Re: Ergative?

Nono!
Sorry I confused you.  'Boy' is not in the mystery case, which means, I
guess, that it's instrumental.

Here is a simple interlinear; I hope it clears things up:

Éyaverog                silen   negeth.
Jabberwock-accusative   boy-nom kill-past-3rd

Ilelés        éyaverog                silen     negeth.
Sword-mystery jabberwock-accusative   boy-nom   kill-past-3rd

Hope that helps.  Sorry for the confusion.
-M

Nik Taylor wrote:

> Sounds like this is a case which combines ergative and instrumental.
> Instrumental is a case used to indicate the instrument with which an
> action was done, like "sword" there.  However, that term is not normally
> used for the case of "the boy" in the first sentence.  I have a
> question, what's the interlinear of your two examples?  Is it something
> like "Boy-(mystery case) kill-past jabberwock" and "Sword-(mystery case)
> boy-(mystery case) kill-past jabberwock"?  What is the case used for
> Jabberwock in those sentences?  Is it the same case as for "The
> jabberwock died"?  If so, I'd call that absolutive, and your mystery
> case I would call either ergative or instrumental, either one works
> since it appears to fill both functions.
>
> --
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