Marking of function A on pronouns (Northern Mansi)

Neutr: Case alignment is neutral: the functions S, A, and P are not marked morphologically.

AAff: The function A is marked with affixation.

NoAMark: The function A is not explicitly marked, while S, P, or both are marked. A is therefore marked with a zero (∅) morpheme.


(1) taw sāli kinsi-te.

he/she reindeer look_for-prs.obj.3sg

‘He/she is looking for the reindeer.’ (S. D.)


(2) taw χājtyγti.

he/she run_around.prs.3sg

‘He/she is running around.’ (S. D.)


(3) taw taj kinsi-te.

he/she that.acc look_for-prs.obj.3sg

‘He/she is looking for that.’ (S. D.)


(4) ńawram χotjut-n ti-tta-we.

child somebody-lat eat-caus-prs.pass.3sg

‘The child is being fed.’ (S. D.)


Regarding agent marking in Northern Mansi, active and passive sentences have to be distinguished. In active sentences, the A is marked by a zero morpheme (1), just like the S (2). Nouns do not have accusative forms (Riese 2001), thus nominal P’s are unmarked (1), and hence the case distribution is neutral. If the P is expressed by a pronoun, a suppletive form codes the accusative case, and the A is marked by a zero suffix (3). In passive sentences, the A takes the -n lative-dative ending (4), which morphologically distinguishes the A and the P functions (Riese 2001).

Author: 

Szilvia Németh