Article published In: Studies in Language
Vol. 34:1 (2010) ► pp.75–107
Is there a ditransitive construction in Kokama-Kokamilla?
Published online: 22 March 2010
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.34.1.03val
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.34.1.03val
In Kokama-Kokamilla (KK), ditransitive constructions — i.e. syntactic units that profile three participants and contain two non-subject arguments — do not exist as a distinct type relative to transitives. KK shows both indirective and secundative alignment types (Haspelmath 2004, Dryer 1986, 2006), but no formal or behavioral evidence for a second object of any kind. In KK, typical three-participant events are syntactically encoded in at least three ways, none of which comprises two grammatical objects. Further, these findings suggest that no verb or construction profiles three participants in the sense of Goldberg (1995: 49). This paper adds to the literature on languages that code three-participant events by means of transitive clauses (Margetts & Austin 2007), which ultimately questions indirect object and secondary object as primitive notions as suggested by Dryer (1986).
Keywords: ditransitive construction, Kokama-Kokamilla, oblique, core argument, causative
Cited by (2)
Cited by two other publications
Vallejos, Rosa, Evelyn Fernández-Lizárraga & Haley Patterson
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
