Revisiting case in Laz

Abstract

With its surface active-ergative alignment, Laz is one of the few languages where the external argument of unergatives surfaces in ergative case. To account for languages like Laz, the dependent case-theoretic analysis of ergative case resorts to the concealed-transitive theory of unergatives, i.e., posit a (possibly covert) internal argument for unergatives. In this paper, we use morphological causativization as a diagnostic tool to understand the structure of unergatives. Our findings reveal that roots which build unergative verbs in the language in fact exhibit variable behavior. They can pattern with transitive verbs as well as with unaccusative verbs. This variability is demonstrated by the case we find on the causee NP and the causative allomorph we find on the verb.