Case-marking and Agreement System in Arani Language within the Theoretical Framework of Chomsky's Minimalist Program

This paper examines the case-marking and agreement system in Arani language within the theoretical framework of Chomsky's Minimalist Program (MP). Arani is one of the central dialects of Iran whose ancestry is unclear, but is closer to the Persian language (Boyce, 1998). The language has been extensively used in Iran for some time (Brunner, 1977), however, today it is limited to Aran-o-Bidgol, in the northeast of Isfahan province. In order to study and extract its ergative model, the sentences and data were collected through interviews with 20 speakers, and in a few cases, through questionnaires and a collection of books. The results of the data analysis showed that Arani language follows split ergativity. The present transitive verbs in this language represent the Nominative-Accusative pattern, and the past transitive verbs follow the Ergative-Absolutive pattern. In addition, the analysis of the data showed that the transitive verbs have no agreement with the object of the sentence, and they appear by default in the form of the third singular. The ergative case of the subject is inherent and conditional, and is marked by the doubling clitic. Also, in the compound verbs, the host of the clitic is the preverb of the compound verb.
 
1. Introduction
In the grammatical model of the ergative construction, the subject of the intransitive clause and the object of the transitive clause bear the same function and receive the absolutive case. Variously, the subject of the transitive clause, differing from them, receives the ergative case. The Phi features (person, gender and number) of the verb show agreement with the subject of intransitive clause and the object of transitive clause, however, the subject of transitive is not capable of motivating the agreement on the verb. Thus, at least, in some of the ergative languages, the subject of intransitive clause and object of transitive clause play a role in the morphologic or syntactic balance, as well as in agreement and case-marking systems.
Investigating the agreement and case-marking systems of different patterns of ergative model helps linguists achieve an organized system to classify languages. In this regard, the present paper attempts to extend Karimi's (2013, 2009) generalization of the unaccusativity of the ergative verbs by examining the prominent role and the function of the aforementioned nominal groups in agreement and case-marking systems of Arani language, bearing a split ergativity pattern. It also portrays their role in agreement between the time nucleus and the nominal group, and finally it answers the following questions “why does the time nucleus in Arani ergative construction regarding Phi features have no agreement with the nominal group?”, and “why does it always appear as singular third person in the past transitive clauses?”.
 
2. Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework of this paper for analyzing the agreement system of ergative construction in Arani language is the late forms of theoretical framework of Chomsky's Minimalist Program (MP) (2001; 2001; 2000). In the minimalist program, there is a close connection between the agreement and the case. In the agreement relation, of the nominative- nominative-accusative system, the person, number, and gender features of the nucleus are valued with the corresponding features of the nominal group; on the other hand, the nucleus determines the value of the nominal group case. The nucleus always conveys the structural case (nominative and accusative) to the closest noun group to which it dominates, regardless of its semantic and phonetic properties. In the case of the time nucleus, this closest nominal group is the subject, and in the case of the present nucleus, it is often the object. However this is not always the case, for example in the passive construction; the closest nominal group dominated by the nucleus of time is object. Interactive and active communication between the nucleus and the nominal group is important in structural case-marking, as the nominal group receives the case from the time nucleus, it should also evaluate the Phi features of verb.
Case-marking of the ergative construction is divided into two groups according to whether it is tagged with the clitic or by the affix: one is the ergative pattern in which the object receives the nominative case, and the subject receives the accusative case; and the verb agrees with the Phi features represented by the affix. Another is the ergative pattern, in which ergative case is denoted by the doubling clitic and the verb is represented by the singular third person.
 
3. Methodology
To answer the questions and to confirm the research hypotheses, we chose the late forms of theoretical framework of Chomsky's Minimalist Program (MP) (2000, 2001, and 2008) following Karimi (2012a). Data were collected based on both library and field research, however, since most speakers of this language are elderly and often illiterate, the data are mostly field-based and spoken, and collected via face-to-face interviews with 20 speakers; moreover, in a few cases questionnaires were used. The sources of the cited libraries are collections of current clauses, proverbs, vocabulary, and syllables that Alijanzadeh (2018, 2014 and 1994) collected in the 3-volume Desert Language Book.
 
4. Results & Discussion
The analysis of field-based and libraries data showed that Arani language has a split ergativity pattern; such that the present transitive, and the present and past transitive clauses follow the nominative-accusation pattern, while the past transitive clauses follow the ergative pattern. The ergative case of nominative is represented in the past transitive clauses by a doubling clitic. In this case of the ergative pattern, the verb has no agreement with the object, but the verb always appears in the third person singular, by default. In addition, the examination of the ergative clauses having compound verbs has led us to this generalization, at least in Arani language, that whenever the verb of transitive clause is compound, the clitic does not descend on the object, but as a result of ascending, the clitic moves from the main host, which is the verb, to the pre-verb part.
The presence of the doubling clitic can be the result of the disappearance of the distinction between the ergative and nominative of the Arani language in the transition from inflectional to analytic. With the disappearance of case affix, and at the same time, with the tendency of this language to preserve the ergative pattern, the clitics that are currently used in an ergative place, are good alternatives. Entering the doubling process into this language, the subject of intransitive clause and object of transitive clause receive the nominative case; and subject of the intransitive clause is distinguished by doubling process. In this way, the Arani language has been able to maintain its ergative pattern.
 
5. Conclusion
This study has examined the agreement and case-marking system of ergative pattern in Arani language. The data analysis showed that the ergative pattern of this language is the second type, meaning that the subject is represented in a direct / unmarked manner and the ergative case by doubling clitic on object or the pre-verb part of compound verb. Due to the incomplete interference of the clitic, verb in Phi features has no agreement with object; the verb always appears in the third person singular, by default.
 
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