Deconstructing Ergativity: Two Types of Ergative Languages and Their Features (Oxford Studies in Comparative Syntax)

Polinsky, Maria

ISBN 10: 0190256583 / ISBN 13: 9780190256586

Published by Oxford University Press, 2016

About this Item

PRINT ON DEMAND pp. 416.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Deconstructing Ergativity: Two Types of Ergative Languages and Their Features (Oxford Studies in Comparative Syntax)
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication Date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0190256583
• ISBN 13: 9780190256586
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Building upon theoretical innovations and extensive empirical findings, this book explains variation in the syntactic behavior of ergative arguments across languages. It offers a new analysis of ergativity by recognizing two distinct types, PP-ergative- and DP-ergative-languages. Each type is characterized by a set of correlated features which result in structural consistency.

About the Author

Maria Polinsky is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Maryland, College Park. She investigates the syntax of natural languages, with a particular emphasis on language universals and the range of variation in sentence structure. She has produced detailed syntactic analyses of a number of lesser-studied languages and has a long-standing interest in the ways different grammatical models can be used to analyze syntactic phenomena.