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Koasati
Glottocode: koas1236
Genalogical classification: Muskogean
Original alignment pattern: Nominative
Source construction: Transitive constructions with nominative case marking on A and S and P indexing on the verb, as in (1).
Developmental mechanism: When the A is not expressed, the transitive construction can be reanalyzed as an intransitive one, and the original P index is reanalyzed as the S index of the new intransitive construction, as in (2).
Resulting construction: Intransitive construction with P-like indexing of S.
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: Split in the marking of S participants, some pattern like P of transitive verbs, as in (1) and (2), some do not, as in (3).
Grammatical domains: Verbal indexation
Symmetry: Symmetric
Type of data: Internal reconstruction
References: Malchukov 2008
Examples
(1) Koasati (Muskogean; Malchukov 2008:79)
| Nihahcí | ikba-k | ca-libátli-t |
| grease | hot-NOM | 1SG.P-burn-PST |
‘The hot grease burned me.’
(2) Koasati (Muskogean; Malchukov 2008:79)
| ca-libátli-t |
| 1SG.P-burn-PST |
‘I got burned.’
(3) Koasati (Muskogean; Malchukov 2008:79)
| nokcó:ba-li-t |
| stop-1SG.A-PST |
‘I stopped.’