Chapter 7 - The Case of Basque: An Accusative Analysis for an Ergative System

Abstract

This chapter presents an accusative analysis for an ergative system in the Basque language. In Basque, intransitive verbs take one argument that is licensed by agreement and not by case. In most clauses, main verbs are accompanied by the intransitive auxiliary “be.” The idea that the person/number clitics are reduced pronouns is supported by their similarity to the independent pronouns. The forms used for first-person plural and second-person singular/plural are almost identical to the pronoun. Independent pronouns and full-noun phrases bear the dative case when they function as indirect objects. The auxiliary has a suffix cross-referencing this argument, and this suffix always precedes the transitive subject clitic. In the case of Basque, this means that in ditransitive clauses, the indirect objects are also necessarily base generated as pronominal elements that incorporate into the predicate.