Differential subject marking in Eastern Khanty: Information structure, not ergativity (joint work with Nikolett F. Gulyás)
András Bárány
16.12.2024, 14:15–15:45
Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1 (Hauptgebäude), room M 105
Subjects in Eastern Khanty can be morphologically marked with what looks like a locative case marker. In this talk (joint work with Nikolett F. Gulyás), I argue that this morphological marking is a type of differential subject marking (DSM) that does not reflect ergativity but information structural properties (building on existing work). I show that DSM in Eastern Khanty cannot be “dependent ergative” and propose instead that “locative”-marked subjects mark the subject as a local topic (rather than a discourse topic).