linguistic typology Linguistic typology (or language typology) is a field of linguistics that studies and classifies languages according to their structural features to allow their comparison. Its aim is to describe and explain the structural diversity and the co ...

, nominative–absolutive alignment is a type of

morphosyntactic alignment In linguistics, morphosyntactic alignment is the grammatical relationship between arguments—specifically, between the two arguments (in English, subject and object) of transitive verbs like ''the dog chased the cat'', and the single argument of ...

in which the sole

argument An argument is a statement or group of statements called premises intended to determine the degree of truth or acceptability of another statement called conclusion. Arguments can be studied from three main perspectives: the logical, the dialect ...

of an

intransitive verb In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb whose context does not entail a direct object. That lack of transitivity distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Additionally, intransitive verbs a ...

shares some coding properties with the

agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuran ...

argument of a

transitive verb A transitive verb is a verb that accepts one or more objects, for example, 'cleaned' in ''Donald cleaned the window''. This contrasts with intransitive verbs, which do not have objects, for example, 'panicked' in ''Donald panicked''. Transiti ...

and other coding properties with the

patient A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other health ...

argument ('direct object') of a transitive verb. It is typically observed in a subset of the clause types of a given language (that is, the languages which have nominative–absolutive clauses also have clauses which show other alignment patterns such as nominative-accusative and/or ergative-absolutive). The languages for which nominative–absolutive clauses have been described include the

Cariban The Cariban languages are a family of languages indigenous to northeastern South America. They are widespread across northernmost South America, from the mouth of the Amazon River to the Colombian Andes, and they are also spoken in small pockets ...

languages Panare (future, desiderative, and nonspecific aspect clauses) and Katxuyana (imperfective clauses), the

Northern Jê Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...

languages Canela (evaluative, progressive, continuous, completive, and negated clauses), Kĩsêdjê (progressive, continuous, and completive clauses, as well as future and negated clauses with non-pronominal arguments), and Apinajé (progressive, continuous, and negated clauses), as well as in the main clauses of the Tuparian languages ( Makurap, Wayoró, Tuparí, Sakurabiat, and Akuntsú).

Examples

Northern Jê

In the

language Canela, different main clause constructions present different combinations of alignment patterns, including

split-S The split S is an Aerobatic maneuver Aerobatic maneuvers are flight paths putting aircraft in unusual attitudes, in air shows, dogfights or competition aerobatics. Aerobatics can be performed by a single aircraft or in formation with s ...

(default), ergative–absolutive (recent past), and nominative–absolutive (evaluative, progressive, continuous, completive, and negated clauses). An example of the latter alignment type is given below. ;intransitive ;transitive In nominative–absolutive clauses, the sole

of an

(S) is aligned with the

argument of a

(A) in that both may be expressed by

nominative In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of ...

pronouns, such as ''wa'' ‘I. NOM’ or ''ca'' ‘you. NOM’ (nouns do not take case inflection in Canela), which occupy the same position in a phrase (in the example above, both precede the

irrealis In linguistics, irrealis moods (abbreviated ) are the main set of grammatical moods that indicate that a certain situation or action is not known to have happened at the moment the speaker is talking. This contrasts with the realis moods. Every ...

marker ''ha''). At the same time, the sole

of an

(S) is aligned with the

argument ('direct object') of a transitive verb (P) in that both may be indexed on the verb by person prefixes of the

absolutive In grammar, the absolutive case (abbreviated ) is the case of nouns in ergative–absolutive languages that would generally be the subjects of intransitive verbs or the objects of transitive verbs in the translational equivalents of nominative� ...

series (such as ''i-'' ‘I. ABS’ or ''a-'' ‘you. ABS’). There are no elements which pattern as ergative or accusative in this type of clauses in Canela. The historical origin of the nominative–absolutive clauses in Canela has been shown to be a reanalysis of former biclausal constructions (a

matrix clause, headed by the auxiliary, and an ergative–absolutive embedded clause, headed by the lexical verb) as monoclausal, with the loss of the ergative.

Cariban

In the

language Panare, future, desiderative, and nonspecific aspect clauses instantiate the nominative–absolutive alignment. An example is given below. In Panare nominative–absolutive clauses, the

and

are distinguished as follows. The unmarked

noun or pronoun (if it occurs explicitly) always follows the predicate (''kën'' in the example above), with

agreement in the auxiliary if there is one (''këj'' in the example above). In contrast, the

arguments are indexed by means of verbal prefixes (''y-'' in the example above) or by absolutive nouns phrases (not shown above), which are in a

complimentary distribution In linguistics, complementary distribution, as distinct from contrastive distribution and free variation, is the relationship between two different elements of the same kind in which one element is found in one set of environments and the other el ...

with the absolutive person prefixes.

Tuparian

In the languages of the Tuparian branch, main clauses commonly instantiate the nominative–absolutive pattern. Person prefixes on the verb are

, i.e., they index the sole

of an

(S) and the

argument ('direct object') of a transitive verb (P). Person pronouns, which follow the verb (either cliticizing to it or not) are

: they may encode the sole

of an

(S) or the

argument of a

(A), but not the patient of a transitive verb (P). The example below is from Wayoró.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nominative-absolutive alignment Linguistic typology Transitivity and valency

Examples

Northern Jê

Cariban

Tuparian

See also

References