Re: relative tense / universals / object agreement

Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
> That would be very interesting - it's most often that marking for S and O is
> optional, while the marking A is obligatory, since in intransitive sentences
> marking for the subject is redundant - in fact, third person singular
> subject/object is most often the default, unmarked actant.
> I'd very much like to see some examples...
Not so.  In nominative languages, S and A are often obligatorily marked,
while O is less often marked, but in ergative languages, S and O are
often obligatorily marked, while A is less often marked.  The absolutive
relation is "closer", so to speak, to the verb than the ergative, in the
same way that the nominative is closer than the accusative.

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