Acceso usuarios
Kreisfreie Stadt Bremen, Alemania
It is argued that the traditional belief that the formal expression of the dual in Chamorro is restricted to intransitivity / low transitivity is inadequate since it precludes the possibility of accounting constructions in which the dual is also expressed in combination with transitive verbs. In the empirical part of the study, evidence of the recurrent violations of the intransitivity-based restrictions is discussed. It is shown that the dual is not excluded from transitive predicates. The dual is also firmly established in the realm of transitivity albeit only in the third person. In addition, the dual also exists in areas of Chamorro grammar for which it has hitherto been ignored. The hypothesis is put forward that the dual in the domain of transitivity is a diachronic innovation. The Chamorro facts are compared to those of Numic languages in North America.
