Advances in Role and Reference Grammar

490 MICHAEL SILVERSTEIN

Djirbal Local Reference Maintenance in Linked Clauses (e.g., Relative, Possessive):

Figure 10

verbs), there is a local reference maintenance system, achieved by fixing

the possible case relation of the coreferent NP in the linked clause. It must

be an underlying or derived S/O, so that if it is underlying A, then again the

clause must be thrown into normal form with antipassive; see Figure 10.

Possessives are of particular interest in this regard, because they substan­

tiate the nature of the underlying relation as "S" function for the possessed

and "D" function for the possessor, exactly as in the explicit predicating

form with possessed as topic.

So the normal form of inflection, with explicit nominative/absolutive :

dative case-marking, sometimes produced in conditions of derived, antipas­

sive voice form of a clause, occurs in the most embedded, tightest linked, or

most difficult-to-link coreferential configurations at any level. The actual

case-markings constitute a schema from which the plain inflectional forms

of the various predicate schemata are predictable by rules sensitive to

inherent lexical content (the accusative vs. ergative split) and to clause

status. Thus, if we translate nominative/absolutive as "A" in a two-place

direct full transitive, and as "S" in a one-place or non-transitive, and trans­

late dative as "O" in a two-place direct full transitive, the Agentive (or

"A") hierarchy and the Patientive (or "O") hierarchy predict all the correct

case-markings. They become the least embedded, most loosely linked, non-

coreferential forms of marking these normal-form case-markings, which