Re: Monster Raving Loony (was: Re: Ergativity)

Paul Bennett wrote:

>
> Nonononono. You misunderstand. The point of MRL languages is not that
> something is the agent and the patient at the same time, but rather that:
>
> In intransitive sentences, the subject is marked in case A.
>
> In transitive sentences, both the patient and the agent are marked in
> case
> B.
>
> This is not always entirely looney, since word order, verbal agreement,
> and other factors can differentiate, but it *is* true that there are
> natlangs whereby context is the only possible disambiguator.
>
Indeed.  Well, and clarification