Cover not available
Article published In:
Studies in Language
Vol. 42:4 (2018) ► pp.970–993
News from the Field

Reference tracking in Tima and its interplay with split ergative marking

| Universität zu Köln
| Universität zu Köln
Tima, a Niger-Congo language of the Sudan, shows signs of split ergativity. If its constituent order deviates from the basic AVO order to OVA order, the postverbal agent is formally marked, unlike preverbal agents. A direct object, regardless of its position relative to the verb, is never marked. Research so far has shown that ergative constructions are triggered by certain participant constellations in discourse. In particular, when the speaker keeps a non-agentive participant, more specifically a direct object, as the centre of attention in sentence-initial position, a newly introduced agent occurs postverbally and receives ergative marking. In addition, AOV and OAV constructions are attested, both involving focus marking.
Keywords: differential subject marking, reference tracking, information structure
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The puzzle: Variation in constituent order
  • 3.Introducing a new participant at the beginning of a text
    • 3.1Text opening with a focus marked constituent
    • 3.2Text opening with sentences having SV/AVO constituent order
  • 4.Reference continuity and switch
    • 4.1Referential identity
    • 4.2Referential difference
  • 5.Contrastive events
  • 6.Final observations
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 4 February 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.17030.sch
References (26)
References
Alamin, Suzan. 2010. The nominal and verbal morphology of Tima – a Niger-Congo language spoken in the Nuba mountains. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar
Alday, Phillip, Matthias Schlesewsky & Ina Bornkessel-Schleswesky. 2014. Towards a computational model of actor-based language comprehension. Neuroinform 121. 143–179. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ameka, Felix K. 2010. Information packaging constructions in Kwa: Micro-variation and typology. In O. Aboh Enoch & James Essegbey (eds.), Topics in Kwa Syntax, 141–176. Dordrecht: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bashir, Abeer. 2013. Conditions on feature specification in Tima. In Thilo C. Schadeberg & Roger M. Blench (eds.), Nuba mountain language studies, 269–280. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar
Bhat, Darbhe N. S. 2004. Pronouns. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. 2009. Tima. In Gerrit J. Dimmendaal (ed.), Coding participant marking, 332–353. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. & Gertrud Schneider-Blum. To appear. Transitivity in Tima. In Rose-Juliet Anyanwu (ed.), Transitivity in African languages, Frankfurter Afrikanistische Blätter 26 (2016) Supplement. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.
. Forthcoming. A grammar of Tima.
Gundel, Jeanette K. & Thorsten Fretheim. 2006. Topic and Focus. In Laurence R. Horn and Gregory Ward (eds.), The handbook of pragmatics, 175–196. Oxford: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. & Beatrice Primus. 2015. Prominence Beyond Prosody – A First Approximation. In Amedeo De Dominicis (ed.), pS-prominenceS: Prominences in linguistics, 38–58. Viterbo, Italy: DISUCOM.Google Scholar
König, Christa. 2008. Case in Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Krifka, Manfred. 2006. Basic Notions of Information Structure. [URL] (24 March 2017).
Matić, Dejan, Rik van Gijn & Robert D. Van Valin, Jr. 2014. Information structure and reference tracking in complex sentences: An overview. In Rik van Gijn, Jeremy Hammond, Dejan Matić, Saskia van Putten & Ana Vilacy Galucio (eds.), Information Structure and Reference Tracking in Complex Sentences, 1–41. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McGregor, William. 1992. The semantics of ergative marking in Gooniyandi. Linguistics 301. 275–318. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McGregor, William B. 2010. Optional ergative case marking systems in a typological-semiotic perspective. Lingua 1201. 1610–1636. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meerpohl, Meike. 2012. The Tima of the Nuba Mountains (Sudan). A Social Anthropological Study. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar
Riesberg, Sonja & Beatrice Primus. 2015. Agent prominence in symmetrical voice languages. STUF 68(4). 551–564.Google Scholar
Primus, Beatrice. 2010. Case Marking Typology. [URL] (22 April 2017). DOI logo
Sasse, Hans-Jürgen. 1987. The thetic/categorical distinction revisited. Linguistics 251. 511–580. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schneider-Blum, Gertrud. 2013. Personal pronouns in Tima. In Thilo C. Schadeberg and Roger M. Blench (eds.), Nuba Mountain Language Studies, 281–296. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar
. In Preparation. Grammatical relations in Tima.
Skopeteas, Stavros, Ines Fiedler, Sam Hellmuth et al. 2006. Questionnaire on Information Structure: Reference Manual. Universitätsverlag Potsdam.Google Scholar
van Dijk, Teun A. 1977. Sentence Topic and Discourse Topic. Papers in Slavic Philology, 11. 49–61.Google Scholar
van Putten, Saskia. 2014. Information structure in Avatime (MPI Series in Psycholinguistics 92). Nijmegen: Radboud University doctoral thesis.Google Scholar
Van Valin, Robert D. & Randy J. LaPolla. 1997. Syntax – Structure, meaning and function. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

Alamin, Suzan & Gertrud Schneider-Blum
2024. Chapter 3. A cautious approach to spatial orientation in Tima. In Anthropological Linguistics [Culture and Language Use, 23], ► pp. 49 ff. DOI logo
Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. & Gertrud Schneider-Blum
2024. Chapter 2. Locative expressions and their semantic extensions in Tima. In Predication in African Languages [Studies in Language Companion Series, 235], ► pp. 44 ff. DOI logo
Schneider-Blum, Gertrud
2023. The impact of attentional centering on ergative marking in Tima. STUF - Language Typology and Universals 76:1 ► pp. 87 ff. DOI logo
Becker, Laura & Gertrud Schneider-Blum
2020. Morphological marking of contrast in Tima. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 5:1 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 18 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.