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Galela
Glottocode: gale1259
Genalogical classification: North Halmahera
Original alignment pattern: Nominative
Source construction: Transitive constructions with a third person nonhuman A argument and an experiencer P argument indexes, e.g 'something angers me', as in (1).
Developmental mechanism: The index referring to the nonhuman A argument became optional and eventually disappeared, as in (2), leading to the reinterpretation of the transitive construction as a corresponding intransitive one, e.g. '(something) angers me' > 'I am angry'. The S argument of the intransitive construction is derived from the P argument of the transitive construction, and therefore retains the index used for the latter.
Resulting construction: Intransitive construction with S marked by means of P indexes, in (3) and (4).
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 pattern is restricted to intransitive verbs with P-like S arguments.
Grammatical domains: Verbal indexation
Symmetry: Symmetric
Type of data: Historical data
References: Holton 2008
Examples
(1) Galela (North Halmahera; Holton 2008:272)
| i-mi-tosa |
| 3SG.A.NONHUM-3F.SG.P-angry |
'Something makes her angry'
(2) Galela (North Halmahera; Holton 2008:272)
| mi-pereki |
| 3F.SG.P-old |
‘She is old’
(3) Galela (North Halmahera; Holton 2008:261)
| ni-kiolo |
| 2SG.P-asleep |
'You are asleep'
(4) Galela (North Halmahera; Holton 2008:261)
| wo-ni-doto |
| 3M.SG.A-2SG.P-teach |
'He teaches you'