Re: Help with grammar terms

I always get confused about things like ergative, active, accusative,
and it would be so much appreciated if someone could post just a brief
overview of each, it would be really really helpful.  The reason this
came to mind was part of a new language idea that I had, and I don't
really know what to call it.

My idea was this:  case marking on the noun only for the agent and
patient of the verb.  Whether the verb is active or passive (whether the
agent or patient was acting as the subject of the sentence) is marked on
the verb.  Also, I was toying with the idea of having a gender hierarchy
(I don't know why, but I've had a real thing for hierarchies in my
conlangs lately - this is *not* the same lang I described about a month
ago with the gender hierarchy, though, don't get confused) which
determined word order.  So, what *is* that?

Nicole
--
nicole.eap@snet.net
http://nicole.conlang.org