Argument Structure: Markedness, Word Order, And Its Correlations

This thesis presents a typological survey of morphological markedness, basic word order, and its correlations, which is based on a study of (core) argument structure. It mainly covers three issues:Sixteen markedness patterns may exist in the grammatical relation between Subject, Verb and Object. Section Two investigates the relationship between these markedness patterns and basic word order, mainly by surveying a worldwide language sample (82 languages). Eight language universals in particular with markedness and word order are proposed in this part.The main function of accusative in SOV languages is to distinguish the agent and patient. Section Three presents three possible principles of the occurrence of accusative by investigating a number of 53 minority languages in China. As to the alternative word order of SOV languages, it proposes that the two basic motivations are pragmatic and semantic. An explanation to the loss of case marking in SOV languages is also presented in the end of this section.Section Four gives a short survey of morphological markedness, word order, and its correlations in ergative languages. Several general principles are tentatively proposed therein: (1) word order in ergative languages is free (despite there is a possible "underlying basic word order"); (2) a grouping of {A, S} and/or {S, O} into an "unmarked element" is typologically meaningful: it may naturally leads to a "unmarked elements precedence principle"; (3) ergative pattern tends to be used in the noun system, past tense, perfective aspect, and positive/non-imperative mood; (4) a natural class of definiteness, animacy, and control may affect the occurrence of ergative marker in a great part.