Details: Category: Linguistics

Cases, arguments, verbs in Abkhaz, Georgian and Mingrelian, in Case and Grammatical Relations. Studies in Honor of Bernard Comrie, edited by G.G. Corbett & M. Noonan, 75-104. Typological Studies in Language 81. 2008 (J. Benjamin)

A number of apparently anomalous features in the marking of arguments are examined in three contiguous languages spoken in Transcaucasia: Abkhaz from the North West Caucasian family, and Georgian and Mingrelian, two South Caucasian (or Kartvelian) languages. Among the categories examined are those of potentiality, unwilling/accidental activity, causation, (in) transitivity, and non-standard case-assignment, as well as the much debated question of whether Georgian (and, by extension, Proto-Kartvelian) is correctly described in part of its morpho-syntax as exemplifying an Ergative as opposed to an Active configuration. There are passing references to such other languages as (Indo-European) Ancient Greek, (North West Caucasian) Circassian and (Kartvelian) Svan.

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