An ergative-absolutive language (or simply ergative language) is a language that treats the argument ("subject") of an intransitive verb like the object of an transitive verb, but distinctly from the agent ("subject") of a transitive verb. Linguistic Typology is an international Peer-reviewed journal in the field of Linguistic typology, founded in 1997 Morphological typology is a way of classifying the languages of the world (see Linguistic typology) that groups languages according to their common morphological structures In morphological typology (in linguistics an isolating language (also analytic language) is any Language in which words are composed of A synthetic language, in Linguistic typology, is a Language with a high Morpheme -per- word ratio Polysynthetic languages are highly Synthetic languages ie languages in which words are composed of many Morphemes Definition The degree of For fusion in Word formation, see Compound (linguistics. A fusional language (also called inflecting language) is a An agglutinative language is a Language that uses Agglutination extensively most Words are formed by joining Morphemes together Morphology is the field of Linguistics that studies the internal structure of words In Linguistics, morphosyntactic alignment is the system used to distinguish between the arguments of Transitive verbs and those of Intransitive A nominative-accusative Language (or simply accusative language) is one that marks the direct object of Transitive verbs distinguishing them Austronesian alignment, commonly known as the Philippine- or Austronesian -type voice system, is a typologically unusual Morphosyntactic alignment An active-stative language, or active language for short is one in which the sole argument of an Intransitive verb is sometimes marked in the same way A tripartite language, also called an ergative-accusative language, is one that treats the subject of an intransitive verb the subject of a transitive verb and the object A direct-inverse language is a language where clauses with transitive verbs can be expressed either using a direct or an inverse construction The syntactic pivot is the Verb argument around which sentences "revolve" in a given Language. In Generative grammar, (in particular Government and binding theory and the Standard Theory of Transformational Grammar a theta role or θ-role is the In Linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the different ways in which languages arrange the constituents of their sentences relative to each other and the systematic In Linguistics, a VO language is a language in which the Verb typically comes before the object (thus including SVO, VOS and In Linguistic typology, subject-verb-object ( SVO) is a sentence structure where the subject comes first the Verb second and the object Verb Subject Object ( VSO) is a term in Linguistic typology. It represents one type of languages when classifying languages according to the sequence of these In Linguistic typology, Verb Object Subject or Verb Object Agent - commonly used in its abbreviated form VOS or VOA - represents the language-classification In Linguistics, an OV language is a language in which the object comes before the Verb. In Linguistic typology, Subject Object Verb (SOV is the type of languages in which the subject, object, and Verb of a sentence appear or usually Object Subject Verb (OSV or Object Agent Verb (OAV is one of the permutations of expression used in Linguistic typology. Object Verb Subject (OVS or Object Verb Agent (OVA is one of the Permutations of expression used in Linguistic typology, although it is rare among Time Manner Place (TMP describes one possible ordering of Adpositional phrases in sentences Place Manner Time is a term used in Linguistic typology to state the general order of Adpositional phrases in a language's sentences "to the store by car A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them A syntactic verb argument, in Linguistics, is a Phrase that appears in a relationship with the Verb in a Clause. According to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle, every sentence can be divided in two main constituents, one being the subject of the sentence and the In Grammar, an intransitive Verb does not take an object. In more technical terms an intransitive verb has only one argument (its subject An object in Grammar is a Sentence element and part of the sentence predicate. In Linguistics, a grammatical agent is the Participant of a situation that carries out the action in this situation In Syntax, a transitive verb is a Verb that requires both a subject and one or more objects Some examples of sentences with transitive verbs

Ergative vs. accusative languages

The distinguishing feature of an ergative language is that it maintains an equivalence between the object of a transitive verb and the single core argument of an intransitive verb, while treating the agent of a transitive verb differently. This contrasts with nominative-accusative languages (such as English), where the agent of a transitive verb and the core argument of an intransitive verb are treated alike but distinctly from the object of a transitive verb. A nominative-accusative Language (or simply accusative language) is one that marks the direct object of Transitive verbs distinguishing them English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States

