Triadic Encoding in Tsou
摘要
This paper investigates the grammatical realization of triadic arguments in Tsou in light of Levin's (1993) English transitive/ditransitive alternations. Major findings include the following: (i) Tsou is a language without double object construction-one of the triadic arguments must be in the oblique case; (ii) Tsou is an applicative-prominent language-triadic events are typically expressed by applicative constructions. Peripheral arguments such as a beneficiary are usually introduced by an applicative affix; even a triadic theme can be applicatively indexed; (iii) Tsou is an ergative language-transitive/applicative objects must align with intransitive agents and occur in the absolutive case; (iv) Tsou is basically an asymmetrical object language-only one of the two internal arguments is eligible for advancement; (v) a triadic source must occur in the genitive case (instead of the oblique case) if it is not advanced.