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Linglib.Phenomena.Case.Studies.Comrie1989

Comrie (1989) @cite{comrie-1989} #

Language Universals and Linguistic Typology: Syntax and Morphology. 2nd ed. University of Chicago Press.

Bridge study file connecting linglib's independently formalized typological hierarchies and proving they cohere as @cite{comrie-1989}'s synthesis claims.

Cross-hierarchy unity (Chs 5–9) #

@cite{comrie-1989}'s central methodological point: the same prominence hierarchies (animacy, definiteness, person) recur across multiple grammatical domains:

The shared infrastructure in Features.Prominence ensures the animacy connection is structural — by construction, not by theorem. The GR hierarchy parallel between the AH and causee demotion is proved below.

Subject as a cluster concept (Ch 5) #

@cite{comrie-1989} argues that "subject" is not a primitive grammatical relation but a bundle of coding and behavioral properties that converge in accusative languages and diverge under ergativity. Formalized in Phenomena.Subjecthood.SubjectProperties.

Relative clauses and the AH (Ch 7) #

Relativization typology is formalized in KeenanComrie1977 and Core.Relativization.Hierarchy. The AH concerns accessibility to extraction — a filler-gap dependency — which is why the study file lives under FillerGap/. Non-extraction relative clause types (correlatives, internally-headed RCs) fall outside the AH's scope: @cite{comrie-1989} discusses them but they do not participate in the hierarchy.

Cross-domain unity of the animacy hierarchy #

The AnimacyLevel type in Features.Prominence is imported by both Phenomena.Alignment.Studies.Dixon1994 (Silverstein's split ergativity) and Aissen2003 (DOM via OT). This is structural grounding: the same 3-level hierarchy (human > animate > inanimate) governs both phenomena, with no possibility of drift between separate definitions.

The same pattern holds for DefinitenessLevel and PersonLevel — all three prominence scales are defined once in Features.Prominence and imported by every downstream module.

Accusative alignment implies P is differentially marked (the patient receives overt case marking to distinguish it from S). This connects @cite{comrie-1989} Ch 5–6 to the DOM patterns in @cite{aissen-2003}: in an accusative language, it is the P role whose marking is sensitive to prominence (animate/definite Ps get marked, inanimates don't).

Ergative alignment implies A is differentially marked. In an ergative language, it is the A role whose marking is prominence-sensitive — less prominent As (full NPs, inanimates) get ergative marking.

The directionality of differential marking follows from alignment: accusative systems differentially mark the low-default role (P), ergative systems differentially mark the high-default role (A). This mirrors the polarity of marking in Features.Prominence: P is lowDefault, A is highDefault.

Alignment predicts subject property convergence #

@cite{comrie-1989} Ch 5: alignment type predicts whether subject properties converge. In accusative languages, all properties pick S=A. In ergative languages, coding properties pick S=P; whether behavioral properties also pick S=P (syntactic ergativity, rare) or S=A (morphological ergativity, common) is a parametric dimension.

The toSubjectBundle function derives the predicted subject property bundle from alignment type, so the three stipulated bundles in Phenomena.Subjecthood.SubjectProperties become consequences of alignment classification rather than independent definitions.

Derive the predicted subject property bundle from alignment type. Non-ergative alignment → all properties S=A (accusative bundle). Ergative → coding S=P, behavioral parametric.

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    In accusative languages, all subject properties converge on S=A. @cite{comrie-1989} Ch 5: "In accusative languages... the notion of subject is reasonably clear."

    In morphologically ergative languages, subject properties diverge: coding picks S=P (absolutive), behavioral picks S=A. @cite{comrie-1989} Ch 5: "In ergative languages, the various properties do not necessarily converge."

    In syntactically ergative languages (Dyirbal subordinate clauses), subject properties converge on S=P — full ergativity. This is the rare case where even behavioral tests track absolutive.

    Alignment profiles predict subject property convergence #

    Each language's alignment profile (from Phenomena.Alignment.Studies.Dixon1994) generates a predicted subject property bundle via toSubjectBundle. These theorems verify the predictions against the known typological facts for each language:

    The syntacticErg parameter captures the rare/common ergativity distinction that @cite{comrie-1989} Ch 5 identifies as central.

    Basque: ergative alignment → default (morphological) derived bundle diverges, correctly predicting that coding and behavioral properties pick different NPs.

    Basque's derived bundle is exactly the morphological ergativity bundle: coding picks S=P, behavioral picks S=A.

    Hindi-Urdu: ergative NP alignment → morphological ergativity predicted. The split-ergative conditioning (perfective → ERG) is orthogonal to subject property convergence: even in perfective clauses, behavioral properties track S=A.

    Dyirbal: ergative NP alignment → default (morphological) prediction diverges. But Dyirbal is one of the rare syntactically ergative languages (@cite{dixon-1972}): even behavioral properties (coordination deletion) track S=P.

    Dyirbal with syntacticErg=true → derived bundle converges, correctly predicting full syntactic ergativity.

    @cite{comrie-1989}'s compact-to-analytic and direct-to-indirect dimensions are connected: a compact+direct construction and a periphrastic+indirect construction satisfy the monotonicity predicate.

    Causee demotion: intransitive base → causee gets DO (rank 2), transitive base → causee gets IO (rank 1). The causee is demoted as base valency increases.

    The top of the AH is the subject position — @cite{comrie-1989} Ch 7: "A language must be able to relativize subjects" (HC₁). The subject is the most accessible position on the hierarchy.

