In linguistics, morphosyntactic alignment is the system used to distinguish between the arguments of transitive verbs and those of intransitive verbs. 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 A nominative-accusative Language (or simply accusative language) is one that marks the direct object of Transitive verbs distinguishing them An ergative-absolutive Language (or simply ergative language is a language that treats the argument (" subject " of an Intransitive 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 Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields A syntactic verb argument, in Linguistics, is a Phrase that appears in a relationship with the Verb in a Clause. 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 In Grammar, an intransitive Verb does not take an object. In more technical terms an intransitive verb has only one argument (its subject The distinction can be made morphologically (through grammatical case or verbal agreement), syntactically (through word order), or both. Morphology is the field of Linguistics that studies the internal structure of words In Grammar, the case of a Noun or Pronoun indicates its Grammatical function in a greater Phrase or Clause; such as the In Languages agreement is a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence or phrase In Linguistics, syntax (from Ancient Greek grc συν- syn-, "together" and grc τάξις táxis, "arrangement" 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

Semantics and grammatical relations

Transitive verbs have two core arguments, which in a language like English are subject (A) and object (O). 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 An object in Grammar is a Sentence element and part of the sentence predicate. (The symbol P is sometimes used for the latter role. ) Intransitive verbs have a single core argument, which in English is the subject (S). In Grammar, an intransitive Verb does not take an object. In more technical terms an intransitive verb has only one argument (its subject Note that while the grammatical role labels S, A, and O/P are originally short for "subject", "agent", and "object/patient", the concepts are distinct both from "subject" and "object" (the terms that S, A and O supersede) and from "Agent" and "patient" (which indicate thematic relations, not grammatical relations: an A need not be an agent, an O need not be a patient). In Linguistics, a grammatical agent is the Participant of a situation that carries out the action in this situation In Linguistics, a grammatical patient is the participant of a situation upon whom an action is carried out In Linguistics, thematic relations express the meaning that a Noun phrase plays with respect to the action or state described by a sentence's verb In Linguistics, grammatical functions or ( grammatical relations) refer to syntactic relationships between Parts of speech such as subject

Of the three types of core argument (S, A and O), different constructions within a language often treat two the same way and the third distinctly.

1. Nominative-accusative alignment treats the S argument of an intransitive verb like the A argument of transitive verbs, with the O argument distinct (S = A; O separate) (see also Nominative-accusative language). A nominative-accusative Language (or simply accusative language) is one that marks the direct object of Transitive verbs distinguishing them In a language with morphological case marking, an S and an A may both be unmarked or marked with the nominative case, while the O is marked with an accusative case as occurs with nominative -us and accusative -um in Latin: Julius venit "Julius came"; Julius Brutum vidit "Julius saw Brutus". 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 The accusative case ( abbreviated ACC) of a Noun is the Grammatical case used to mark the Direct object of a Transitive Languages with nominative-accusative alignment can detransitivize transitive verbs by demoting the A argument, and promoting the O to be an S (thus taking nominative case marking); this is called the passive voice. In Grammar, the voice (also called gender or diathesis of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state that the verb expresses and the participants identified
2. Ergative-absolutive alignment treats an intransitive argument like a transitive O argument (S=O; A separate) (see also Ergative-absolutive language). An ergative-absolutive Language (or simply ergative language is a language that treats the argument (" subject " of an Intransitive An A may be marked with an ergative case (sometimes formally the same as the genitive or instrumental case or some other oblique case), while the S argument of an intransitive verb and the O argument of a transitive verb are left unmarked or sometimes marked with an absolutive case. The ergative case is the Grammatical case that identifies the subject of a Transitive verb in Ergative-absolutive languages In such languages In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another The instrumental case (also called the eighth case) is a Grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the In Ergative-absolutive languages the absolutive ( abbreviated ABS) is the Grammatical case used to mark both the subject of an Ergative-absolutive languages can detransitivize transitive verbs by demoting the O and promoting the A to an S, thus taking the absolutive case; this is called the antipassive voice. The antipassive voice is a Verb voice found mostly in ergative languages Like the Passive voice, the antipassive decreases the verb's valency
3. Fluid (or semantic) alignment (see Active-stative languages) treats the arguments of some intransitive verbs in the same way as the A argument of transitives, and the single arguments of other intransitive verbs the same as transitive O arguments (S_a=A; S_o=O). 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 The reason for assignment to one class or another usually has a straightforward semantic basis. For example, in Georgian, Mariamma imğera "Mary sang", shares the same narrative case ending as the transitive clause Mariamma c'erili dac'era "Mary wrote the letter", while in Mariami iq'o Tbilisši revolutsiamde "Mary was in Tbilisi up to the revolution", Mary shares the same case ending (-i) as the object in the transitive clause. Thus the class of intransitive is not uniform in its behavior. The particular criteria for assigning verbs to one class or the other vary from language to language, and may either be fixed lexically for each verb, or chosen by the speaker according to the degree of volition, control, or suffering of the verbal action by the participant, or the degree of sympathy the speaker has.
4. The Austronesian languages of the Philippines, Borneo, Taiwan, and Madagascar are well known for having both alignments, called voices. In Grammar, the voice (also called gender or diathesis of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state that the verb expresses and the participants identified These are the Austronesian-alignment or Philippine-type languages. Austronesian alignment, commonly known as the Philippine- or Austronesian -type voice system, is a typologically unusual Morphosyntactic alignment The alignments are often misleadingly called "active" and "passive" voice, but both have two core arguments, so increasingly the terms such as "actor focus" or "agent trigger" are used for the accusative type, and "undergoer focus" or "patient trigger" for the ergative type (though neither are these focus systems). FOCUS is a software product of Information Builders Inc Originally developed for data handling and analysis on the IBM mainframe, as newer systems were developed Patient-trigger alignment is the default in most of these languages. For either alignment two core cases are used, but the same morphology is used for the nominative of the agent-trigger alignment and the absolutive of the patient-trigger alignment, so there is a total of just three core cases: nominative-absolutive (usually called nominative, or sometimes direct), ergative, and accusative. In Indo-Aryan languages, the direct case is the name given to a Grammatical case used with all three Core relations the agent of Transitive Many Austronesianists argue that these languages have four alignments, with voices that mark a locative or benefactive with the direct case, but others maintain that these are not basic to the system. Locative (also called the seventh case) is a Grammatical case which indicates a location The benefactive case ( abbreviated BEN) is a case used where English would use "for" "for the benefit of"

