Verb agreement and case marking in Burushaski

Abstract

Analysis of a form of Burushaski, spoken in northern Pakistan, uses Relational Grammar (RG), targeting grammatical relations at different strata in a clause, to account for a wide range of verb agreement and case marking phenomena. It is found that the RG notions of unaccusative and unergative are sufficient to characterize the two major groupings of intransitive verbs. The nominals that can trigger object agreement on the verb are accounted for by various revaluation constructions. The grammar sanctions inversion, multi-predicate causative constructions, and impersonal constructions with a silent dummy nominal, thus making a similar case for subject agreement. Burushaski particularly lends support for RG claims about antipassive constructions. The RG notion of ascension is sufficient to account for possessor object agreement with verbs that govern this construction. Analyzing clauses with auxiliaries as multi-predicate construction helps account for absence or presence of object agreement in some situations. Causatives and inversion are also seen as multi-predicate constructions. Case marking of certain nominals is often sensitive to grammatical relations within a clause; if a nominal bears a certain relation in a clause, it will receive appropriate marking in spite of other grammatical relations. The rule for ergative case marking is similar. Contains 66 references. (MSE) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * from the original document. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION ffIrCENTER (ERIC) is document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. Verb Agreement and Case Marking in Burushaski