Abstract

ARBOLEDA, Adriana  and  DIECK, Marianne. Case in Wounan: the alignment system and the relationship between case markers and semantic roles. Leng. [online]. 2019, vol.47, n.1, pp.46-72. ISSN 0120-3479.  https://doi.org/10.25100/lenguaje.v47i1.6255.

This article explores the case alignment system in the Amerindian language Wounan and the relationship between its case markers and semantic roles. With a database compiled from extensive fieldwork and within the framework of descriptive linguistics and typology, the article proposes that Wounan has ergative/absolutive-experiencer split-ergativity patterns. Some of Wounan’s grammatical case markers are asymmetrical to its semantic roles. Nonetheless, the syntactic and semantic contexts that determine a clear interpretation of the expressed semantic roles are coherent and systematic, therefore this asymmetry between form and function in these cases is not arbitrary.

Keywords : wounan; case; alignment; ergativity; semantic roles.

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