Ergative alignment

Accusative alignment

These different arguments are usually symbolized as follows:

• O = object of transitive verb (also symbolized as P for ‘patient’)
• S = core argument of intransitive verb
• A = agent of transitive verb

The relationship between ergative and accusative systems can be schematically represented as the following:

See morphosyntactic alignment for a more technical explanation and a comparison with nominative-accusative languages. In Linguistics, morphosyntactic alignment is the system used to distinguish between the arguments of Transitive verbs and those of Intransitive A nominative-accusative Language (or simply accusative language) is one that marks the direct object of Transitive verbs distinguishing them

Note that the word subject, as it is typically defined in grammars of nominative-accusative languages, is inapplicable when referring to ergative-absolutive languages, or when discussing morphosyntactic alignment in general. In Linguistics, morphosyntactic alignment is the system used to distinguish between the arguments of Transitive verbs and those of Intransitive

Realization of ergativity

Ergativity can be found in both morphological and syntactic behavior. Morphology is the field of Linguistics that studies the internal structure of words In Linguistics, syntax (from Ancient Greek grc συν- syn-, "together" and grc τάξις táxis, "arrangement" is the

Morphological ergativity

If the language has morphological case, then the verb arguments are marked thus:

• The agent of a transitive verb (A) is marked with ergative case. In Grammar, the case of a Noun or Pronoun indicates its Grammatical function in a greater Phrase or Clause; such as the A syntactic verb argument, in Linguistics, is a Phrase that appears in a relationship with the Verb in a Clause. The ergative case is the Grammatical case that identifies the subject of a Transitive verb in Ergative-absolutive languages In such languages
• The core argument of an intransitive verb (S) and the object of a transitive verb (O) are both marked with absolutive case. In Ergative-absolutive languages the absolutive ( abbreviated ABS) is the Grammatical case used to mark both the subject of an

If there is no case marking, ergativity can be marked through other means, such as in verbal morphology. For instance, Abkhaz and most Mayan languages have no morphological ergative case, but they have verbal agreement structure which is ergative. Abkhaz is a Northwest Caucasian language spoken mainly in Abkhazia and Turkey by the Abkhaz people. In languages with ergative-absolutive agreement systems, the absolutive form is usually the most unmarked form of a word. Markedness is a linguistic concept that developed out of the Prague School (also known as the Prague linguistic circle)

The following Basque examples demonstrate an ergative-absolutive case marking system:

In Basque, gizona is "the man" and mutila is "the boy". Gizon has a different case marking depending on whether it is the argument of a transitive or intransitive verb. The first form is in the absolutive case, marked here by a (-a) suffix and the second form is in the ergative case, marked by a -ak suffix. The core argument of the intransitive sentence and the object of the transitive sentence both have the same absolutive case, while ergative case appears only on the transitive agent.

In contrast, Japanese, a nominative-accusative language, marks nouns with a different case marking system:

In this language, otoko, argument of the intransitive and agent of the transitive sentence is marked with the same nominative case ga. The nominative case is a Grammatical case for a Noun, which generally marks the subject of a Verb, as opposed to its object or other However, kodomo, the object of the transitive sentence is marked with the accusative case o. The accusative case ( abbreviated ACC) of a Noun is the Grammatical case used to mark the Direct object of a Transitive

To help understanding, we can simulate English as being an ergative language; Declension, as an example for pronouns, is due to the function of such pronoun in a sentence;

So, let’s remember: A = agent of a transitive verb ; S = argument of an intransitive verb; O = object of a transitive verb;

Thus, we have:

Accusative English (as it is)

I (S) have traveled.

I (A) have invited her (O) to go with me.

Ergative English (if it were so)

Me (S) have traveled.

I (A) have invited her (O) to go with me

In this last case (ergative) the declension for S and O is the same (Acc)

A number of languages have both ergative and accusative morphology. A typical example is a language that has nominative-accusative marking on verbs and ergative-absolutive case marking on nouns.

