The Oxford Handbook of Ergativity

This volume examines the phenomenon of ergativity, a grammatical patterning whereby direct objects are in some way treated like intransitive subjects, to the exclusion of transitive subjects. It includes theoretical approaches from generative, typological, and functional paradigms, as well as 16 language-specific case studies.

Jessica Coon is Associate Professor of Linguistics at McGill University. She finished her PhD at MIT in 2010 and then spent one year as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. Jessica has worked on topics including ergativity, split ergativity, verb-initial word order, and agreement, with a special focus on Mayan languages. Her book Aspects of Split Ergativity was published by OUP in 2013.
Diane Massam (Ph.D. MIT 1985) is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Toronto, where she has also served as Chair. Her research areas are argument structure, case, predication, and word order, with a focus on the Niue language (Polynesian), and an interest in register variation in English. She has edited volumes on Austronesian syntax, ergativity, and the count-mass distinction, including Count and Mass Across Languages (OUP 2012).
Lisa deMena Travis received her PhD in Linguistics from MIT in 1984, writing her thesis on the parameters of word order variation. She is currently a Professor in the Department of Linguistics at McGill University. Her current research focuses mainly on phrase structure, head movement, language typology, and Austronesian languages (in particular, Malagasy), and the interface between syntax and phonology. Her book Inner Aspect: The Articulation of VP was published by Springer in 2010.

1: Jessica Coon, Diane Massam, and Lisa deMena Travis: Introduction
PART I: ACCOUNTING FOR ERGATIVITY
Representing Ergativity
2: John W. Du Bois: Ergativity in discourse and grammar
3: Michelle Sheehan: Parameterizing ergativity: An inherent case approach
4: Anoop Mahajan: Accusative and ergative in Hindi
The Nature of Ergative Case
5: Mark C. Baker and Jonathan David Bobaljik: On inherent and dependent theories of ergative case
6: Julie Anne Legate: The locus of ergative case
7: Itziar Laka: Ergative need not split: An exploration into the TotalErg hypothesis
8: Léa Nash: The structural source of split ergativity and ergative case in Georgian
PART II: CHARACTERISTICS AND EXTENSIONS
Characteristics
9: Ellen Woolford: Split ergativity in syntax and at morphological spellout
10: Jessica Coon and Omer Preminger: Split ergativity is not about ergativity
11: Andrej Malchukov: Ergativity and differential case marking
12: Gereon Müller and Daniela Thomas: Three-way systems do not exist
13: Maria Polinsky: Antipassive
14: Knut Tarald Taraldsen: Remarks on the relation between case-alignment and constituent order
Extensions
15: Artemis Alexiadou: Ergativity in nominalization
16: Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine, Theodore Levin, and Coppe van Urk: Ergativity and Austronesian-type voice systems
17: Alana Johns and Ivona Ku -erová: On the morphosyntactic reflexes of the information structure in the ergative patterning of the Inuit language
18: Martina Wiltschko: Ergative constellations in the structure of speech acts
PART III: APPROACHES TO ERGATIVITY
DIACHRONIC
19: William McGregor: Grammaticalization of ergative case marking
20: Geoffrey Haig: Deconstructing Iranian ergativity
21: Edith Aldridge: Intransitivity and the development of ergative alignment
22: Miriam Butt and Ashwini Deo: Developments into and out of ergativity: Indo-Aryan diachrony
23: Ritsuko Kikusawa: Ergativity and language change in Austronesian languages
24: Daniel Kaufman: Lexical category and alignment in Austronesian
Acquisition
25: Edith Bavin: The acquisition of ergativity: An overview
26: Jennifer Austin: The role of defaults in the acquisition of Basque ergative and dative morphology
27: Clifton Pye and Barbara Pfeiler: A comparative study of the acquisition of nominative and ergative alignment in European and Mayan languages
Experimental
28: Adam Zawiszewski: Processing ergativity: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence
29: Nicholas Longenbaugh and Maria Polinsky: Experimental approaches to ergative languages
PART IV: CASE STUDIES
30: Judith Aissen: Correlates of ergativity in Mayan
31: Mark C. Baker: Ergative case in Burushaski: A dependent case analysis
32: Ane Berro and Ricardo Etxepare: Ergativity in Basque
33: Miriam Butt: Hindi/Urdu and related languages
34: Richard Compton: Ergativity in Inuktitut
35: Diana Forker: Ergativity in Nakh-Dagestanian
36: Geoffrey Khan: Ergativity in Neo-Aramaic
37: Christa König: Ergativity in Africa
38: Shobhana Chelliah: Ergativity in Tibeto-Burman
39: Mary Laughren: The ergative in Warlpiri: A case study
40: Yuko Otsuka: Ergative-absolutive patterns in Tongan: An overview
41: Tyler Peterson: Ergativity across Tsimshianic
42: Francesc Queixalós: What being a syntactically ergative language means for Katukina-Kanamari
43: Andrés Salanova: Ergativity in Jê languages
44: Eva Schultze-Berndt: Interaction of ergativity and information structure in Jaminjung (Australia)
45: Kevin Tuite: Alignment and orientation in Kartvelian (South Caucasian)