Re: Ergative and other questions

On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 12:41:27PM -0500, Mark J. Reed wrote:
> There are basically two
> types, called "nominative/accusative" ("accusative" for short)
> and "absolutive/ergative" ("ergative").  English, German, Russian,
> Latin (and the Romance languages) are all nominative/accusative:
I should mention here that just as with most language categories,
there are very few languages that are entirely accusative or
entirely ergative.  Some languages have a fairly equal mix,
such as Samoan, in which some verbs take nominative/accusative
while others take asolutive/ergative, and you just have to memorize
which are which.  Most languages have one highly dominant form, but
still have bits which work the other way.

For instance, even English has some ergativity, notably in the -ee suffix.
A transitive verb + -ee refers to the object of the verb (these
examples come from a Larry Trask column in "Ask a Linguist" a few years
back):

        Mike employs Susie.       ->    Susie is an employee.
        Mike has inducted Susie.  ->    Susie is an inductee.
        Mike has appointed Susie. ->    Susie is an appointee.

(In the above sentences, Mike is the employer, inducter, and appointer,
respectively.)  But look at what happens with intransitive verbs:

        Susie has retired.      ->      Susie is a retiree.
        Susie has escaped.      ->      Susie is an escapee.
        Susie is standing.      ->      Susie is a standee.

Susie is the subject of these sentences, yet the noun form uses -ee,
which refers to the *object* in transitive verbs.  And these are the
regular forms; you rarely hear a retired person referred to as a "retirer" or
an escaped convict as an "escaper".  So the -ee suffix in English
is ergative.

-Mark

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