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Re: Nominative to ergative shift

From:FFlores <fflores@...>
Date:Sunday, March 21, 1999, 1:37
Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> wrote:
> FFlores wrote: > > Stage 2: only V(O)S > > VOS is also a very rare (altho not unknown) word order. It seems odd > for a lang to go from VSO to VOS, in my opinion. >
Yes, it does. I was thinking about a process where you shift to (S)VO, where the subject may or may not be understood. I think a better option would be having VS for intransitive sentences (the original word order) and SVO for transitive sentences (with the subject following the trend, often seen in other langs, of becoming topic and moving to the beginning of the sentence). This would be enough to place the absolutive noun phrase after the verb. But as you said in another post (and I agree) the absolutive is usually unmarked while the ergative is marked. --Pablo Flores * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Alexander Graham Bell's Observation: When a body is immersed in water, the phone rings.