The Diachrony of Alignment

Alignment concerns the various ways in which A, P, and S argument roles may be grouped based on their coding and behavioral properties. Languages exhibit diverse alignment patterns, such as nominative-accusative and ergative-absolutive, with many featuring alignment splits based on factors like tense, aspect, or semantic features of the arguments involved. This chapter examines the diachronic evolution of alignment patterns across languages by illustrating how key language change mechanisms such as grammaticalization, phonological change, reinterpretation, extension, and language contact, contribute to the emergence and transformation of alignment systems.