Language Change and Constructionalization;Evidence from Ergative Alignment in Hawrami

The present paper seeks to propose a justified scenario for the evolution of the patterns of showing non-accusative alignment in Hamwrami in terms of Constructionalization. Drawing on purely synchronic features of the marked construction like the pattern of subject marking and also embarking upon the general patterns of alignment changes in Iranian Languages, it is argued that marked construction in Hawrami is in fact created out of another type of construction with a different schema. The increasing use of the clitics as the marker of transitive subject, which is one of the hallmarks of non-accusative alignment in most of the new Iranian Languages, is assumed to be the enabling factor of the constructionalization of marked non-accusative construction in Hawrami