Re: Ergative and other questions

"Mark J. Reed" wrote:
> In absolutive/ergative languages, things are carved up differently.
> The subject and object of the sentence "I won the race" are still
> in different cases, but the *subject* of the sentence "I won" is in the
> same case as the *object* of the sentence "I won the race".
> This case is called the the "absolutive", and it is used for the
> *object* of *transitive* verbs and the *subject* of *intransitive* or
> *reflexive* verbs.  The other case,  used only for the subject of
> transitive verbs, is called the "ergative".
To simplify, using English examples, imagine if English used the
following forms:

I saw her/She saw me
Her fell

That is, the same form, "her" is used for the object of a transitive
verb, like "see" and for the subject of an intransitive verb, like
"fall", and another form (she) for the subject of a transitive verb

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