Deriving Unaccusativity
The derivation of the core properties of unaccusative constructions from a set of principles is one of the topmost issues of the agenda of modern syntax since the seminal work by Perlmutter 1978 (cf. Burzio 1986 and Hale-Keyser 2003 for landmark proposals). More specifically, the first approach arrived at an important consequence constituting an analogy between English passive voice constructions and unaccusative constructions whereas in the second approach a more radical theory was proposed based on the analysis of expletive there stemming from the sentences with the copula suggested in Moro 1997.
From unaccusative constructions it is possible to derive unaccusative transitive constructions complete with ergative morphology:
- मौसम फिर पलटा → मौसम ने फिर पलटा खाया
- mausam phir palaTā → mausam ne phir palTā khāyā
- weather again flipped → weather ERG again flip ate
- 'The weather flipped again.'
Read more about this topic: Unaccusative Verb
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