Knowledge base · Part X — The Personal-Affix System and Alignment · this topic as a network

72. Tripartite, Nominative-Accusative, and the Central Alignment Debate

What alignment patterns do the person indexes on the verb exhibit across different person-number combinations?

The alignment question

How does the person-indexing paradigm align with typological categories like hierarchical, inverse, or active-stative?

Ainu has a mixed system of expressing grammatical relations that includes elements of tripartite alignment. (Bugaeva 2022: 1.1)

Row-wise alignment

What are the distinct morphological alignment patterns for each person-number cell in the verb paradigm?

In affirmative clauses, first-person plural verbal agreement displays a tripartite alignment where A, S, and O are distinct. (Bugaeva 2008) Free pronouns exhibit a neutral pattern with unmarked A, S, and O, whereas verbal cross-reference affixes show tripartite alignment for exclusive first-person plural and indefinite/fourth person. (Bugaeva 2014) Verbal cross-reference marks first-person singular according to a nominative-accusative pattern and second and third persons according to a neutral pattern. (Bugaeva 2014) Verbal cross-referencing displays mixed alignment: nominative-accusative for first-person singular, neutral for second and third persons, and tripartite for exclusive first-person plural and indefinite. (Bugaeva 2016)

Hierarchical effects in person combinations

How does the language treat combinations of speech-act participants in person marking, and what hierarchical effects are observed?

Third person and the two-affix cap

How is third person marked in the verb, and what is the interpretation of zero marking?