Tima, a Niger-Congo language of the Sudan, shows signs of split ergativity. If its constituent order deviates from
the basic AVO order to OVA order, the postverbal agent is formally marked, unlike preverbal agents. A direct object, regardless of
its position relative to the verb, is never marked. Research so far has shown that ergative constructions are triggered by certain
participant constellations in discourse. In particular, when the speaker keeps a non-agentive participant, more specifically a
direct object, as the centre of attention in sentence-initial position, a newly introduced agent occurs postverbally and receives
ergative marking. In addition, AOV and OAV constructions are attested, both involving focus marking.
2010The nominal and verbal morphology of Tima – a Niger-Congo language spoken in the Nuba mountains. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.
Alday, Phillip, Matthias Schlesewsky & Ina Bornkessel-Schleswesky
2014Towards a computational model of actor-based language comprehension. Neuroinform 121. 143–179.
Ameka, Felix K.
2010Information packaging constructions in Kwa: Micro-variation and typology. In O. Aboh Enoch & James Essegbey (eds.), Topics in Kwa Syntax, 141–176. Dordrecht: Springer.
Bashir, Abeer
2013Conditions on feature specification in Tima. In Thilo C. Schadeberg & Roger M. Blench (eds.), Nuba mountain language studies, 269–280. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.
Bhat, Darbhe N. S.
2004Pronouns. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dimmendaal, Gerrit J.
2009Tima. In Gerrit J. Dimmendaal (ed.), Coding participant marking, 332–353. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. & Gertrud Schneider-Blum
To appear. Transitivity in Tima. In Rose-Juliet Anyanwu ed. Transitivity in African languagesFrankfurter Afrikanistische Blätter 26 (2016) Supplement Cologne Rüdiger Köppe
Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. & Gertrud Schneider-Blum
Forthcoming. A grammar of Tima.
Gundel, Jeanette K. & Thorsten Fretheim
2006Topic and Focus. In Laurence R. Horn and Gregory Ward (eds.), The handbook of pragmatics, 175–196. Oxford: Blackwell.
Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. & Beatrice Primus
2015Prominence Beyond Prosody – A First Approximation. In Amedeo De Dominicis (ed.), pS-prominenceS: Prominences in linguistics, 38–58. Viterbo, Italy: DISUCOM.
König, Christa
2008Case in Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Krifka, Manfred
2006Basic Notions of Information Structure. [URL] (24March 2017).
Matić, Dejan, Rik van Gijn & Robert D. Van Valin, Jr.
2023. The impact of attentional centering on ergative marking in Tima. STUF - Language Typology and Universals 76:1 ► pp. 87 ff.
Becker, Laura & Gertrud Schneider-Blum
2020. Morphological marking of contrast in Tima. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 5:1
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 18 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.