Grammatical features |
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Associated motion is a grammatical category whose main function is to associate a motion component to the event expressed by the verbal root.
This category is attested in Pama–Nyungan languages, where it was first discovered (Koch 1984, Wilkins 1991), in Tacanan, [1] in rGyalrong languages, [2] and in Panoan languages. [3]
Languages with associated motion present a contrast between association motion and purposive motion verb constructions, as in the following examples from Japhug Rgyalrong. [4]
laχtɕʰa
thing
ɯ-kɯ-χtɯ
3SG-NMLZ-buy
jɤ-ari-a
AOR-go-1SG
'I went to buy things'
laχtɕʰa
thing
ɕ-tɤ-χtɯ-t-a
TRANSLOC-AOR-buy-PST-1SG
'I went to buy things'
Although both examples have the same English translation, they differ in that (2) with the translocative associated motion prefix ɕ- implies that the buying did take place, while (1) with the motion verb does not imply the buying took place, even though the going did. The distinction made by the translocative is similar to the distinction made in "I went and bought things".
In addition to parameters such as relative time of occurrence (prior, concurrent, subsequent motion), argument of motion, deixis (motion towards or from the deictic center), associated motion systems can also encode speed, and these markers can then evolve into celerative markers exclusively encoding speed. [5]
In linguistic typology, nominative–accusative alignment is a type of morphosyntactic alignment in which subjects of intransitive verbs are treated like subjects of transitive verbs, and are distinguished from objects of transitive verbs in basic clause constructions. Nominative–accusative alignment can be coded by case-marking, verb agreement and/or word order. It has a wide global distribution and is the most common alignment system among the world's languages. Languages with nominative–accusative alignment are commonly called nominative–accusative languages.
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In linguistics, a complementizer or complementiser is a functional category that includes those words that can be used to turn a clause into the subject or object of a sentence. For example, the word that may be called a complementizer in English sentences like Mary believes that it is raining. The concept of complementizers is specific to certain modern grammatical theories. In traditional grammar, such words are normally considered conjunctions. The standard abbreviation for complementizer is C.
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