    The AH mirrors the GR hierarchy used in causee marking: Subject > Direct Object > Indirect Object > Oblique. The same ordering governs both relativization accessibility and causee demotion — positions higher on the hierarchy are both more accessible to relativization and filled first in causativization.

    The GR hierarchy underlying both causee demotion and relativization #

    @cite{comrie-1989} observes that the same grammatical relation hierarchy governs both causee demotion (Ch 8) and relativization accessibility (Ch 7):

    Subject > Direct Object > Indirect Object > Oblique
    

    CauseeSlot (in Theories.Semantics.Causation.Morphological) and AHPosition (in Core.Relativization.Hierarchy) encode overlapping portions of this hierarchy independently. The bridge function causeeToAH maps causee slots to their corresponding AH positions, and the order-preservation theorem proves the mapping is monotone — confirming that the two hierarchies are structurally the same.

    The mapping preserves ordering: higher causee rank ↔ higher AH rank.

    Dargwa causative system bridges to Comrie's causee hierarchy #

    Dargwa (Tanti) has a productive causative morpheme -aq (@cite{sumbatova-2021} §4.5.7). The Dargwa fragment (Fragments.Dargwa.ComplexPredicates) records:

    Comrie's hierarchy predicts IO for transitive bases, but Dargwa skips the IO position and demotes directly to oblique (elative). This is consistent with monotonicity — the actual slot is at most as high as the predicted slot — but represents a language-specific choice to use a spatial case rather than a dative/IO.

    Map Dargwa causee case to CauseeSlot based on base verb transitivity. Intransitive base → DO (absolutive in Dargwa); transitive base → OBL (elative in Dargwa).

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      Dargwa intransitive causative: causee = DO, exactly matching Comrie's prediction (causeeDemotion 1).

      Dargwa transitive causative: causee = OBL, one step below Comrie's prediction of IO (causeeDemotion 2). Dargwa uses elative (a spatial/oblique case) rather than dative/IO.

      Dargwa preserves Comrie's monotonicity: intransitive causee outranks transitive causee on the GR hierarchy.

      The alignment–DOM correlation (@cite{comrie-1989} Ch 6) #

      @cite{comrie-1989} observes that alignment type determines which argument role undergoes differential marking:

      This correlation was later derived formally by @cite{de-hoop-malchukov-2008} via the Primary Actant Immunity Principle: the argument encoded like the intransitive S resists differential marking, leaving the non-primary argument available for prominence-sensitive marking.

      The critical structural point: the same prominence hierarchies (AnimacyLevel, DefinitenessLevel) that condition split ergativity (@cite{silverstein-1976}) also condition DOM (@cite{aissen-2003}). This connection is built in by construction — both import Features.Prominence.

      Whether DOM (differential P marking) is expected given alignment. Structurally identical to AlignmentType.marksPatient: exactly the alignments that mark P distinctly from S predict DOM.

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        Whether DSM (differential A marking) is expected given alignment. Structurally identical to AlignmentType.marksAgent.

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          Accusative predicts DOM (not DSM); ergative predicts DSM (not DOM). @cite{comrie-1989} Ch 6 / @cite{de-hoop-malchukov-2008} §4.

          Whether a DOMProfile has any differential marking (at least one prominence cell is overtly marked).

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            Testing the alignment–DOM prediction against language data #

            Languages with both an AlignmentProfile (from Alignment.Typology) and a DOMProfile (from Case.Typology) can be tested: accusative alignment predicts DOM; ergative predicts DSM instead.

            No-DOM languages with neutral alignment: DOM not expected, and no DOM exists. Doubly consistent.

            Split ergativity creates alignment zones with different DOM predictions #

            In split-ergative languages, alignment varies across conditions (aspect, animacy, person). Each zone has its own prediction:

            Hindi-Urdu is the key test case: perfective → ergative (subject gets -ne), imperfective → accusative. Per-zone PaIP prediction: DOM expected only in the imperfective. But Hindi's -ko marking applies in both aspects. The ko-marked object receives differential marking regardless of whether the clause is ergative or accusative.

            The split-ergativity × DOM interaction demonstrates that the same prominence hierarchies operate at two levels simultaneously:

            1. Macro level: aspect conditions the alignment split
            2. Micro level: animacy/definiteness conditions DOM within each zone

            In a split-ergative system, DOM availability in each zone tracks the alignment of that zone.

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              Hindi imperfective: accusative zone → DOM expected.

              Hindi perfective: ergative zone → DOM not expected.

              Hindi actually has DOM (ko-marking) that applies across both aspects. The empirical profile exceeds the per-zone prediction: ko operates on top of the case system, not within it.

              Dyirbal's animacy-based split creates analogous zones: inanimates get ergative alignment (DOM not expected), animates get accusative (DOM expected). The split threshold and DOM threshold operate over the same AnimacyLevel type.

              Structural unity: same hierarchies condition both phenomena #

              The animacy hierarchy operates in two independent grammatical systems:

              1. Split ergativity (@cite{silverstein-1976}): AnimacyLevel determines which NPs get ergative vs accusative alignment. In Dyirbal, inanimate → ergative, human/animate → accusative.
              2. DOM (@cite{aissen-2003}): AnimacyLevel determines which objects get overt marking. In Spanish, human → marked, non-human → unmarked.

              Both are monotone cutoffs on the same linearly ordered type. A change to AnimacyLevel propagates automatically to both systems. This is @cite{comrie-1989}'s central methodological point: the same hierarchies recur across grammatical domains.