Georgian also has an ergative alignment, but the agent is only marked with the ergative case in the past tense (also known as the "aorist screeve"). Georgian (ka ქართული ენა kartuli ena) is the Official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus. A screeve is a term of grammatical description in traditional Georgian grammars that roughly corresponds to TAM (tense-aspect-mood marking in the Western grammatical tradition Compare:

Katsi vashls chams. (კაცი ვაშლს ჩამს) "The man is eating an apple. "

Katsma vashli chama. (კაცმა ვაშლი ჩამა) "The man ate an apple. "

Kats- is the root of the word "man". In the first sentence (present continuous tense) the agent is in the nominative case (katsi). In the second sentence, which shows ergative alignment, the root is marked with the ergative suffix -ma.

However, there are some intransitive verbs in Georgian that behave like transitive verbs, and therefore employ the ergative case in the past tense. Consider:

Katsma daatsemina. (კაცმა დააცემინა) "The man sneezed. "

Although the verb sneeze is clearly intransitive, it is conjugated like any other transitive verbs. In Georgian there are a few verbs like these, and there has not been a clear-cut explanation as to why these verbs have evolved this way. One explanation is that verbs such as "sneeze" did use to have a direct object (the object being "nose" in the case of "sneeze") and over time lost these objects, yet kept their transitive behavior.

Syntactic ergativity

Ergativity may be manifested through syntax in addition to morphology. Syntactic ergativity is quite rare, and while all languages that exhibit it also feature morphological ergativity, few morphologically ergative languages have ergative syntax. As with morphology, syntactic ergativity can be placed on a continuum, whereby certain syntactic operations may pattern accusatively while other ergatively. The degree of syntactic ergativity is then dependent on the number of syntactic operations that treat the Subject like the Object. Syntactic ergativity is also referred to as inter-clausal ergativity, as it typically appears in the relation of two clauses.

Syntactic ergativity may appear in:

• Word order (for example, the absolutive argument comes before the verb and the ergative argument comes after it). In Linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the different ways in which languages arrange the constituents of their sentences relative to each other and the systematic
• Syntactic pivots
• Relative clauses – determining which arguments are available for relativization
• Subordination
• Switch reference

Example

Example of syntactic ergativity in the "conjunction reduction" construction (coordinated clauses) in Dyirbal in contrast with English conjunction reduction. The syntactic pivot is the Verb argument around which sentences "revolve" in a given Language. A relative clause is a Subordinate clause that modifies a Noun. In Linguistics, subordination is a complex syntactic construction in which one or more Clauses are dependent on the main clause such as The dog ran home after In Linguistics, switch-reference (SR describes any clause-level Morpheme that signals whether certain prominent arguments in 'adjacent' Clauses co-refer In the English language, a compound sentence is composed of at least two Independent clauses It does not require a Dependent clause. Dyirbal (also Djirubal) is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken in northeast Queensland by about 5 speakers of the Dyirbal tribe (The subscript (i) indicates coreference. )

English (SVO word order):

1. Father returned. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States In Linguistic typology, subject-verb-object ( SVO) is a sentence structure where the subject comes first the Verb second and the object
2. Father saw mother.
3. Mother saw father.
4. Father_(i) returned and father_(i) saw mother.
5. Father returned and _____(i) saw mother.
6. Father_(i) returned and mother saw father_(i).
7. *Father returned and mother saw _____(i). (Ill-formed, because S and deleted O cannot be coreferential. In Linguistics, coreference occurs when multiple expressions in a sentence have the same referent. )

Dyirbal (OSV word order):

