The expression of three-participant events in Movima

Katharina Haude (1)

1 SeDyL - Structure et Dynamique des Langues

In Movima (isolate, Amazonian Bolivia), the structure of transitive clauses is determined by referential properties of the core arguments: the encoding of an argument depends on the position of its referent on a referential hierarchy. Movima has no ditransitive constructions. Three-participant events are expressed by monotransitive clauses, with one of the non-Agent participants having the status of an argument and the other that of an adjunct. In three-participant clauses there are no reference effects, i.e., there is no competition for argument status between the two non-Agent participants based on relative referential properties. Instead, the choice of which non-Agent participant is encoded as an argument and which as an adjunct is determined by the lexical or derivational properties of the predicate.

Mots clés: Movima; transitivity; three-participant events; adjuncts; inverse

Domaines: Linguistique

Katharina Haude. The expression of three-participant events in Movima. Linguistic Discovery, 2012, 10 (3), pp.80-96. ⟨halshs-00835149⟩