ABSTRACT
The analysis presented here considers ways in which adult and child speakers of Samoan use genitive constructions in their social interactions to encode a variety of semantic roles. We will consider in particular displayed preferences for encoding would-be agents as genitive constituents. In other research, we have noted that while Samoan speakers can express agency through ergative-marked noun phrases, these constructions are used infrequently in spoken discourse (Duranti, 1981, 1994; Duranti & Ochs, 1990; Ochs, 1982, 1988). Generally, ergative constructions are used to mark responsibility, either to praise or to blame (Duranti, 1990). In the present discussion, we indicate how genitive constructions are useful alternatives to either expressing agency explicitly (through ergative casemarked NPs) or not at all (leaving the interlocutor to infer the agent from background knowledge or other means.)