1. Ŋuma banagan^yu. Dyirbal (also Djirubal) is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken in northeast Queensland by about 5 speakers of the Dyirbal tribe Object Subject Verb (OSV or Object Agent Verb (OAV is one of the permutations of expression used in Linguistic typology. (Father returned. )
2. Yabu ŋumaŋgu buṛan. (lit. Mother father-ŋgu saw, i. e. Father saw mother. )
3. Ŋuma yabuŋgu buṛan. (lit. Father mother-ŋgu saw, i. e. Mother saw father. )
4. Ŋuma_(i) banagan^yu, yabu ŋumaŋgu_(i) buṛan. (lit. Father_(i) returned, mother father-ŋgu_(i) saw, i. e. Father returned, father saw mother. )
5. *Ŋuma_(i) banagan^yu, yabu _____(i) buṛan. (lit. *Father_(i) returned, mother _____(i) saw; ill-formed, because S and deleted A cannot be coreferential. )
6. Ŋuma_(i) banagan^yu, ŋuma_(i) yabuŋgu buṛan. (lit. Father_(i) returned, father_(i) mother-ŋgu saw, i. e. Father returned, mother saw father. )
7. Ŋuma_(i) banagan^yu, _____(i) yabuŋgu buṛan. (lit. Father_(i) returned, _____(i) mother-ŋgu saw, i. e. Father returned, mother saw father. )

Split ergativity

Main article: Split ergativity

The term ergative-absolutive is considered unsatisfactory by some, since there are very few languages without any patterns that exhibit nominative-accusative alignment. Split ergativity is shown by languages that have a partly ergative behaviour but employ another Syntax or morphology — usually accusative A nominative-accusative Language (or simply accusative language) is one that marks the direct object of Transitive verbs distinguishing them Instead they posit that one should only speak of ergative-absolutive systems, which languages employ to different degrees.

Many languages classified as ergative in fact show split ergativity, whereby syntactic and/or morphological ergative patterns are conditioned by the grammatical context, typically person or the tense/aspect of the verb. Basque is unusual in having an almost fully ergative system.

In Urdu and Hindi, ergative case is marked on agents in the perfective aspect for transitive and ditransitive verbs, while in other situations agents appear in the nominative case. Urdu ( ur '''{{Nastaliq اردو}}''' trans Urdū, historically spelled Ordu) is a Central Indo-Aryan language Urdu is a standardised Hindi ( Devanāgarī: hi [[wiktहिन्दी हिन्दी]] or hi [[wiktहिंदी हिंदी]] IAST:, IPA:) is In Grammar, the perfective aspect is an aspect that exists in many languages In Grammar, a ditransitive verb is a Verb which takes a subject and two objects According to certain linguistics considerations these objects

laṛkā kitāb kharīdtā hai

boy-NOMINATIVE-MASCULINE book-NOMINATIVE-FEMININE buy-IMPERFECT-MASCULINE be-PRESENT ¹

"The boy buys a book. "

laṛke ne kitāb kharīdī

boy-ERGATIVE-MASCULINE book-NOMINATIVE-FEMININE buy-PERFECT-FEMININE ¹

"The boy bought a book. "

(¹) The grammatical breakup has been simplified to show the features relevant to the example.

In Dyirbal, pronouns are morphologically nominative-accusative when the agent is first or second person, but ergative when the agent is a third person. Dyirbal (also Djirubal) is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken in northeast Queensland by about 5 speakers of the Dyirbal tribe

Distribution of ergative languages

Prototypical ergative languages are, for the most part, restricted to specific regions of world: the Caucasus, parts of North America and Mesoamerica, and Australia. The Caucasus ( also referred to as North Caucasus) is a geopolitical region located between Europe Asia & Middle East Mesoamerica or Meso-America (Mesoamérica is a Region extending approximately from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua, defined For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics.

Some specific languages are the following:

