All Questions
Tagged with ergativity morphology
5 questions
1
vote
0
answers
50
views
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.
...
- 451
4
votes
3
answers
223
views
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 "...
- 51
4
votes
1
answer
639
views
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....
- 49
3
votes
2
answers
618
views
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 ...
3
votes
1
answer
515
views
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 ...
- 8,780