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Argument Selectors: A new perspective on grammatical relations
Edited by Alena Witzlack-Makarevich and Balthasar Bickel
[Typological Studies in Language 123] 2019
► pp. 107–129

Grammatical relations in Mon

Syntactic tests in an isolating language

| University of Zurich

This study investigates the relevance of the generalized semantic roles S, A, P, T, and G and whether there are constructions that treat subsets of these identically, defining Grammatical relations in Mon, (Austroasiatic). After establishing the notion of transitivity in Mon, the study looks at syntactic constructions that are cross-linguistically found to be relevant the selection of Grammatical Relations, including word order, case marking, control, reflexivization, among others. The results show that Mon exhibits identical treatment of S and A (‘Subject’) in most constructions, less prominently of P and T (‘Direct Object’), as well as a subset {P, G} in at least one construction. Grammatical Relations are found to be relevant for the description and analysis of Mon.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Transitivity in Mon: Syntactic and semantic
    • 2.1Intransitive expressions
    • 2.2Transitive expressions
    • 2.3Ditransitive expressions
    • 2.4Semantic transitivity
  • 3.Argument selectors in Mon
    • 3.1Word order
    • 3.2Case marking
    • 3.3Voice
      • 3.3.1Passive
      • 3.3.2Causative
    • 3.4Secondary verbs
    • 3.5Control
    • 3.6Reflexives
    • 3.7Purposive clauses
    • 3.8Not relevant in Mon
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Sources
  • Abbreviations
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 5 March 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.123.04jen
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