• Basque
• Berber languages (Afro-Asiatic)
• Dyirbal and several other Australian Aboriginal languages, which are famous in the linguistic literature for their ergative patterns
• Eskimo-Aleut languages. Basque ( native name: euskara) is the Language spoken by the Basque people who inhabit the Pyrenees in North-Central Spain Nomenclature The term Berber has been used in Europe since at least the 17th century and is still used today The Afro-Asiatic languages constitute a Language family with about 375 languages ( SIL estimate and more than 300 million speakers spread throughout North Africa Dyirbal (also Djirubal) is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken in northeast Queensland by about 5 speakers of the Dyirbal tribe Eskimo-Aleut is a Language family native to Greenland, the Canadian Arctic, Alaska, and parts of Siberia.
• Kurdish and Hurrian
• Mayan
• Mixe-Zoque
• Sāmoan, Tagalog, and many other Austronesian languages
• Sumerian
• Tibetan
• the Northeast and Northwest Caucasian families
• Panoan languages (Peru, Brazil, Bolivia), e. The Kurdish language (Kurdish Kurdî or کوردی is a term used for the language spoken by Kurds. Hurrian is a conventional name for the language of the Hurrians (Khurrites a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly The Mixe-Zoque languages constitute a Language family whose living members are spoken in and around the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico. The Sāmoan or Samoan language is the traditional language of Samoa and American Samoa and is an official language &mdash alongside English Tagalog is one of the major languages used in the Philippines. Sumerian ( " native tongue " was the language of ancient Sumer, spoken in Southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC Tibetan refers to a group of languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering South Asia as well as by overseas The Northeast Caucasian languages, also called East Caucasian, Caspian, Nakho-Dagestanian, or Dagestanian, are a family of Languages The Northwest Caucasian languages, also called Pontic, Circassian, or Abkhaz-Adyghe, are a group of languages spoken in the Caucasus region Peru (Perú Piruw Piruw officially the Republic of Peru ( reˈpuβlika del peˈɾu is a country in western South America. |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld The Republic of Bolivia (República de Bolivia) named after Simón Bolívar, is a Landlocked country in central South America. g. Shipibo-Conibo
• Several dialects of Persian language including Davani

Certain Australian Aboriginal languages (e. The Shipibo-Conibo are an Indigenous people of Perú. With a whole of 20 178 registered individuals the shipibo-conibo represent 842 % of the indigenous registered The Davani dialect ( دوانی, UniPers: Davâni is a Southwestern Iranian language spoken in the village of Davan, 12 kilometers north g. , Warlpiri) possess an intransitive case and an accusative case along with an ergative case, and lack an absolutive case; such languages are called ergative-accusative languages or tripartite languages. The Warlpiri language is spoken by about 3000 of the Warlpiri people in Australia 's Northern Territory. The intransitive case is a Grammatical case used in some languages to mark the subject of an Intransitive verb, but not used with Transitive verbs The accusative case ( abbreviated ACC) of a Noun is the Grammatical case used to mark the Direct object of a Transitive In Ergative-absolutive languages the absolutive ( abbreviated ABS) is the Grammatical case used to mark both the subject of an A tripartite language, also called an ergative-accusative language, is one that treats the subject of an intransitive verb the subject of a transitive verb and the object A tripartite language, also called an ergative-accusative language, is one that treats the subject of an intransitive verb the subject of a transitive verb and the object

Many other languages have more limited ergativity, such as Pashto and Hindi (Indo-Iranian), where ergative behavior occurs only in the perfective, and Georgian, where ergativity only occurs in the aorist. Pashto ( Naskh: پښتو‎ pəʂ'to also rendered as Pakhto, Pushto, Pukhto, Pashtu, Pushtu, also known as Hindi ( Devanāgarī: hi [[wiktहिन्दी हिन्दी]] or hi [[wiktहिंदी हिंदी]] IAST:, IPA:) is The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European family of languages Georgian (ka ქართული ენა kartuli ena) is the Official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus.

Traces of ergativity in English

English does show a trace of something that could be regarded as ergativity. With an intransitive verb, adding the suffix -ee to the verb produces a label for the person performing the action:

"John has retired. " → "John is a retiree. "

"John has escaped. " → "John is an escapee. "

"John is standing. " → "John is a standee. "

However, with a transitive verb, adding -ee does not produce a label for the person doing the action. Instead, it gives us a label for the person to whom the action is done:

"Mike employs Susie. " → "Susie is an employee. "

"Mike has inducted Susie. " → "Susie is an inductee. "

"Mike has appointed Susie" → "Susie is an appointee. "

