Re: Ergativity

>> Theory II, which probably is even as much faulty:
>> could bilingual basque/spanish people've evolved ergative spanish (with
the
>> accusative preposition as absolutive marker?) dialects?
>> Basque are proud of their language aren't they?
>
>I guess they are. In most ergative languages, however, the absolutive
>is unmarked (in both the senses of the word). If this is a 'universal'
>(and it sounds likely and 'correct' to me) then this absolutive mark
>would be strange. IIRC the shift from accusative->ergative languages
>often involves transforming a (subject marked as) instrumental into
>ergative.
(thanks for this info on ergative < instrumental)

The role of the absolutive, anyway is more similar to that of the accusative
than that of the nominative, and therefore, such a construction, although it
might violate some universals, could be probable.

I did think of this 'violation' before I posted, and came to the conclusion
that 'everything's violatable'.
(also, everything's relative, but this is the violatability-theory, the
ultimate conclusion derived from E=mc^2)

Thanks for that information on ergative < instrumental subjects, it'll be
useful in deriving some languages from my current "project".