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anti-active case marking

From:Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg.rhiemeier@...>
Date:Thursday, October 5, 2000, 23:12
Muke Tever wrote:

> > Another idea: an "anti-active" language. Active intransitive verbs > > (such as "to laugh") treat their subjects like direct objects, > > while non-active verbs (e.g. "to fall") like transitive subjects: > > > > child-I stone-II throw > > > > child-II laugh > > > > stone-I fall > > > > (I and II are some kinds of cases, for which I haven't invented names > > yet; > > or use head marking instead.) > > Hmm, quasi-ergative-ish. Actually my Hadwan will have started on the road > to ergativity this way, and although I hadn't thought of putting in a > distinction between active/non-active use of I/II, it's an interesting idea > I may need to use...
Why that way? The pattern I proposed is semantically absolutely implausible, and I never intended it to be anything else than a joke. I think it is a bad idea to use in a fictional natlang (i.e. in a language designed to represent a language that evolved naturally in a fictional world) because it is implausible. Jörg.