Re: Ergativity

From: "Andreas Johansson" <andjo@...>
> Quoting Joe <joe@...>:
> > From: "Andreas Johansson" <andjo@...>
> > > Does this mean that there are purely accusative languages around?
> >
> > English seems pretty pure accusative.  I don't know enough about Ergative
> > languages to give an example of one of them, but from what I've heard,
> > Basque is a good example of a pure Ergative lang...
>
> "This soup sells well" et sim have been quoted as proof that English is part-
> ergative.
Ergativity requires S to be treated the same as P, which isnt the case here:  P
never dictates verb agreement [These soups sell well, not *these soups sells
well].

In this S still has all the same functions as A, but with a middle sense of the
verb [This soup sells itself well].

    *Muke!
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