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Reconnecting Form and Meaning: In honour of Kristin Davidse
Edited by Caroline Gentens, Lobke Ghesquière, William B. McGregor and An Van linden
[Studies in Language Companion Series 230] 2023
► pp. 237–265

Chapter 9
Zero-marking or nothing to mark?

The case against absolutive ‘case’ in Gooniyandi

| Aarhus University
Gooniyandi (Bunuban, Kimberley, north-west Australia), according to McGregor (1990a), has an ergative case-marker. Unusually, McGregor’s grammar does not identify a corresponding zero absolutive case-marker or case; nor does it discuss why there is none. This paper rectifies this lacuna and outlines the evidence against the recognition of an absolutive case-marker. The arguments concern both evidence for the absence of an absolutive case-marker, and absence of evidence for one. Thus it is possible to find ergativity in a grammatical subsystem of a language without corresponding absolutivity. I discuss some implications for the typology of ergativity, and examine conditions under which it is viable to identify an absolutive case and/or case-marker.
Keywords: ergative case, absolutive case, case marking, zero, Gooniyandi
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Overview of the absolutive case (marker) in Australian linguistics
  • 3.Evidence of absence – and absence of evidence – of an absolutive case marker in Gooniyandi
    • 3.1Grammatical roles in Gooniyandi
    • 3.2The absolutive case does not exist in Gooniyandi
    • 3.3The absolutive in other Australian languages
  • 4.Implications to the typology and theory of ergativity
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations and conventions
  • References
Published online: 10 February 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.230.09mcg
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