counted as such.

References

Bugaeva, Anna. 2004. Grammar and folklore texts of the Chitose dialect of Ainu (idiolect of Ito Oda). (Endangered Languages of the Pacific Rim Publications Series, A2-045.) Osaka: Endangered Languages of the Pacific Rim.

Elders, Stefan. 2000. Grammaire Mundang. Leiden: Research School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies, Leiden University.

Tsunoda, Tasaku. 2011. A grammar of Warrongo. (Mouton Grammar Library, 53.) Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.


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0 absent 1485
1 present 777
? Not known 115
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Values ⇫

Name Glottocode Family Macroarea Contributor Value Source Comment