Re: Anadewism questions 3: Verbs governing trigger

"Carsten Becker" <naranoieati@...> wrote:

> I'd like to know whether it would be sensible that a verb
> determines which argument to trigger, much like Latin (and
> also German) prepositions govern particular cases. What
> would such a system be called then? Would this be called
> split-ergativity then?
"Split ergativity" is a rawther broad term.  It covers all of the
following behaviors that influence switching between ergative and
accusative behavior within various languages:

* Person of the subject and object, as in Dyirbal.
* Tense or aspect, as in Indo-Iranian languages.
* The activeness or stativeness traditionally associated with the
  verb, as in split-S languages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_ergativity

I think what you're looking for is something similar to split-S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative-absolutive_language

Even English has some traces of split-S:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergative_verb

--
Damian