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INCORPORATED SUBJECTS OF TRANSITIVE VERBS: ATHABASKAN CASES
Keren Rice
University of Toronto
Saturday, January 20, 9:30 AM MJH Rm 126
In some Athabaskan languages incorporation of subjects is found. In all
languages that allow incorporation of subjects, certain intransitive
subjects are incorporable. However, surprisingly, in some of the
languages, certain subjects of transitive verbs can also be
incorporated; the incorporable subjects are, in general, inanimate
causers. In other languages of the family that allow incorporation,
subjects of transitive verbs are not incorporable. In this talk I
discuss properties of incorporable transitive subjects and relate the
possibility of incorporation to the syntactic position of subjects. In
particular, I suggest that in some languages the position of subjects as
external or internal to the verb phrase is determined based on discourse
factors such as topicality; in these languages transitive subjects that
are non-topical are internal to the verb phrase and are incorporable, as
are nontopical intransitive subjects. In other languages only the
position of intransitive subjects is based on discourse factors and
transitive subjects appear in a syntactically-determined position,
external to the verb phrase. This syntacticization of the position of
transitive subjects renders all such subjects unincorporable, while
intransitive subjects that are internal to the verb phrase are
incorporable.
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