Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/55036

The present paper aims to give a comprehensive description of the morphological and syntactic features of the Koryak S=A alternation. Investigation reveals several points of interest. (1) The Koryak S=A alternation shows two main patterns. PATTERN 1: the underlying A becomes S marked with the absolutive, while the underlying P is either omitted or demoted to a non-core oblique case, that is, the instrumental, locative/allative, or dative. PATTERN 2: the underlying A becomes S marked with the absolutive, while the underlying P is incorporated into the verb complex by way of noun incorporation or a verbal lexical affix. At the same time, the underlying P sometimes occurs in an oblique case—the instrumental or the locative—outside the verb complex with the incorporated noun. (2) Omission or occurrence of various cases in PATTERN 1 is hierarchically interconnected according to Affectedness, one of the most essential factors in determining transitivity; omission>the instrumental>the locative>the allative>the dative. (3) In PATTERN 2, the incorporated noun functions as a classifier rather than a syntactic argument, which may allow occurrence of the apparently redundant P outside the verbal complex. In other words, the outer P in the non-core oblique case can be regarded as a virtual argument.