Kantarovich Jessica. Argument structure in language shift: morphosyntactic variation and grammatical resilience in Modern Chukchi

Chicago: University of Chicago, 2020. — 366 p.Modern Chukchi speakers evidence variation across the following domains: agreement marking, morphological and syntactic ergativity, valency-changing derivational morphology, verbal and nominal incorporation, and argument drop. While older, highly proficient speakers display patterns that are largely consistent with existing grammatical descriptions, attriting speakers and L2 speakers show deviations from the expected patterns, though not always in identical ways. Attriting and L2 speakers reanalyze agreement marking across different dimensions, and while both groups make little productive use of verbal derivation and incorporation, this tendency is more pronounced among L2 learners. However, these varieties are alike in that the changes present in the grammars of these speakers are entirely consistent with cross-linguistic tendencies and a shift away from a polysynthetic configuration. Furthermore, while similar changes in other moribund languages have often been characterized as “linguistic loss,” the Chukchi data show that as certain features are lost, speakers innovate new patterns to replace them, often making use of existing resources in the language (rather than borrowing from or replicating patterns in the contact language).List of Figures.
List of Tables.
Acknowledgments.
Abstract.
Glossing Conventions.
Introduction.
Language contact, argument structure, and polysynthesis.
Ergativity and transitivity phenomena in Modern Chukchi morphology.
Valency-changing operations in Modern Chukchi.
Changes to polysynthesis in Modern Chukchi.
The syntax of language endangerment in context.
Experimental design.
References.