{"product_id":"deconstructing-ergativity-maria-polinsky-9780190256593","title":"Deconstructing Ergativity: Two Types of Ergative Languages and Their Features","description":"Nominative-accusative and ergative are two common alignment types found across languages. In the former type, the subject of an intransitive verb and the subject of a transitive verb are expressed the same way, and differently from the object of a transitive. In ergative languages, the subject of an intransitive and the object of a transitive appear in the same form, the absolutive, and the transitive subject has a special, ergative, form. Ergative languages often follow very different patterns, thus evading a uniform description and analysis. A simple explanation for that has to do with the idea that ergative languages, much as their nominative-accusative counterparts, do not form a uniform class. In this book, Maria Polinsky argues that ergative languages instantiate two main types, the one where the ergative subject is a prepositional phrase (PP-ergatives) and the one with a noun-phrase ergative. Each type is internally consistent and is characterized by a set of well-defined properties. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe book begins with an analysis of syntactic ergativity, which as Polinsky argues, is a manifestation of the PP-ergative type. Polinsky discusses diagnostic properties that define PPs in general and then goes to show that a subset of ergative expressions fit the profile of PPs. Several alternative analyses have been proposed to account for syntactic ergativity; the book presents and outlines these analyses and offers further considerations in support of the PP-ergativity approach. The book then discusses the second type, DP-ergative languages, and traces the diachronic connection between the two types. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe book includes two chapters illustrating paradigm PP-ergative and DP-ergative languages: Tongan and Tsez. The data used in these descriptions come from Polinsky's original fieldwork hence presenting new empirical facts from both languages.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Maria Polinsky\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0190256591\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780190256593\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/02\/2016\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 410\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.20lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.20h x 6.10w x 1.00d","brand":"Maria Polinsky","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47202100904191,"sku":"9780190256593","price":58.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_2e3e15e4-8816-4ec2-9938-eceb8351f14d.jpg?v=1756819645","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/deconstructing-ergativity-maria-polinsky-9780190256593","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}