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Home › Languages › Bribri

Bribri

Glottocode: brib1243

Genalogical classification: Chibchan

Original alignment pattern: Ergative

Source construction: Alienable possessor predication with the possessor marked by the postposition wã, zero marking of the possessee and an existential verb, as in (1).

Developmental mechanism: Predicative possessive construction in which a possessee is modified by a resultative participle are reinterpreted as transitive perfect constructions, as in (2). As a result, the original possessor is reinterpreted as the A argument of the new transitive perfect construction, and the possessor marker wã is reanalyzed as an ergative marker for A.

Resulting construction: Transitive constructions with A marked by wã and zero marking of P, as in (3).

Type of change: Reinterpretation of argument structure

Alignment in the resulting construction: Ergative-Absolutive

Global alignment pattern following the change: Differential ergative marking

Constraints on the distribution of the resulting alignment: The ergative pattern with A marked by wã is restricted to perfect constructions. In other contexts, the original ergative pattern featuring the postposition tö is used, as in (4).

Grammatical domains: Case marking

Symmetry: Asymmetric

Type of data: Internal reconstruction

References: Pacchiarotti 2020

Comments:
A similar development is described by Pacchiarotti (2020) for other languages of the Vicetic branch of Chibchan, including Cabécar.