Re: Trigger language?

Christophe wrote:

> If there are languages that mark S differently from both P and A, they must be
> exceedingly rare. I guess they would simply be called "active".
No, those would be "tripartite". A and S and P are all marked
differently. Unless I misinterpreted you, and you meant languages
which mark P and A alike and S differently. There was an inquiry
about just such languages a while ago, but I can't remember if
there appeared any actual natlang examples.

And I think you should have had some examples in your long
(even for you, Christophe! ;) but good mail. Let me add some.

+ NOMINATIVE-ACCUSATIVE:

I:NOM see the fox:ACC
  A              P

I:NOM sleep.
 S/A

+ ERGATIVE-ABSOLUTIVE:

I:ERG see the fox:ABS
  A             P

I:ABS sleep.
 S/P

+ ACTIVE:

I:AGT see the fox:PAT
  A              P

I:PAT sleep.
 S/P

I:AGT run.
 S/A

> Now you mustn't think of those categories as hermetic boxes in which languages
> are trapped. When I said that Georgian was at least partly ergative, it is
> because, IIRC, its verbs behave sometimes ergatively, sometimes accusatively.
Georgian is actually even active. (In Series II, classes 2 and 3 to
be precise. :)

Daniel Andreasson

--
http://www.conlanglinks.tk

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