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This article aims to describe and examine the antipassive construction in the Tenetehára language (Tupi-Guarani family). For this, it will be shown that the transitive verbs, on receiving the morpheme {puru-}, then exhibit the following properties of antipassive constructions: (i) they come to have an intransitive syntactic structure and (ii) the abstract Case of the internal argument is not valued by v, but by the postposition -ehe. Generally, such configurations behave essentially like intransitive sentences. Using a minimalist approach, we show that the main difference between an antipassive clause and a transitive one is that although the antipassive vP selects an external argument, its head is not able to value the abstract Case of the internal argument. For this reason, the object is dependent on the postposition -ehe for the oblique Case. Furthermore, unlike what happens in the derivation of transitive constructions, the f-feature of the antipassive vP is lexically valued, which does not allow the agreement (nominative system) in terms of f-feature, with its external argument. The result is that this external argument moves to the highest vP Spec position in the tree structure, whose head is instantiated by the verb {-wer} "want", with which it establishes a relationship agreement in terms of f-feature, triggering the second agreement paradigm (absolutive system). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to delineate a syntactic derivation for verbal agreement in Brazilian Sign Language. More specifically, we analyze regular agreement verbs and backward agreement verbs. Following the recent framework of the Generative Theory concerning this topic (CHOMSKY, 2000, 2001; MYIAGAWA, 2010; WOOLFORD, 2006; BAKER, 2008; BITTNER AND HALE, 1996; and others), we claim that sentences with a regular agreement verb show a nominative agreement pattern, in which the subject bears nominative Case and the object bears accusative Case. On the other hand, sentences with a backward agreement verb show an ergative agreement pattern, in which the subject receives inherent ergative Case and the object bears nominative Case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at examining the antipassive constructions in the Tenetehára language (Tupí-Guaraní). Transitive verbs, which receive the morpheme {puru-}, exhibit the following grammatical properties: (i) they appear in an intransitive structure and (ii) the abstract Case of the internal argument is not valued by little v, but by means of the functional posposition -ehe. Assuming a minimalist approach, we will posit that, even though the vP of the antipassive construction selects an external argument, its head is not able to value accusative Case to the internal argument, which is thus dependent on the posposition -ehe to receive an inherent oblique Case. Furthermore, it is assumed that the external argument has to move to a specifier of a higher vP in the tree, whose head is morphologically realized by the verb {-wer} "want". Thus the external argument triggers an AGREE operation with the φ-features of this head, a situation that explains the emergence of the absolutive agreement pattern in the antipassive constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to show the grammatical properties that distinguish ergative languages from nominative languages. It is assumed that the parameter that contrasts both types of languages has to do with the activation of the inherent ergative Case, which is assigned only in ergative languages. This means that this Case is never present in nominative languages. Additionally, it is argued that split systems tend to appear only in morphologically ergative languages as opposed to what happens in syntactically ergative languages, which do not exhibit splits. In line with this, tripartite case systems are predictable in morphological ergative languages. On the other hand, syntactically ergative languages tend to be more uniform in the sense that the nominative Case is usually assigned both to transitive objects and to intransitive subjects. This explains the reasons why there is a tendency in syntactically ergative languages for the absolutive arguments to exhibit a syntactic behavior commonly associated with the behavior of subject in accusative languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows that there exists a strong connection between Case evaluation and the assignment of the [AGENT] and [EXPERIENCER] theta roles to the external arguments of unergative and transitive verbs in languages such as Apinajé, Apäniekrá, Parkatêjê, Xavante and Maxacali. Additionally, we investigate whether the ergative Case and the dative Case in these languages correspond to inherent Case or to structural Case. We assume that these Cases are structurally valued by the functional pospositions [mã] and [te] in the vP domain. The strongest evidence that favors this analysis comes from the fact that the functional head T° does not enter in the derivation with abstract Case to value. Furthermore, the distribution of the pospositions [mã] and [te] clearly demonstrates that they behave as adpositions in the sense that they can co-occur with pronominal prefixes and can come enclitic to oblique phrases that appear in passive constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]