Evidence from Balinese: Subject-Versus Object-Control Varies According to the Identity of the Verb, but not Necessarily the Probability of the Event Described

  • I Nyoman Aryawibawa Universitas Udayana
  • Gede Primahadi Wijaya Rajeg Universitas Udayana
  • Ketut Artawa Universitas Udayana
  • Ben Ambridge University of Manchester

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to investigate whether interpretation (Subject-vs-Object control) of an understudied type of control sentence (Sarahi wants someonej [PROi/j] to entertain) depends at least in part on which scenario is most probable. In Study 1, 44 Balinese speakers each rated the relative acceptability of the Subject- and Object-control readings of 272 Balinese sentences of this type. In Study 2, 20 Balinese speakers rated the likelihood of scenarios corresponding to the Subject- and Object-control readings of the sentences from Study 1. Counter to our predictions, however, these ratings did not significantly predict the relative acceptability of the Subject- and Object-control readings from Study 1, apparently because of other, uncontrolled differences between the verbs. We conclude that the question of whether the interpretation of control sentences depends on the relative probability of the scenarios remains unanswered; similar studies in other languages would help resolve this issue


 

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Published
2023-04-11
How to Cite
ARYAWIBAWA, I Nyoman et al. Evidence from Balinese: Subject-Versus Object-Control Varies According to the Identity of the Verb, but not Necessarily the Probability of the Event Described. Jurnal Kajian Bali (Journal of Bali Studies), [S.l.], v. 13, n. 1, p. 26-47, apr. 2023. ISSN 2580-0698. Available at: <https://ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/kajianbali/article/view/94898>. Date accessed: 02 nov. 2024. doi: https://doi.org/10.24843/JKB.2023.v13.i01.p02.