Minhast: Difference between revisions
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'''(Note to author/volunteer editors: Use gloss templates for the examples in this section)''' | '''(Note to author/volunteer editors: Use gloss templates for the examples in this section)''' | ||
=== The S/O Pivot === | |||
The S/O Pivot pervades Minhast's clause combining syntax. It is an underlying representation of ergativity at the syntactic level, in distinction to morphological ergativity. Like morphological ergativity, syntactic ergativity groups S and O together and A separately. The Absolutive NP of the initial clause in a clause chain serves as the underlying NP that is co-referent with the Absolutive NPs of the succeeding clauses. Since Minhast is a pro-drop language, the Absolutive argument of succeeding clauses can be dropped without any risk for causing ambiguity: the dropped arguments are understood to be the same as the first overtly mentioned Absolutive NP in the clause chain. This is unlike more familiar languages like the Indo-European languages, which group S and A together and O separately; this type of syntactic pivot is called an S/A Pivot. | |||
=== Degrees of Comparison === | === Degrees of Comparison === | ||