Article published in:
Linguistics in the Netherlands 2018
Edited by Bert Le Bruyn and Janine Berns
[Linguistics in the Netherlands 35] 2018
► pp. 1–18

Realigning alignment

The completeness typology applied to case marking in Jê languages

| University of California, Berkeley
| University of Groningen
We analyse case marking in the Jê language family (Brazilian Amazonia) with the new completeness alignment typology proposed by Lindenbergh & Zwart (2017). In contrast with classical alignment typology, the completeness typology first determines whether all grammatical functions participate in a grammatical process (e.g. case marking) and only then determines how these grammatical functions are aligned, adding nine incomplete alignment types to the five types of classical alignment typology. Nine of the ten Jê languages are classified as split-ergative, while Panará is seen as fully ergative, making it a typologically odd language within the family. We show that applying the completeness typology to Jê languages more accurately describes the true variation in case marking patterns across the Jê language family.
Keywords: case marking, alignment, typology, syntax, Jê languages
Published online: 03 December 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/avt.00001.bar
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