Abstract

QUEIXALOS, Francesc. ERGATIVITY AND GRAMMATICAL RELATIONS IN KATUKINA-KANAMARI. Forma funcion, Santaf, de Bogot, D.C. [online]. 2007, n.20, pp.95-146. ISSN 0120-338X.

An effort at finding a criterion that is unique, formal, and universal in the identification of subject -or any other grammatical category, as presented in certain theoretical trends, is a position that makes us take the risk of "either forcing the language into an untenable Procustes bed", as noted by Schachter, or being forced to introduce, in an iterative manner, the secondary renormalizations of the initial criterion into an account of the linguistic diversity as this becomes more imperative. I believe Keenan's quantitative analysis of subject to be adequate, provided that the non-syntactic criteria be excluded. From this perspective, and in spite of the indetermination of its mechanisms of control, it is possible to find the concept of subject and object in Katukina, only if the subject is identified with the relationship complement'PAC'-NOM and sole complement, and if the object is identified with the relationship complement'AGT'-ERG. Likewise, it is obvious that an argumentative force against the universality of grammatical relations stems both from is empirical nature -the reality of language, and the highly restrictive characterization of the level in which this type of mechanism operates.

Keywords : ergativity; transitive construction; referential expression; pronominalization; antipassive; focalization.

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