Chapter published in:
Afroasiatic: Data and perspectives
Edited by Mauro Tosco
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 339] 2018
► pp. 11–22

Did Proto-Afroasiatic have marked nominative or nominative-accusative alignment?

The case system of Berber and Cushitic displays nominative-absolutive alignment, or a marked nominative system, a feature intermediary between ergative-absolutive and nominative-accusative alignment. Comparison of the cases of the nouns with the paradigms of the personal pronoun:

  1. independent / predicative (etc.) pronoun,

  2. dependent / object (etc.) pronoun,

  3. suffix / genitival (etc.) pronoun.

The two paradigms of the Semitic pronoun (independent and suffix pronoun) are a reduction of an original tripartite system, the suffix pronoun assuming functions of the dependent pronoun.

The numerous paradigms of the Berber and Chadic pronouns can be reduced to the same three basic paradigms. They can on their part be reduced to two, insofar as the independent and the dependent pronouns are ultimately of the same origin.

Correlation of noun cases and pronoun paradigms:

Proto-Afroasiatic

Noun

Absolutive case

Nominative case

Pronoun

1. Absolute pronoun (A),

2. dependent pronoun (B)

1. Suffix pronoun (C),

2. conjugation morpheme
Keywords: Afroasiatic cases, syntactic alignment, nominative-absolutive, alignment, marked nominative, paradigms of personal pronoun
Article outline
  • 1.Cases in Berber and Cushitic
  • 2.The nominative-absolutive alignment, or marked nominative system
  • 3.The personal pronoun in languages with nominative-absolutive alignment
  • 4.The personal pronoun in Afroasiatic: Egyptian, Cushitic
  • 5.The personal pronoun in Berber
  • 6.Chadic: the personal pronouns in Hausa
  • 7.Originally only two paradigms of the personal pronoun?
  • 8.Correlation of noun cases and pronoun paradigms
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 01 February 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.339.02sat
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