WS The argument/adjunct distinction cross-linguistically Logroño, September 10, 2011 44th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea Forker & Khalilova 1 The distinction of arguments and adjuncts in Hinuq and Bezhta (with a special focus on non-canonical agents) Diana Forker (University of Bamberg) & Zaira Khalilova (MPI EVA Leipzig) diana.forker@uni-bamberg.de, khalilova@eva.mpg.de 1. Introduction Bezhta and Hinuq are two fairly closely related Nakh-Daghestanian languages belonging to the Tsezic subbranch of this family. The languages are head-marking and have a rich case inventory that can be divided into ‘grammatical’ (see Table 1) and spatial cases. 1 They are morphologically ergative. Table 1: Grammatical cases in Hinuq and Bezhta 2. Basic valency types and clause types The basic valency types of underived predicates are: A. One-place predicates  simple intransitives (1a), e.g. BURN, CRY, LAUGH, DIE  unergatives (only Bezhta) (1b): e.g. SHOUT, BLEAT, BARK, SNEEZE, YAWN, NEIGH, COUGH (1) a. Bezhta b. Bezhta biƛo y-ek’e-š öždi lalaƛo-s house(IV) IV-burn-PRS boy.ERG shout-PRS ‘The house burns.’ ‘The boy shouts.’ B. Two-place predicates  simple transitives (2a), e.g. EAT, DRINK, READ, MAKE  affectives (2b), e.g. SEE, HEAR, KNOW, WANT, FORGET  extended intransitives (3a, b): LONG FOR, IMPINGE ON, LOOK AT, MEET WITH, BELIEVE IN, WAIT FOR, SHOUT AT, WIN IN, etc. o Hinuq: ABS + DAT/SPR/SPR.LAT/AT/AT.LAT/AT.ABL/SUB/SUB.DIR/ALOC.LAT o Bezhta: ABS +LAT/SPR/SPR.LAT/SPR.ABL/POSS/AT/INTER/COMIT 1 Hinuq has 36 spatial cases and Bezhta has 48 spatial cases. ABS ERG GEN1 GEN2 DAT INS Hinuq Ø -i -s -zo -z -d Bezhta Ø oblique stem -s -la -l -d