Re: Ergativity

Yes, this is the way it works in Omeina too, and 'Soup cooks' would be
simply surreal, as it would imply that the soup was cooking something! You'd
have to say "(somebody - Robert, the chef, etc) - is cooking the soup". But
then again, English is quite fond of turning essentially passive
constructions "The soup is being cooked" into non-passive ones like "The
soup is cooking", isn't it?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe" <joe@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2003 9:18 AM
Subject: Re: Ergativity


> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "takatunu" <takatunu@...>
> To: <CONLANG@...>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2003 8:56 AM
> Subject: Re: Ergativity
>
>
> > Chris Bates <christopher.bates@...> wrote:
> >
> > <<<
> > "I'm sure there *are* purely ergative languages. Just not many. However,
> > in the case of the sentence 'Robert<erg> cooks', in an Ergative system,
> > it mus be translated as 'Robert cooks it', not just 'Robert cooks',
> > which would be 'Robert<abs> cooks'."
> > -----
> > Thanks Joe. :) Finally, someone who agrees with the way I feel it should
> > be. :D Thank god...
> > >>>
> >
> > So you'd have:
> >
> > Robert <---cooks
> > Soup <---cooks
> >
> > The difference would be that "soup" is either (i) being under
elaboration
> or
> > (ii) merely being re-heated by SOME cook while Robert is elaborating or
> > re-heating SOME food. That's where determination comes on stage.
>
> I think the phrase 'soup cooks' is an Anglicism. I would translate 'Robert
> cooks' and 'soup cooks' as Robert<abs> cooks, and Soup<abs>
cooks<passive>,
> respectively.

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