The Aspect-Case Topology Correlation: Perfectivity Triggering Split Ergativity.

There exists an interesting correlation between aspect realizations and typological ergativity in those languages that exhibit ‘split ergativity’: the ergative properties (morphological, sometimes and never totally, also syntactic) are displayed only in the past and the perfect tenses or perfective aspect (among which dominantly the periphrastic perfects), as opposed to the present tense where the nominative-accusative system is adhered to. In typological research, this phenomenon has been known to be restricted to what has been called ‘Type-B ergativity’, i.e. only in languages with an ergativity split (Trask 1979:388). Type-A languages of the ergative type, do not exhibit this strict correlation. The question why this should be of such overwhelming empirical evidence has not received an answer (Trask 1979:396: ‘[...] why should the perfective so often be constructed on an creative basis?’). In this article, such a link is drawn. It is claimed that the type of ‘syntactic ergativity’ (or ‘unaccusativity’) discussed in generative syntax in fact boils down to perfective predicates and constructions which are expressed in terms of object predicates (‘predicatives’ or ‘small clauses’). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]