西藏口語中的動詞

ERGATIVITY IN SPOKEN TIBETAN

我們所採集的西藏口語中大部分的動詞，要是主語是第一人稱，可以用-p∧ yii表示完成式，這些動詞都是我們所稱的controllable動詞。有些動詞，主語是第一人稱時，不能用-p∧ yii，只能用-pv reè表示完成式，這些動詞，像“病了”，“醉了”，“病好了”，“摔倒了”，都是我們所稱的non-controllable動詞。此外，關於主語ŋa和ŋɛɛ的分別：用ŋa時不牽涉到volition，用ŋɛɛ時牽涉到volition。

It has frequently been said that literary Tibetan is an ergative language. That is, it has just one case form, the absolutive, for the object of a transitive verb and the subject of an intransitive verb; another case form, the ergative, is used for the subject of a transitive verb. This differentiates Tibetan from those languages which have one case form, the nominative, for the subject of either a transitive or an intransitive verb and another, the accusative, for the object of a transitive verb. We propose to consider here to what extent ergativity prevails in modern, colloquial Tibetan, which differs markedly from the literary language.