Re: active vs. semantic marking languages (was: Re: Noun tense)

Quoting Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>:

> Daniel Andreasson Vpc wrote:
> > Nominative: I-nom eat.
> > Ergative: I-abs eat.
> > Active: I-agt eat.  --- I-pat sleep.
>
> Ergative would be I-erg eat.  I-abs eat would mean "I am eaten" :-)
It depends on whether "eat" is a transitive verb or not.
Ergativity is only obliquely (excuse the pun) related to
semantics.  If English were an ergative language, the
verb "dine" would take absolutive marking, despite the
the fact that if you dine then necessarily there is something
that is being consumed.

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