Interaction of Split Ergativity and DOM in Haryanvi

This talk investigates the interaction of split ergativity and differential object marking in Haryanvi, an under-studied Indo-Aryan language spoken in Northern India. Like Hindi, Haryanvi can be classified as a split-ergative language, where transitive subjects in the perfective aspect are case-marked differently than subjects in other aspects. Hindi marks these ergative subjects with /ne/ while another case /ko/ can be used to mark both direct and indirect objects. In contrast, Haryanvi has the same case /nE/ that marks both objects and ergative-subjects. In addition, there are two other object case markers, /tii/ and /kE/. To rephrase, there are three different case markers that appear on objects: /nE/, /tii/, and /kE/; and /nE/ also appears on transitive subjects in perfective aspect. Interestingly, subject-/nE/ and object-/nE/ are in complementary distribution; while the former obligatorily marks transitive subjects in the perfective aspect, and the latter differentially marks objects (along with /tii/) in non-perfective aspects. Moreover, while case marking is obligatory on animate objects in non- perfective aspects, all objects whether animate or specific can be left unmarked in the perfective aspect. That is, once the subject receives /nE/ case, the DOM restrictions on objects are relaxed, and even personal pronouns, which are highest on Aissen(2003)’s Prominence Scale, can go unmarked. The goal of the talk is to present a series of empirical generalizations about the distributions of /nE/ and its interactions with DOM, along with a preliminary formal analysis.