ABOUT BOOK

Case-systems all over the world exhibit striking similarities. In most lan- guages intransitive subjects (S) receives less overt marking than one of the ~two transitive arguments (agent-like A or patient-like P); the other one of ~these two arguments is usually encoded by the same form as S. In some ~languages the amount of overt marking is identical between S, A, and P. ~But hardly ever does the S argument receive more overt marking than A ~or P. Yet there are some languages that do not follow this general pattern. ~This book is about those languages that behave differently, the marked-S ~languages. ~Marked-S languages are well-known to be found in East Africa, where ~they occur in two different language families, Afro-Asiatic and Nilo-Sa- ~haran. They can also be found in North-Western America and the Pacific ~region. This book is the first investigation of marked S-languages that ~treats the phenomenon on a global scale. ~The study examines the functional distribution of the two main case- ~forms, the form used for S (S-case) and the case-form of the transitive ar- ~gument which receives less marking (the zero-case). It offers a very fine- ~grained perspective considering a wide range of constructions. The con- ~texts in which the case-marking patterns are investigated include nom- ~inal, existential and locational predication, subjects in special discourse ~function (e. g. focused constituents), subjects of passives and dependent ~clauses, as well as the forms used for addressing someone (vocative form) ~and for using a noun in isolation (citation form). ~Apart from the functional distribution of case forms, the formal means ~of marking are also considered. The main focus is on the synchronic de- ~scription and comparison of marked-S languages, but historical explana- ~tions for the unusual case-marking pattern are also discussed.