Questions tagged [ergativity]
Similar syntactic marking or usage of transitive objects and intransitive subjects.
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How does a language end up with ergative-absolutive alignment on nouns, but nominative-accusative in verb concord?
In Two Types of Ergative Agreement: Implications for Case (Coon, 2015), the author explains that there are broadly two different ways a language can be "ergative". One is that it can be ...
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When and by whom was the term absolutive (case) created?
While the question on the origin of the ergative case (When and by whom were the terms 'ergative case' and 'absolutive case' coined?) is answered, the origins of the terminus ...
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Verification of R. Dixon's bound/free split prediction
In his book, 'Ergativity', R. Dixon makes a prediction on page 95:
if there is a split between bound and free forms, the former will
follow an accusative pattern, the latter - an ergative pattern.
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Can ergative languages have a passive construction?
I've recently started reading more about ergative languages, such as Basque.
I understand that cases in ergative languages differ from nominal-accusative languages.
For example, a sentence like "...
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What's the difference between nominative and absolutive case?
Why do both these cases need to exist?
They are both subjects
user31190
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Does Subject vs Object matter in languages with ergative absolutive marking
If a language has an ergative absolutive alignment in which subjects and objects of clauses are marked for absolutive marking does the distinction between subject and object ever get difficult to ...
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On a question in regards to Ergativity
I am working on a conlang, and I am making sure of how this one sentence would be parsed when translated.
"We have no friends, but the mountains"
Would mountains be the ones put into the ...
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When and by whom were the terms 'ergative case' and 'absolutive case' coined?
The terms 'ergative' and 'absolutive' indicate cases in ergative-absolutive languages. The terms themselves derive from Greek respectively Latin roots. Given that Greek and Latin are not themselves ...
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Are all "Ergative Languages" split-ergative?
I've noticed that in a lot of examples of "ergative languages," there is some piece of the language that does not fit the pattern we call "ergativity." For example, Basque does not mark ergative case ...
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Configurational assignment of accusative case?
I'm an undergraduate linguistics student, and I'm currently reading this chapter by Coon & Preminger (2015) (http://ling.umd.edu/assets/publications/Coon-Preminger-17-SplitErgativity.pdf), which ...
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Do different alignments restrict what kind of word order a language can have?
I've read somewhere that all known ergative languages are either verb-initial, or verb-final. I find this surprising, but I don't know of any counter-examples.
I've seen plenty of nominative ...
user19661
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What is ''syntactic behavior"?
According to my professor's notes, we have syntactic ergativity when the arguments P and S display the same syntactic behavior. But how is the term "syntactic behavior" defined?
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About the universality of the notion of subject and the description of ergativity
A very common description of ergativity defines it as a morphosyntactic alignment where the intransitive subject follows a pattern similar to the object and dissimilar from the transitive subject --- ...
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Accusative or ergative language?
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 ...
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What motivated the terms 'ergative' and 'absolutive'?
Source: p 195, Understanding Syntax (4 ed, 2014) by Prof. Maggie Tallerman PhD in Linguistics (U. Hull)
ERGATIVE is the case of A – the subject of transitive verbs. ABSOLUTIVE is the case of both ...
user5306
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Is English of neutral or accusative alignment in verbal person marking?
On WALS' chapter on verbal person marking alignment, it classifies English as having accusative alignment. Later on it discusses a 'restricted' alignment split between first and second person and ...
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Is the agent in an ergative language a subject or an object?
Imagine a language with PVA/APV dominant word order and SV in intransitive clauses. We see that it's tightly PV and SV whereas both VA and AV are possible. We also know that P and S are both ...
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Why might ergativity be correlated with polypersonal agreement?
The Wikipedia article on polypersonal agreement states that it "has also been correlated with ergativity." This is certainly true of Basque, the only ergative language I have any familiarity with.
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Can a language have both nominative/accusative and ergative/absolutive syntactic systems in its syntactic structure?
These examples are from Kui, a Trans New Guinean language spoken on Alor island, Indonesia.
(1) nya yai umasingin u=ga=sam u=ga=bur=i.
1pl.Sub v. n. appl=3sg....
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Ergative Verbs and some discussion about them
I know what ergative verb is -
Consider the following sentences -
I opened the door.
The door was opened (by me).
The door opened.
The verb open is a transitive verb in sentence #1, and sentence #...
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Accusative vs Ergative
In terms of syntactic structure, from the below grammar can we conclude that English is accusative language, not ergative.
S --> NP VP
VPtv --> Vtv NP
VPiv --> Viv
By intuition, I ...
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Constituent Order and Alignment
Seeing What might "S/A-V-O" and "A/S-V-O" mean? reminded me of something I've wondered at various points in the past. I'm familiar with the different clause constituent orders (SVO,...
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Why do certain verbs not accept the ergative schema whereas they accept the mediopassive (middle) one?
Ex : They scared me / I scare easily / but not * I scared last night.
My first question was not ask properly so I tried again.
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Is there any evidence pro/contra Du Bois' Preferred Argument Structure (ergative patterning in discourse)?
In The Discourse Basis of Ergativity published in Language in 1987, John W. Du Bois proposed a theory which stated that (p. 850)
[universally] the distribution of new information vs. old ...
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Across ergative languages, is there a case that typically marks arguments in copular & existential clauses?
Across ergative languages, is there a case that typically marks the arguments in copular & existential clauses?
For example, in sentences that translate as "The beetle is red" and "There is a ...
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Why do people use the term "ergative language"?
From what I've read, a lot of languages that have nominative-accusative marking have only this type of marking. However, languages that have ergative-absolutive marking in some contexts typically ...
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Is it okay that Ergative case be unmarked?
I found a language of Celebes island in Indonesia, its name is Mongondow (mog). It has a Phillipine's Alignment morphosyntactic which it has combination of Accusative and Ergative languages. The word ...
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How does aspect condition an ergative split?
I've never heard of a natural language that has ergative-absolutive marking alone. From what I've read, languages with said marking also have nominative-accusative marking, with the choice or "split"...
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