Home › Languages › Marubo
Marubo
Glottocode: maru1252
Genalogical classification: Panoan
Original alignment pattern: Ergative
Source construction: Transitive constructions with ergative alignment in case marking and indexing, as in (1) and (2). Case is marked on nominals, with A marked by the ergative case and P and S by the absolutive case A is indexed on the verb, whereas P and S are not.
Developmental mechanism: The verbal index of A is extended to some animate S arguments of intransitive verbs, as in (3).
Resulting construction: Intransitive constructions with A-like indexing of S.
Type of change: Extension
Alignment in the resulting construction: Nominative-Accusative
Global alignment pattern following the change: Split intransitivity
Constraints on the distribution of the resulting alignment: Verbal indexing show a split, S arguments of some verbs are marked like A, others like P. Case marking on nominals retains the original ergative pattern.
Grammatical domains: Verbal indexation
Symmetry: Asymmetric
Type of data: Internal reconstruction
References: Siewierska 2004:135, Ganfi 2016:166-167
Examples
(1) Marubo (Paoan; Siewierska 2004:135)
| Ɨa-n | ‘matu-Ø | ɨn-ʃu’tun-ai |
| 1SG-ERG | 2PL-ABS | 1SG(A)-push-PRES/IPFV |
‘I have pushed you.’
(2) Marubo (Paoan; Siewierska 2004:135)
| Ɨa-Ø | ra’ka-ai |
| 1SG-ABS | lie-PRES/IPFV |
‘I am lying.’
(3) Marubo (Paoan; Siewierska 2004:135)
| Ɨa-Ø | ɨn-wi’ʃa’-i-ki |
| 1SG-ABS | 1SG(A)-write-AUX-PRES |
‘I am writing.’