Evidence for Ergativity in Shilluk

Abstract

Shilluk, a Northwestern Nilotic language of the Luwo subgroup, has not previously been described as ergative. Using the framework of Dixon (1994), we examine ergative features in Shilluk on the morphological, as well as syntactic, level. Features of morphological ergativity examined include constituent order, constituent marking, pronominal indices, cross-referencing on the verb, the antipassive, and omissibility of arguments. After reviewing these features in independent, non-sequential clauses, we examine them in three types of sequential/dependent clauses. Shilluk proves to be thoroughly ergative in independent clauses, but some ergative features are neutralised in sequential or dependent clauses. The recognition of Shilluk as morphologically ergative is particularly important in light of previous descriptions of the basic ergative sentence as passive. Finally, we consider the ways in which Shilluk is, and is not, syntactically ergative. Although Shilluk is essentially pivotless in coordinate clauses, pronominal reference exhibits minor features of a nominative-accusative system.

Typology of Ergativity

“…It is likely that at least 10% of morphologically ergative languages show optional ergative case‐marking; there are concentrations in the Australia‐Papua New Guinea and India‐Nepal‐Tibet‐Western China regions (McGregor 2007). Scatterings of optional ergative marking are also found in Africa (in at least Shilluk (Nilotic, Sudan) –Miller and Gilley 2001: 52), the Caucasus (four languages in my corpus, including Adyghe (Circassian) –Polinskaja and Nedjalkov 1987: 262), and the Americas (eight languages in my corpus, including Shiwilu (Kawapanan, Amazonia) –Valenzuela 2008).…”

Stem-Internal and Affixal Morphology in Shilluk

“…Morphological processes perform a wide range of functions in Shilluk. In verbs we find marking for tense-aspect and evidentiality (Miller & Gilley 2007); agreement; spatial deixis; information structure; nominalization; and several valency-changing operations. Nouns are marked for number, demonstrative, modification and possession.…”

“…The unmarked structure of a transitive main clause is shown in (10a,b): the internal argument (object) appears before the verb, and the agent appears in an optional constituent, introduced by the ergative marker /ɪ̀ɪ/ (cf. Miller & Gilley 2001). The order of arguments can be inverted, as in (10c,d).…”

1 Linguistic Expression of Perception and Cognition: A Typological Glimpse

“…In Luwo, just like in many other languages of the world, evidentiality (eyewitness versus noneyewitness) is distinguished in perfective aspect only (Storch, this volume), similarly to Shilluk, from the same family (Gilley and Miller 2007). Luwo is among the very few instances of evidentiality in Africawhich makes this system particularly exciting.…”