Case and Agreement in Abaza (SIL International and the University of Texas at Arlington Publications in Linguistics, vol. 138)

Abaza, a little-documented Northwest Caucasian language, exhibits an extensive agreement system. This book, the result of field work carried out by Brian O'Herin, is both descriptive and analytical.

As a descriptive work, it provides thorough coverage of a significant subsystem of Abaza grammar--the agreement system. Abaza exhibits morphological agreement between a noun and its possessor, between a postposition and its object, and between a verb and virtually all verbal arguments, resulting in multiple agreement relationships.

As an analytical work, Case and Agreement in Abaza provides a unified analysis of the agreement system within the theory of Principles and Parameters, demonstrating how a variety of structures (causative, applicative, inverted, etc.) can be accounted for within a single simple analysis.

O'Herin's work is valuable for those interested in descriptions of languages of the Caucasus, as well as for syntacticians, particularly those interested in agreement systems and ergativity.

Table of Contents

List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations

Introduction and Background




1.1 Grammatical sketch of Abaza
1.2 Theoretical framework

Basic Case Assignment




2.1 Preliminary discussion
2.2 Ergative Case assignment
2.3 Absolute agreement
2.4 The position of agreement projections
2.5 Nesting paths
2.6 Summary

Stative Predicates




3.1 Lexical categories as heads of stative clauses
3.2 Statives clauses are CPs
3.3 Subject position and case assignment
3.4 the verb ak'w

Causatives




4.1 The causative of dynamic verbs
4.2 Reflexives
4.3 The causative of statives
4.4 Subject positions
4.5 Double causatives
4.6 Conclusion

Derived Inversion




5.1 The potential of ditransitive verbs
5.2 The potential of transitive and intransitive verbs
5.3 Reflexives and derived inverted verbs
5.4 Interaction of the potential and causative

Lexically Inverted Verbs




6.1 Inherent Case
6.2 Inverted verbs and inherent Case
6.3 Expletives
6.4 Reflexives
6.5 The potential of inverted verbs
6.6 Lexically inverted verbs and the causative

Postposition Incorporation




7.1 Oblique arguments in the verb complex
7.2 Motivation for a postposition incorporation analysis
7.3 The incorporation of AGR°-P°
7.4 Adjunction positions
7.5 Legal movement

Wh-Agreement




8.1 Wh-agreement data
8.2 The manner adverbial ya 'w ya
8.3 Pro-drop
8.4 Wh-agreement under coreference
8.5 Conclusion

Appendix
References