A cognitive analysis of grammatical relations, case, and transitivity in Samoan

Working within the framework of Cognitive Grammar, Langacker (1986b, 1987a,c,d, to appear) has proposed that transitivity, case, and grammatical relations can be characterized relative to models which relate to how we understand the interaction of entities in the world. The present thesis applies this cognitive-model aproach to grammatical relations, case, and transitivity in Samoan.;In contrast to the analysis of Chung (1976, 1978), in which Samoan case marking indicates grammatical relations, the analysis presented here assumes that case marking indicates semantic roles and that word order is determined by grammatical relations. Several clause types are given a new analysis based on facts concerning Quantifier Float, Clitic Placement, Equi and Raising.;This analysis of case, etc. lays the groundwork for an extensive analysis of the -Cia suffix. Previous treatments of -Cia have claimed that it is a marker of passive voice (-Cia marks passive in some other Polynesian languages), transitivity, perfective aspect, etc. In the recent literature it has been claimed that -Cia is not a marker of passive voice and assumed that Samoan does not have an active/passive contrast. This thesis argues that Samoan does have such a contrast but that it is indicated by a difference in word rather than by verbal morphology. -Cia is shown to have a variety of functions in Samoan: it derives one lexical category from another, indicates that an event departs from a prototypical transitive or middle event, serves as a flag for fronted ergatives, indicates that a speech event is formal, etc. Schematically, -Cia indicates that the absolutive of a clause is a passive participant; prototypically, it profiles a state that results from an agentless process that adversely affects a terminal participant.;Chapter 1 presents constructs of Cognitive Grammar. Chapters 2 and 3 apply the cognitive-model approach to grammatical relations, case, and transitivity in Samoan. Chapters 4 and 5 provide an extensive analysis of the mysterious -Cia suffix. Chapter 6 reviews the literature concerning -Cia and proposes modifications to the passive-to-ergative hypothesis, which attempts to explain how ergative case marking evolved in Samoan. Chapter 7 summarizes the main points of the thesis.