Euskararen kasu-sistema ergatiboa ala ergatiboak ? Ergatibotasunaren azterketa dialektologiko baterako lehen urratsak

Abstract

In this paper I present the first results of a new research project on ergativity in Basque that seeks to offer a thorough, systematic and cross-dialectal analysis of the Basque ergative case-system. It aims to measure the robustness of ergativity across Basque varieties, to define the factors that influence on it in each and all of the varieties of the language and, hence, to define the precise nature of all those ergative systems. And in addition to studying individual systems, it also wants to focus on the variation itself : what the changes are, where they occur and how they are graduated across varieties. This way, this research-project will eventually work toward bringing dialectologists’ and theroretical syntacticians’ endeavors closer.As a first step toward this end, I have arranged a long list of variables that intends to cover all the relevant aspects of the ergativity of Basque ; by doing so, I have tried to lay the grounds for further stages, in particular, for the elaboration of elicitation-tests and for the collection of data.