What is ergative?
| From: | Christopher B Wright <faceloran@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, March 12, 2002, 18:45 |
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First off, I want to say that you're all making me feel stupid. That's
something which is wrong with me; that is, I'm actually ignorant.
More importantly, I'd like to know what nominative/ergative languages
are. It seemed to me as if they use semantic purpose as grammatical
function; that is, whatever is doing the action in the meaning is the
subject of the sentence, no matter whether the subject is the emphasized
part of the sentence. Am I correct? (Probably not, but even a hog with no
nose can find a truffle once in a while.)
Chris Wright
"The purpose of argument is to change the nature of the truth." Bene
Gesserit saying.
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