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Ilgar
Glottocode: ilga1238
Genalogical classification: Iwaidjan
Original alignment pattern: Nominative
Source construction: Transitive experiencer verbs with experiencer encoded as P and stimulus encoded as A, as in (1).
Developmental mechanism: The A stimulus may be backgrounded and encoded by a semantically empty dummy subject ngok, as in (2). In contexts where the dummy subject ngok is omitted, the original P experiencer is reanalyzed as the S argument of a new intransitive construction, as in (3).
Resulting construction: An intransitive experiencer construction with S marked as P. The original A index is retained as a frozen semantically empty morpheme.
Type of change: Reinterpretation of argument structure
Alignment in the resulting construction: Ergative-Absolutive
Global alignment pattern following the change: Split intransitivity
Constraints on the distribution of the resulting alignment: The new alignment patter is restricted to experiencer verbs.
Grammatical domains: Verbal indexation
Symmetry: Symmetric
Type of data: Internal reconstruction
References: Evans 2004, Malchukov 2008
Examples
(1) Ilgar (Iwaidjan; Malchukov 2008:78)
| Nga-ni-ma-ny | wunyarru |
| 1SG.P-3SG.M.A-get-PAST | sickness |
‘I got sick (lit. sickness got me).'
(2) Ilgar (Iwaidjan; Malchukov 2008:78)
| Nga-ni-mi-ny | ngok |
| 1SG.P-3M.SG.A-get-PAST | ? |
‘I am full.’
(3) Ilgar (Iwaidjan; Malchukov 2008:78)
| Iny-ni-ngardbanbu-n |
| 3SG.F.P-3M.A-CAUS.headache-NONPAST |
‘She has a headache.’