The Oxford Handbook of Ergativity

This volume offers theoretical and descriptive perspectives on the issues pertaining to ergativity, a grammatical patterning whereby direct objects are in some way treated like intransitive subjects, to the exclusion of transitive subjects. This pattern differs markedly from nominative/accusative marking whereby transitive and intransitive subjects are treated as one grammatical class, to the exclusion of direct objects. While ergativity is sometimes referred to as a typological characteristic of languages, research on the phenomenon has shown that languages do not fall clearly into one category or the other and that ergative characteristics are not consistent across languages.
Chapters in this volume look at approaches to ergativity within generative, typological, and functional paradigms, as well as approaches to the core morphosyntactic building blocks of an ergative construction; related constructions such as the anti-passive; related properties such as split ergativity and word order; and extensions and permutations of ergativity, including nominalizations and voice systems. The volume also includes results from experimental investigations of ergativity, a relatively new area of research. A wide variety of languages are represented, both in the theoretical chapters and in the 16 case studies that are more descriptive in nature, attesting to both the pervasiveness and diversity of ergative patterns.

Jessica Coon is Associate Professor of Linguistics at McGill University. She finished her PhD at MIT in 2010 and then spent one year as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. Jessica has worked on topics including ergativity, split ergativity, verb-initial word order, and agreement, with a special focus on Mayan languages. Her book Aspects of Split Ergativity was published by OUP in 2013. Diane Massam (Ph.D. MIT 1985) is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Toronto, where she has also served as Chair. Her research areas are argument structure, case, predication, and word order, with a focus on the Niue language (Polynesian), and an interest in register variation in English. She has edited volumes on Austronesian syntax, ergativity, and the count-mass distinction, including Count and Mass Across Languages (OUP 2012). Lisa deMena Travis received her PhD in Linguistics from MIT in 1984, writing her thesis on the parameters of word order variation. She is currently a Professor in the Department of Linguistics at McGill University. Her current research focuses mainly on phrase structure, head movement, language typology, and Austronesian languages (in particular, Malagasy), and the interface between syntax and phonology. Her book Inner Aspect: The Articulation of VP was published by Springer in 2010.

- 1: Jessica Coon, Diane Massam, and Lisa deMena Travis: Introduction - PART I: ACCOUNTING FOR ERGATIVITY - Representing Ergativity - 2: John W. Du Bois: Ergativity in discourse and grammar - 3: Michelle Sheehan: Parameterizing ergativity: An inherent case approach - 4: Anoop Mahajan: Accusative and ergative in Hindi - The Nature of Ergative Case - 5: Mark C. Baker and Jonathan David Bobaljik: On inherent and dependent theories of ergative case - 6: Julie Anne Legate: The locus of ergative case - 7: Itziar Laka: Ergative need not split: An exploration into the TotalErg hypothesis - 8: Léa Nash: The structural source of split ergativity and ergative case in Georgian - PART II: CHARACTERISTICS AND EXTENSIONS - Characteristics - 9: Ellen Woolford: Split ergativity in syntax and at morphological spellout - 10: Jessica Coon and Omer Preminger: Split ergativity is not about ergativity - 11: Andrej Malchukov: Ergativity and differential case marking - 12: Gereon Müller and Daniela Thomas: Three-way systems do not exist - 13: Maria Polinsky: Antipassive - 14: Knut Tarald Taraldsen: Remarks on the relation between case-alignment and constituent order - Extensions - 15: Artemis Alexiadou: Ergativity in nominalization - 16: Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine, Theodore Levin, and Coppe van Urk: Ergativity and Austronesian-type voice systems - 17: Alana Johns and Ivona Ku cerová: On the morphosyntactic reflexes of the information structure in the ergative patterning of the Inuit language - 18: Martina Wiltschko: Ergative constellations in the structure of speech acts - PART III: APPROACHES TO ERGATIVITY - DIACHRONIC - 19: William McGregor: Grammaticalization of ergative case marking - 20: Geoffrey Haig: Deconstructing Iranian ergativity - 21: Edith Aldridge: Intransitivity and the development of ergative alignment - 22: Miriam Butt and Ashwini Deo: Developments into and out of ergativity: Indo-Aryan diachrony - 23: Ritsuko Kikusawa: Ergativity and language change in Austronesian languages - 24: Daniel Kaufman: Lexical category and alignment in Austronesian - Acquisition - 25: Edith Bavin: The acquisition of ergativity: An overview - 26: Jennifer Austin: The role of defaults in the acquisition of Basque ergative and dative morphology - 27: Clifton Pye and Barbara Pfeiler: A comparative study of the acquisition of nominative and ergative alignment in European and Mayan languages - Experimental - 28: Adam Zawiszewski: Processing ergativity: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence - 29: Nicholas Longenbaugh and Maria Polinsky: Experimental approaches to ergative languages - PART IV: CASE STUDIES - 30: Judith Aissen: Correlates of ergativity in Mayan - 31: Mark C. Baker: Ergative case in Burushaski: A dependent case analysis - 32: Ane Berro and Ricardo Etxepare: Ergativity in Basque - 33: Miriam Butt: Hindi/Urdu and related languages - 34: Richard Compton: Ergativity in Inuktitut - 35: Diana Forker: Ergativity in Nakh-Dagestanian - 36: Geoffrey Khan: Ergativity in Neo-Aramaic - 37: Christa König: Ergativity in Africa - 38: Shobhana Chelliah: Ergativity in Tibeto-Burman - 39: Mary Laughren: The ergative in Warlpiri: A case study - 40: Yuko Otsuka: Ergative-absolutive patterns in Tongan: An overview - 41: Tyler Peterson: Ergativity across Tsimshianic - 42: Francesc Queixalós: What being a syntactically ergative language means for Katukina-Kanamari - 43: Andrés Salanova: Ergativity in Jê languages - 44: Eva Schultze-Berndt: Interaction of ergativity and information structure in Jaminjung (Australia) - 45: Kevin Tuite: Alignment and orientation in Kartvelian (South Caucasian)