Overview
This DFG-funded Scientific Network addresses argument structure alternations found in applicative and ditransitive constructions. The relation of participants and events in the grammar of natural languages is one of the most fundamental linguistics tenets. While we currently have a good understanding of how core grammatical functions such as subjects and different types of objects are related to events, the relationship of so-called applied arguments to events is less well understood, given several morphosyntactic alternations found with applied arguments. Bringing together twenty members with morphosyntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and typological backgrounds, this network aims to make progress in our understanding of applicative constructions by systematically comparing a wide variety of languages across language families, building on recent extensive works (e.g. Marten & Mous 2017, Pacchiarotti & Zúñiga 2022, Dao, Do-Hurinville & Petit 2024, Zúñiga & Creissels 2024). Our approach takes the novel angle of investigating alternations internal to applicative constructions, while at the same time relating these alternations more broadly to constructions like ditransitives, which also observe similar (but distinct) alternations.
The main focus of our network, which will be funded for the duration of three years (2025-2028), aims to investigate the empirical patterns of these alternations from a broad cross-linguistic perspective across language families, but also towards better accounting for why these alternations exist. The main research questions are:
- What is the variation of applicative alternations?
- What is the productivity of applicative alternations?
- What is the information structural association of applicative alternations?
In order to address these questions, the AAAL network focuses on three main topics: (i) argument/oblique alternations, (ii) case/agreement alternations, and (iii) word order alternations. Each of these topics will be discussed in two of our twice-yearly meetings, beginning in summer 2025.
References
Dao, Huy-Linh, Danh-Thành Do-Hurinville & Daniel Petit (eds.). 2024. L’applicatif dans les langues: Regard typologique. Paris: Éditions de la Société Linguistique de Paris.
Marten, Lutz & Maarten Mous. 2017. Valency and expectation in Bantu applicatives. Linguistics Vanguard 3(1), 20160078. https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2016-0078.
Pacchiarotti, Sara & Fernando Zúñiga (eds.). 2022. Applicative morphology: Neglected syntactic and non-syntactic functions (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs 373). Berlin: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110777949.
Zúñiga, Fernando & Denis Creissels (eds.). 2024. Applicative constructions in the world’s languages (Comparative Handbooks of Linguistics 7). Berlin: De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110730951.
Mailing list
Please email aaal-request
mlist.is.ed.ac.uk if you are interested in subscribing to our mailing list for information about our upcoming meetings! All are welcome!