Grammatical relations in Telkepe Neo-Aramaic
This chapter describes grammatical relations in the North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic. Telkepe Neo-Aramaic has nominative-accusative alignment. The core arguments that can be clearly distinguished are subject, direct object of a transitive verb, dative object of a ditransitive verb and theme of a ditransitive verb. Core grammatical relations are predominantly encoded on the verb and there is no case-marking, while word order is conditioned not by syntactic roles but by information structure. Up to three arguments may be indexed on the verb, but only subjects are always indexed on the verb. In certain constructions, specific semantic roles may be indexed: one suffix may index a goal, affectee or human source, while another indexes location or metaphorically expresses ability. Telkepe exhibits a type of differential object marking, conditioned by definiteness and topicality and manifested in two separate ways: indexing on the verb and (less consistently) flagging of the object with a dative preposition. Telkepe shows an unusual inversion in the syntactic roles of the indexes on verbs. The suffix set which indexes the subject in Present Base forms indexes the object in Past Base forms, while the suffix set which indexes the object in Present Base forms indexes the subject in Past Base forms.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 1.1Telkepe neo-aramaic
- 1.2The telkepe verbal system
- 1.3The argument–adjunct continuum
- 2.Indexes of participants on verbs
- 2.1Indexes on simplex verbs
- 2.2Indexes on analytical verb forms
- 3.Predicate types
- 3.1Introduction
- 3.2Intransitive predicates
- 3.2.1One-place intransitive predicates with subject indexing
- 3.2.2Intransitives with a referential but non-indexed sole argument
- 3.2.3Two-place intransitive predicates with second argument indexed
- 3.2.3.1With intransitive subject not indexed
- 3.2.3.2Two-place intransitive predicates with both intransitive subject and second argument indexed
- 3.2.4Two-place intransitive verbs with non-indexed independent complement
- 3.2.5Copulaic expressions
- 3.2.6Intransitive predicates with non-referential subjects
- 3.3Transitive verbs
- 3.3.1Two-place transitive verbs with indexed object
- 3.3.2Excursus on development of inversion
- 3.3.3Two-place transitive verbs with an object NP
- 3.3.4Transitive verbs with covert object
- 3.3.5Three-place transitive verbs with argument indexed by B-suffix
- 3.3.6Redundant L-suffix with impersonal use of ʕjb I ‘to please’
- 3.3.7Three-place transitive verbs with non-indexed third participant
- 3.3.8Labile verb lexemes
- 3.3.9Three-place ditransitive verbs
- 3.3.10Two-place ditransitive verbs with covert T or R
- 3.4Analytical verb forms
- 4.Syntactic behaviour of participants in the verb phrase
- 4.1Triggering of indexing
- 4.2Word order
- 4.3Alignment in flagging of independent arguments
- 4.4Agreement of participles in analytical verb forms
- 4.5Imperatives
- 4.6Complement control
- 4.7Valency alternations and causativization
- 4.8Passivization
- 4.9Relativization
- 5.Conclusions
- Glosses, abbreviations and symbols
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Notes
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References