Intransitive verbs in Enets: A contribution to the typology of split intransitivity

This paper contributes to the typology of “active-stative” split intransitivity and middle voice with a detailed case study: it proceeds from a typological comparison of the two phenomena, which are usually treated apart, to an analysis of the Enets data and a discussion of its place in the typology...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft
Main Authors: Khanina Olesya, Shluinsky Andrey
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:German
English
Published: De Gruyter 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1515/zfs-2019-0001
https://doaj.org/article/9ed82acdfe9943ab9a7e5a8c377fd5a3
Description
Summary:This paper contributes to the typology of “active-stative” split intransitivity and middle voice with a detailed case study: it proceeds from a typological comparison of the two phenomena, which are usually treated apart, to an analysis of the Enets data and a discussion of its place in the typology of possible intransitive splits. Enets (Uralic, Samoyedic) has two classes of intransitive verbs, and each class uses its own cross-reference paradigm in all finite forms. The paper provides an account of the morphology of this intransitive split and its connection to the lexical aspect, followed by an overview of semantic composition of the two lexical classes; special attention is given to cases of class variation available for a dozen verbs. The research is based on the data of a fieldworkers’ corpus and thus also shows the advantages of a corpus-based approach to this phenomenon.