A Syntactic Analysis of Split-Ergative Alignment and Differential Object Marking in Vafsi and Chali

Tatic languages show an intricate alignment in which tens/aspectual split ergativity co-exists with differential object marking (DOM) in the same system: Ergative only appears on past transitive subjects and agreement is only possible with unmarked subjects. On the other hand, both ergative marking and accusative marking (on definite/specific objects) are expressed by the same case –oblique. The main theoretical issue that this paper addresses is how to fit together with an analysis of split ergativity and an analysis of DOM in the same language within a dependent case framework. We claim that the fundamental factor which drives the split pattern in these Tatic languages is the phasal status of the v node: Past transitive subjects get oblique dependent case upwardly from the objects inside VP since v is a soft phase head and agreement is only possible with unmarked subjects. The research methods are both field work and library method.