Document Type : Research

Author

• Yadgar Karimi

University of Kurdistan

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to develop a theory of ergativity syntax, focusing on the past transitive structures in Kurdish where ergativity manifests itself. In so doing, the origins of ergativity will be traced back to past participle constructions attested in old Iranian languages such as Old Persian. Drawing on the findings from the investigation of historical development of ergativity, coupled with the evidence from a diverse array of structures that share formal characteristics with the past transitive structure in Kurdish, I will argue that ergativity arises in transitive structures in which the transitive verb, subcategorizing for a complement DP, is unaccusative and the subject DP, bearing the agent role, is licensed as the specifier of a high applicative head that takes Vp as its complement. Thus analyzed, ergativity is construed as an epiphenomenon deriving from the interplay of the independently motivated operations of the syntax of ergativity languages.

Keywords

• Kurdish
• theory of ergativity syntax
• Old Iranian
• Old Persian