Transitive Unergatives in Pazar Laz

Abstract

The aim of this study is to show that all unergatives in Pazar Laz involve an overtly filled object position and behave simply on a par with regular transitives, as the availability of an initiator is strictly dependent on the availability of an undergoer argument in line with the Neo-Burzio Dependency proposed for Georgian by Nash (2018). We will show that differently from Georgian, in Pazar Laz the availability of an initator and that of an undergoer actually exhibit a mutual dependency for all eventive verbal predicates, which extends the transitive pattern also to unaccusatives. As the language requires a strict co-dependency between the undergoer and the initiator, all eventive verbal predicates project both an initiator and an undergoer position. Consequently, the language does not syntactically differentiate between unergatives and unaccusatives and lacks the true unaccusative patterns, where no initiator is available syntactically. We will further argue that the co-dependency requirement for initiators and undergoers is in line with Ritter & Rosen (2000)’s typology, where languages are classified as Initiation languages or Delimitation languages based on whether they define an event in terms of its initial bound or its terminal bound. As a very conservative Initiation-language, Pazar Laz has to syntactically express the initiator in all types of eventive predicates, which itself is dependent on the availability of an undergoer argument in line with the Neo-Burzio Dependency.