The differing effect of the "-ee" suffix, depending on the transitivity of the verb, can be considered ergativity. (Etymologically, the sense in which "-ee" denotes the object of a transitive verb is the original one, arising from French past participles in "-é". In Linguistics, a participle (from Latin participium, a Calque of Greek μετοχη "partaking" is a derivative of a non-finite This would still be considered the prevalent sense in UK English: the intransitive uses are all 19th century American coinages and all except "escapee" are still marked as "chiefly U. S. " by the Oxford English Dictionary. )

English also has a number of so-called ergative verbs, which allow the object of a transitive clause to become the subject of an intransitive clause. In Linguistics, an ergative verb is a Verb that can be either transitive or intransitive, and whose subject when intransitive corresponds

Philippine languages as ergative

• Tagalog (Schachter 1976, 1977; Kroeger 1993). Tagalog is one of the major languages used in the Philippines.
• Kapampangan language

Bibliography

• Anderson, Stephen. Kapampangan is one of the major Languages of the Philippines. (1976). On the notion of subject in ergative languages. In C. Li. (Ed. ), Subject and topic (pp. 1-24). New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0124473504.
• Anderson, Stephen R. (1985). Inflectional morphology. In T. Shopen (Ed. ), Language typology and syntactic description: Grammatical categories and the lexicon (Vol. 3, pp. 150-201). Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press. ISBN 0521581583.
• Comrie, Bernard. (1978). Ergativity. In W. P. Lehmann (Ed. ), Syntactic typology: Studies in the phenomenology of language (pp. 329-394). Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0292775458.
• Dixon, R. M. W. (1979). Ergativity. Language, 55 (1), 59-138. (Revised as Dixon 1994).
• Dixon, R. M. W. (Ed. ) (1987). Studies in ergativity. Amsterdam: North-Holland. ISBN 044470275X.
• Dixon, R. M. W. (1994). Ergativity. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521448980.
• Foley, William; & Van Valin, Robert. (1984). Functional syntax and universal grammar. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521259568.
• Kroeger, Paul. (1993). Phrase structure and grammatical relations in Tagalog. Stanford: CSLI. ISBN 0937073865.
• Mallinson, Graham; & Blake, Barry J. (1981). Agent and patient marking. Language typology: Cross-linguistic studies in syntax (Chap. 2, pp. 39-120). North-Holland linguistic series. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Company.
• Plank, Frans. (Ed. ). (1979). Ergativity: Towards a theory of grammatical relations. London: Academic Press.
• Schachter, Paul. (1976). The subject in Philippine languages: Actor, topic, actor-topic, or none of the above. In C. Li. (Ed. ), Subject and topic (pp. 491-518). New York: Academic Press.
• Schachter, Paul. (1977). Reference-related and role-related properties of subjects. In P. Cole & J. Sadock (Eds. ), Syntax and semantics: Grammatical relations (Vol. 8, pp. 279-306). New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0126135088.
• Silverstein, Michael. (1976). Hierarchy of Features and Ergativity. In R. M. W. Dixon (ed. ) Grammatical Categories in Australian Languages (pp. 112-171). New Jersey: Humanities Press. ISBN 0391006940. Reprinted in Pieter Muysken and Henk van Riemsdijk (eds. ), Features and Projections (pp. 163-232). Dordrecht: Foris. ISBN 9067651443.

See also

• Ergative verb
• Split ergativity
• Morphosyntactic alignment
• Transitivity (grammatical category)

External links

• Cartoon Theories of Linguistics: Ergativity A simplification of the basic idea of ergativity in cartoon form. In Linguistics, an ergative verb is a Verb that can be either transitive or intransitive, and whose subject when intransitive corresponds Split ergativity is shown by languages that have a partly ergative behaviour but employ another Syntax or morphology — usually accusative In Linguistics, morphosyntactic alignment is the system used to distinguish between the arguments of Transitive verbs and those of Intransitive In Linguistics, transitivity is a property of Verbs that relates to whether a verb can take Direct objects It is closely related to valency.