Re: a few questions

Hi!

Tristan Alexander McLeay <zsau@...> writes:
> Just a few questions...
...
> 3. What does ergative mean?
This question seems to come back to this list from time to time. :-)

In short, ergative languages mark the subject of an intransitive verb
in the same way as the object of a transitive verb, namely with
absolutive case.  The subject of a transitive verb is marked with
ergative case.  These two cases replace what is done with nominative
and accusative cases in accusative languages.

In more detail: ergative or ergative/absolutive, like
nominative/accusative and agentive/patientive (or simply active), is a
classification of how a language marks dependents in intransitive
sentences.  Lets assume that two cases A and B be used for a
transitive sentence:

    Peter[A] hits Paul[B]

(In English, these are marked by position or, for pronouns,
morphologically:

    He[A] hits him[B]
)

Then, intransitive sentences may work differently:

Accusative case marking:

    Peter[A] runs.
    Peter[A] freezes.

    Here, A is called nominative case and B is called accusative case.
    So `he', in both intransitive sentences, is marked with nominative
    case (like the subject of the transitive sentence above).

Ergative case marking:

    Peter[B] runs.
    Peter[B] freezes.

    Here, A is called absolutive case and B is called ergative
    case.  So `he' is marked with absolutive case (like the object
    of the transitive sentence).

Active case marking:

    Peter[A] runs.
    Peter[B] freezes.

    Here, A is called agentive case and B is called patientive case.
    In the first sentence, Peter is clearly the agent, while in the
    second, he is not.  There are different views on what is
    considered and agent.

    Additionally, for these languages, the case marking in clauses is
    typically not even fixed in transitive sentences.

Also note that many language are not clearly one or the other.  E.g.
from two accusative langages:

German:    Peter[nom] schl

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