An active system is frequently analyzed as the most semantically transparent case-marking system, where the agent-patient opposition underlies case marking and/or cross-referencing patterns. It has also been claimed that transitivity and its prototypical manifestation of subject-object opposition are irrelevant for this language type. This paper examines these claims in the light of the grammatical system of Guaraní, an active language spoken in Paraguay. Based on lexical and morpho-syntactic data such as reflexivization, passivization, relativization, incorporation and external possession, the results suggest that grammatical relations are indeed semantically driven and that they do not correlate with subjects and objects. The paper clarifies the semantic underpinnings of the active-inactive distinction in this language and shows that the relevant opposition is not that of agent-patient but rather that of source-locative. The study argues for an analysis based on language-specific event typing and construal.
2013. Marcación De Argumentos En El Verbo En Chorote: Intransitividad Escindida Y Otros Sistemas De Alineamiento. International Journal of American Linguistics 79:4 ► pp. 491 ff.
Clopper, Cynthia G. & Judith Tonhauser
2013. The Prosody of Focus in Paraguayan Guaraní. International Journal of American Linguistics 79:2 ► pp. 219 ff.
Dietrich, Wolf
2012. Guaraní. In Amerindiana, ► pp. 207 ff.
Dolzani, Mercedes Valeria
2016. La partícula ra’e en guaraní mbyá. Evidencialidad y temporalidad. LIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas 16:2 ► pp. 241 ff.
McGregor, William B.
2007. Ergative Marking of Intransitive Subjects in Warrwa. Australian Journal of Linguistics 27:2 ► pp. 201 ff.
Paz, Silvina Marcela
2018. Los verbos de afección psicológica entender y gustar en el guaraní-jopara: divergencias en-tre roles temáticos y la estructura argumental. Forma y Función 31:2 ► pp. 31 ff.
Thomas, Guillaume
2019. Switch Reference and Discourse Anaphora: Lessons from Mbyá. In New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence [Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 11717], ► pp. 270 ff.
Thomas, Guillaume
2019. Mbyá resultatives and the structure of causation. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 4:1
2021. Switch-reference and its role in referential choice in Mbyá Guaraní narratives. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory 17:3 ► pp. 563 ff.
Tonhauser, Judith
2022. The Interpretation of Implicit Arguments in Paraguayan Guaraní. Languages 7:2 ► pp. 83 ff.
Yuan, Michelle & Matthew Tyler
2023. Agreement and the Realization of Arguments. In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Morphology, ► pp. 1 ff.
Zúñiga, Fernando & Seppo Kittilä
2019. Grammatical Voice,
[no author supplied]
2019. Revisiting Voice Theory. In Grammatical Voice, ► pp. 246 ff.
[no author supplied]
2019. The Affected Subject: Reflexives, Reciprocals, and Middles. In Grammatical Voice, ► pp. 151 ff.
[no author supplied]
2019. Introduction. In Grammatical Voice, ► pp. 1 ff.
[no author supplied]
2019. Subject Index. In Grammatical Voice, ► pp. 290 ff.
[no author supplied]
2019. References. In Grammatical Voice, ► pp. 254 ff.
[no author supplied]
2019. Covert Diatheses: Uncoded Alternations. In Grammatical Voice, ► pp. 178 ff.
[no author supplied]
2019. Changing Semantic Valency: Causatives, Applicatives, and Related Constructions. In Grammatical Voice, ► pp. 12 ff.
[no author supplied]
2019. Author Index. In Grammatical Voice, ► pp. 285 ff.
[no author supplied]
2019. The Fringes of Voice. In Grammatical Voice, ► pp. 200 ff.
[no author supplied]
2019. Changing Syntactic Valency: Passives, Antipassives, and Related Constructions. In Grammatical Voice, ► pp. 82 ff.
[no author supplied]
2019. Language Index. In Grammatical Voice, ► pp. 287 ff.
[no author supplied]
2019. Diachronic Aspects of Voice. In Grammatical Voice, ► pp. 220 ff.
[no author supplied]
2019. In Search of Balance: Agent and Patient Voices. In Grammatical Voice, ► pp. 120 ff.
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