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Semanically Ergative Languages In Typological Perspective, Alexandr E. Kibrik

Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session

From the summary: "This paper demonstrates the existence of languages whose core structure is determined by the principle of consistent differentiation of semantic roles by means of case coding; that is, to demonstrate the existence of role-oriented languages. If we refrain from interpreting role-oriented languages in terms of subject and direct object, then their organization becomes extremely natural, simple, and motivated. At the same time we gain the hope that by starting with languages of pure types we can reach a deeper and more adequate understanding of the structure of mixed languages."