Preface
Abbreviations
Part I: Two types of ergatives

1 Introduction
1.1 Setting the stage
1.2 Syntactic ergativity
1.2.1 The phenomenon
1.2.2 The range of the phenomenon
1.2.3 The relevance of syntactic ergativity
1.3. The importance of starting small
1.3.1 Syntactic ergativity broadly defined
1.3.2 Not all A-bar movement phenomena are created equal
1.3.3 Some methodological odds and ends
Appendix: Compensatory strategies under syntactic ergativity

2 Proposal
2.1 Crucial empirical observations
2.1.1 Diachronic pathways to ergativity
2.1.2 Oblique subjects
2.2 The proposal: Two classes of ergative languages
2.3 From PP specifier to syntactic ergativity
2.3.1 The relationship between the verbal functional head and ergative P
2.3.2 Ergative P and P-stranding
2.3.3 Ergative P and pied-piping
2.3.4 From a PP subject to syntactic ergativity
2.4 Basic clausal structures in the two types of ergative languages
2.4.1 PP-ergative and DP-ergative languages: transitive clauses
2.4.2 PP-ergative and DP-ergative languages: unergative clauses
2.4.3 PP specifiers everywhere? Preventing overgeneration
2.4.4 Compatibility between the ergative and the passive
2.5 Summary

3 Prepositional phrases: Establishing the diagnostics
3.1 PPs have distinct extraction and subextraction properties
3.2 Restrictions on PPs as pivots of clefts
3.3 PPs have resumptive proforms and may have special modifiers
3.4 PPs are less accessible to agreement probes than DPs are
3.5 PPs and binding
3.6 PPs and A-movement
3.7 PPs and control
3.8 Summary

4 Ergative as a PP: Take One
4.1 Ergative expressions can be PPs
4.2 Subextraction out of the ergative expression
4.3 Ergative cannot extract leaving a gap
4.4 Ergative and agreement
4.5 Ergative and depictives
4.6 Ergative and quantifier float
4.7 Taking stock
4.7.1 Silent P head
4.7.2 Overt P head
4.7.3 The nature of the operator

5 Ergative as a PP: Take Two
5.1 Binding: Reflexives and reciprocals
5.2 Raising
5.2.1 No true raising
5.2.2 Ergative is not preserved under raising-at least in Tongan
5.3 control
5.3 Summary

6 Cross-linguistic landscape: Correlates of PP-ergativity
6.1. Word order correlates
6.2 Expletive subjects
6.3 Non-canonical (quirky) subjects

7 The other ergative: A true DP
7.1 Extraction of the ergative with a gap
7.2 Subextraction from the ergative and the absolutive
7.3 Agreement
7.4 Binding
7.5 Control and raising
7.6 Word order
7.7 Summary

8 The relationship between the PP-ergative type and the DP-ergative type: Phylogeny and ontogeny
8.1 Diachronic relationship between the PP-ergative type and the DP-ergative type
8.2 Caught in transition: Niuean
8.3 Caught in transition: Adyghe
8.4 PP-ergatives and DP-ergatives in language acquisition

9 Alternative accounts of variation across ergative languages
9.1 Comp-trace vs. P-trace
9.2 Criterial freezing
9.3 Phase boundaries and high/low absolutive languages
9.4 Non-syntactic explanations for variation across ergative languages
9.5 Summary

Part II: Paradigm languages
10 A paradigm PP-Ergative language: Tongan
10.1 Tongan basics
10.1.1 General remarks
10.1.2 Predicates
10.1.3 Case marking
10.1.4 Word order: Preliminary remarks
10.1.5 Questions
10.2 Subject and possessive marking: Clitics
10.2.1 Subject clitics
10.2.1.1 Basic facts about clitics
10.2.1.2 Accounting for Tongan clitics
10.2.1.3 Clitic doubling
10.2.2 Possessive clitics and possessive markers
10.3 Deriving Tongan clause structure
10.3.1 Word order: Deriving V1
10.3.2 Word order: The right periphery
10.3.2.1 The definitive accent
10.3.2.2 VOS is not due to scrambling
10.3.2.3 VOS as rightward topicalization
10.3.3 Basic clause structures
10.3.3.1 Intransitives: Unaccusatives
10.3.3.2 Intransitives: Unergatives
10.3.3.3 Transitive clauses
10.3.4 Tongan ergativity and split ergativity
10.4 A-bar movement
10.4.1 Relative clauses
10.4.2 Wh-questions
10.4.3 Focus: Exceptive constructions
10.4.4 Ko-Topicalization
10.4.5 Interim summary
10.5 Raising and control
10.5.1 The status of ke-clauses
10.5.2 "Raising"
10.5.2.1 Raising-like verbs and their structures
10.5.2.2 What moves in ke-clauses and where?
10.5.2.3 What is the nature of the operator in ke-clauses?
10.5.2.4 The transparency of finite ke-clauses
10.5.3 The verb lava
10.5.3.1 Monoclausal structure with lava: Restructuring
10.5.3.2 Biclausal structures with lava
10.5.4 Control
10.5.4.1 Basic facts
10.5.4.2 No obligatory control
10.5.4.3 The internal syntax of control ke-clauses
10.5.5 Interim summary
10.6 Binding
10.6.1 Anaphoric binding
10.6.2 Reciprocals? Just pluractionality
10.6.3 Other binding contexts
10.7 Summary

11 A paradigm DP-Ergative language: Tsez
11.1 Tsez basics
11.1.1 Preliminaries
11.1.2 Unergatives and unaccusatives
11.1.3 Clauses with two or more arguments
11.2 Discontinuous noun phrases
11.3 Non-finite forms
11.3.1 Infinitival and masdar clauses
11.3.2 Event nominalizations
11.4 A-bar movement
11.5 Raising and control
11.5.1 Raising
11.5.2 Complement control
11.5.2.1 Forward control
11.5.2.2 Backward control
11.5.3 Infinitival relative clauses
11.6 Binding
11.6.1 Anaphoric binding
11.6.2 Depictives
11.7 Interim summary
11.8 Deriving Tsez clauses
11.8.1 Two possible analyses
11.8.1.1 A single vP
11.8.1.2 Layered functional heads in the verb phrase
11.8.2 Single heads or layered structure: Which analysis is superior?
11.9 Summary

12 Taking stock
References
index