Coding of the causee in intransitive constructions (Northern Mansi)

IntrCeeAccP: The causee appears as the direct object; in nominative languages, this is the accusative case.


(1) ńawram ulas-t ūnl-i.
child bench-loc sit-prs.3sg
’The child is sitting on the bench.’ (S. D.)


(2) oma-te tawe ulas-n ūn-tt-i.
mother-3sg (s)he.acc bench-loc sit-caus-prs.3sg
’The mother makes him/her sit on the bench.’ (T. M.)


(3) miša kuťuw-e lāγl-aγǝn ľuľ-uŋkwe lāw-ǝs.
Misha dog-3sg leg-3sg.du stand-inf say-pst.3sg
’Misha got his dog to stand on its two rear legs.’ (S. D.)


(4) ńawram oma-te-n ulas-t ūn-tta-we.
child mother-3sg-lat bench-loc sit-caus-pass.prs.3sg
’The mother makes the child sit on the bench.’  (S. D.)


In Northern Mansi, causation can be expressed morphologically (cf. (1) and (2)) and periphrastically (3). In both constructions, the causee takes the direct object form (Riese 2001). With the passive counterpart of the constructions, which is very frequent in Northern Mansi, the causee is in the nominative, while the causer is marked with the agentive lative-dative case (Kulonen 1989).

Author: 

Szilvia Németh