Accusative or ergative language?

Question

we started the topic ergative languages. I am very confused how I could determine whether a language is an accusative or an ergative language. Is there some sort of analysis I could use to get evidence if a language is ergative or accusative?

Answer 1

Simplifying things a bit:

1. Take a sample of simple sentences where the verb is transitive, i. e. you can recognize a subject and an object. Note how the language marks which is the subject and which is the object (with case endings, with relative position, by person-number agreement with the verb, etc.).
2. Now take a sample of sentences where the verb is clearly intransitive, i. e. it only has a subject. Again note how this subject is marked.
3. Compare the marking.

Now:

• If the subject of the transitive verb is consistently marked in the same way as the subject of the intransitive verb, and the "odd one out" is the transitive object, then the language is nominative-accusative.
• If the object of the transitive verb is marked in the same way as the intransitive subject, then the language is ergative-absolutive.

In reality this is not nearly as neat, as there might be different alignments according to which tense-aspect-mood is in play (Georgian, Hindi) or there might be some intransitive verbs that take ergative subjects (Basque).

Answer 2

The first step is finding some sort of case marking. In this language, do "I like him" and "he likes me" use the same words, just in a different order? Or are any of the words themselves changed, like in English (I → me, him → he)?

Once you've identified case marking, note what indicates the subject, and what indicates the object. In the English example, "he" is subject-only, and "him" is object-only.

Now look at an intransitive sentence, like "he left". When there's only one noun, is it marked like a subject, or like an object?

If it's marked like a subject, you have a nominative-accusative language.
If it's marked like an object, you have an ergative-absolutive language.

In English, "he" is the subject form. So English is nominative-accusative.

Caveat: most languages with an ergative-absolutive distinction use it only in particular circumstances. For instance, Urdu is ergative-absolutive in some tenses, and nominative-accusative in others. So you may need to try several examples.