The Accessibility Hierarchy Revisited: Ergative Case

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to determine the relevance of the Accessibility Hierarchy for relativization of noun phrases with reference to ergative case bearing nominals. Since the time when the hierarchy was presented, many details have surfaced about ergative languages, especially about Mayan languages and Chukchi language that could potentially challenge the hierarchy. This has also been the case with South Asian languages. As such, this study analyses the hierarchy while having before us data from English, Hindi/Urdu, and Pashto to determine whether it is still relevant or not. The results are that the hierarchy works for English and Hindi/ Urdu but not for Pashto. However, by adopting the idea that ergative case-bearing nominals are PPs, even Pashto can be considered to follow the Accessibility Hierarchy for relativization.