Re: Ergativity

Quoting "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...>:

> Okay, so let me see if I can summarize the terminology:
>
> Verb Arguments
>         A = Agent (transitive subject)
>         P = Patient (transitive object)
>         S = Subject (intransitive)
>
> Construct Categories
>         Name                    Groupings
>         Accusative              {A,  S} {P}
>         Clairvoyant             {A,  P,  S}
>         Ergative                {A} {S,  P}
>         Monster Raving Loony    {A,  P} {S}
>         Tripartite              {A} {P} {S}
>
> Hierachical systems are morphologically and syntactically clairvoyant, but
> instead of simply context, they use a formally defined ranking of all
> nouns (the "animacy hierarchy") to distinguish A from P in two-argument
> constructs.
It should also be possible to have a hierarchical system which is
morphologically and syntactically MRL. Given the usual result of me expressing
a wish that some feature or pattern is absent from natlangs, I'm not going to
say I do hope no natlang is constructed thusly.

                                                        Andreas