Changes in Case-Marking Patterns

Abstract Three changes in case-marking patterns distinguish Udi from its roots in PL and PNEC. At least two of these changes are related to changes in the verb described in Chapter 9. The purpose of this chapter is to explore these changes and relate them to language universals. As background for this chapter, the reader should recall from §8.2 that the general case marking inherited from PL required subjects of transitives to be in the ergative case, direct objects and subjects of intransitives in the absolutive, and indirect objects in the dative. Udi also inherited a special case pattern traditionally called inversion, in which experiencers are in the dative, and stimuli in the absolutive. Changes from these inherited patterns are the subject of this chapter. In §n.1 I describe the synchronic use of the absolutive and dative cases to mark direct objects, and in §n.2 I examine the grammatical changes that brought this about. §n.3 focuses on the change from the strictly absolutive marking of intransitive subjects, while §11.4 briefly describes the loss of the inversion construction.