Beyond the Core: Typological Variation in the Identification of Participants

Abstract

Languages vary not only in their argument categories but also in the relative burden borne by core arguments, on the one hand, and obliques or adjuncts, on the other, in conveying information. Here it is shown that the kinds of participants identified in many languages with oblique nominals or adjuncts, such as companions, recipients, beneficiaries, instruments, sources, and goals, are usually identified by alternative structures in Mohawk. The only referents introduced by nominal adjuncts are places and times, entities that can characterize whole situations. The roles of all participants are specified in or inferable from the verb: in pronominal prefixes, applicative suffixes, incorporated nouns, directional prefixes, and the semantics of the verb stem. It will be seen that such head‐marking structure is more than a simple formal variable. It can have important implications for the lexicon and for issues in language documentation.