Chapter 71Intransitive Subjects and Semantic Roles

71.1 Argument role and event meaning

An intransitive subject can act, undergo a change, or experience a condition. These semantic differences do not by themselves assign different person markers in the Hokkaido reference paradigm. Its intransitive arguments use the S forms appropriate to their person series Nakagawa (2024: 129–130, 166–170); Bugaeva (2012: 472–474).

A split-intransitive analysis of person marking would require a grammatical contrast between classes of S arguments. The familiar contrast between ku= and en= instead distinguishes first-singular S/A from O. Likewise, first-plural ci= and =as distinguish A and S Bugaeva (2012: 472). The documented split is conditioned by person, as set out in Chapter 62 (Person Marking and Argument Roles).

71.2 A patient with subject marking

Nakagawa analyzes rittursere as a one-place verb formed by incorporating “waves” into a transitive verb meaning “knock over.” The remaining participant undergoes the event, yet receives S =an Nakagawa (2024: 130). Grammatical subject and semantic agent are consequently different notions in this example.

The same distinction applies to an experiencer. Nakagawa gives ku=merayke “I feel cold,” with first-singular S marking. He analyzes the verb's internal components as “coldness” and “kill,” while treating the resulting verb as one-place Nakagawa (2024: 130). Its lexical history does not make the experiencer an object of the present-day predicate.

71.3 Lexical classes in incorporation and applicatives

Shibatani discusses active and inactive intransitives in connection with incorporation and applicative formation. He describes patient-like intransitive subjects among the targets of incorporation and also warns that a bare noun–verb sequence may be ambiguous between a phrase and an incorporated word Shibatani (1990: 62–63). These are claims about lexical classes and particular constructions.

His inactive-verb examples also challenge a restriction on applicatives attributed to Baker's theoretical account Shibatani (1990: 66–67, discussing Baker 1988); Baker (1988) ‹contested›. The argument concerns whether these verbs permit an applicative and what grammatical relation the added participant has. It does not establish an ordinary active/stative choice between S and O person indexes.

Later incorporation evidence further qualifies broad restrictions on the types of subjects that can be incorporated; see Chapter 90 (Incorporation, Quasi-Incorporation, and Word Structure). An analysis of incorporation needs those constructional facts as well as the basic paradigm.

71.4 Derived valency and person forms

Derivation can change which person forms a verb requires. Shibatani compares an intransitive “arrive” construction with its applicative counterpart: fourth-person S =an becomes A a= when the verb becomes transitive Shibatani (1990: 65, example 115a–a′; 67). That change follows the derived argument structure.

Causatives, reflexives and reciprocals require their own valency descriptions. Productive causatives introduce a causer; a reflexive or reciprocal of a three-place base can remain two-place Nakagawa (2024: 137–140, 207–210). A rule that assigns one fixed person template to every semantically causative or reflexive event would obscure these differences. See Chapter 57 (Transitivity and Valency Classes).

71.5 Predicates without an indexed participant

Nakagawa distinguishes ambient mean “be cold” from experienced merayke “feel cold.” He treats the former as zero-place and the latter as one-place Nakagawa (2024: 129–130). The contrast concerns whether an experiencer is a grammatical argument. Other authors' classifications of ambient expressions are compared in Chapter 36 (Verb Classes, Arguments, and Person Marking).

An absence of overt person marking can have several causes, including zero third person and a predicate analyzed as lacking a person-indexed argument. Meaning alone is insufficient to choose between those structures. The broader alignment debate is treated in Chapter 72 (Mixed Alignment and Hierarchical Analyses).