Re: Question about case names...

Sam Bryant wrote:
>
> Alright. I'm making a three-way distinction in LH:
> -subject of transitive verbs
> -subject of intransitive verbs
> -object of transitive verbs.
>
> I'd like to call these ergative, nominative, accusative respectively. But that
> will probably deeply offend people's sensibilities. I could use agentive,
> nominative, accusative. But under no circumstances will I call one of my cases
> agent, patient, or absolutive.
> What do y'all think?
Hmm, here's my suggestion:
For subject of a transitive verb: Ergative
For object of a transitive verb: Accusative
For subject of an intransitive verb: Perhaps Intransitive.  Nominative
implies subject of transitive or intransitive verb, and it seems best to
me to only use it for that usage.  Intransitive case is an appropriate
name, IMHO, since that's what it's used for - intransitive verbs.

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