Re: non-accusative, non-ergative, non-active ...

 >From: Joe Hill <joe@...>
 >
 >But almost all natlangs have cases at some time in their lives.  Only
 >exception I can think of offhend is chinese.

        I believe there is some evidence that there were cases in the
earliest stages of the language, at least in pronouns.  Of course,
this all depends on scary Chinese historical linguistics and the
syntax of certain pronouns which seem to differ only in the final
sound of the syllable.

        Of course, my information is fairly old.  There may be more
conclusive documentation about this somewhere.

--
wm