A very few languages make no distinction whatsoever between agent, patient, and intransitive arguments, leaving the hearer to rely entirely on context and common sense to figure them out. Some others, called tripartite languages, use a separate case or syntax for each argument, which are conventionally called the accusative case, the intransitive case, and the ergative case. 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 The accusative case ( abbreviated ACC) of a Noun is the Grammatical case used to mark the Direct object of a Transitive 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 ergative case is the Grammatical case that identifies the subject of a Transitive verb in Ergative-absolutive languages In such languages Certain Iranian languages, such as Rushani, distinguish only transitivity, using a transitive case, for both A and O, and an intransitive case. The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family and its subfamily Indo-Iranian.

The common types of alignment, and some uncommon, can be shown graphically like this (here the symbol P is used instead of O for a patient-like^[1]):

nominative- accusative	ergative	transitive	direct	tripartite

Furthermore, a single language may use nominative-accusative and ergative-absolutive systems in different grammatical contexts, sometimes linked to animacy (Australian Aboriginal languages) or aspect (Mayan languages). Animacy is a grammatical and/or Semantic category of Nouns based on how Sentient or alive the Referent of the noun is In Linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a Verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof in the described event or state This is called split ergativity. Split ergativity is shown by languages that have a partly ergative behaviour but employ another Syntax or morphology — usually accusative
Another popular idea (introduced by Anderson 1976^[2]) is that some constructions universally favor accusative alignment while others are more flexible. In general, behavioral constructions (control, raising, relativization) are claimed to favor nominative-accusative alignment, while coding constructions (especially case constructions) do not show any alignment preferences. In Linguistics, argument control refers to grammatical principles that allow the Semantic identity of a verb's Argument to be determined even though In Linguistics, raising is a form of Argument control in which an argument that belongs semantically to a Subordinate clause is realized syntactically A relative clause is a Subordinate clause that modifies a Noun. This idea underlies early notions of ‘deep’ vs. ‘surface’ (or ‘syntactic’ vs. ‘morphological’) ergativity (e. g. Comrie 1978^[3]; Dixon 1994^[4]): many languages have surface ergativity only, i. e. ergative alignments only in their coding constructions (like case or agreement) but not in their behavioral constructions, or at least not in all of them. Languages with deep ergativity, i. An ergative-absolutive Language (or simply ergative language is a language that treats the argument (" subject " of an Intransitive e. with ergative alignment in behavioral constructions, appear to be less common.

Ergative vs. accusative

Ergative languages contrast to nominative-accusative languages (such as English), which treat the objects of transitive verbs distinctly from other core arguments.

These different arguments can be symbolized as follows:

• O = most patient-like argument of a transitive clause (also symbolized as P)
• S = sole argument of an intransitive clause
• A = most agent-like argument of a transitive clause

The S/A/O terminology avoids the use of terms like "subject" and "object", which are not stable concepts from language to language. Moreover, it avoids the terms "agent" and "patient", which are semantic roles which do not correspond consistently to particular arguments. For instance, the A might be an experiencer or a source, semantically, not just an agent. In Linguistics, a grammatical agent is the Participant of a situation that carries out the action in this situation

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

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

Ergative Language

Sentence:	Gizona etorri da. Basque ( native name: euskara) is the Language spoken by the Basque people who inhabit the Pyrenees in North-Central Spain			Gizonak mutila ikusi du.
Words:	gizona-∅	etorri da		gizona-k	mutila-∅	ikusi du
Gloss:	the. man-ABS	has arrived		the. man-ERG	boy-ABS	saw
Function:	S	VERBintrans		A	O	VERBtrans
Translation:	'The man has arrived. '			'The man saw the boy. '

In Basque, gizona is "the man" and mutila is "the boy". In a sentence like mutila gizonak ikusi du, you know who's seeing whom because -k is always added to the one doing the seeing. So this means 'the man saw the boy'. To say 'the boy saw the man', just add the "-k" to the boy: mutilak gizona ikusi du.

With a verb like etorri "come" there's no need to tell "who's coming whom", so no -k is ever added. "The boy came" is 'mutila etorri da'.

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

Accusative Language

Sentence:	Kodomo ga tsuita. is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities			Otoko ga kodomo o mita.
Words:	kodomo ga	tsuita		otoko ga	kodomo o	mita
Gloss:	child NOM	arrived		man NOM	child ACC	saw
Function:	S	VERBintrans		A	O	VERBtrans
Translation:	'The child arrived. '			'The man saw the child. '

In this language, in the sentence "man saw child", the one doing the seeing (man) may be marked with ga, which works like Basque "-k" (and the one who is seen may be marked with o). However, in the sentences like the child arrived, where there's no need of telling "who arrived whom", there may be a ga. This is unlike Basque, where "-k" is completely forbidden in such sentences.

See also

• Milewski's typology
• Differential object marking

External links

• WALS Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases
• Dave's Language Creation Notebook: Ergativity
• Case Marking and Ergativity - an article on Jiwarli with a clear explanation of nominative-accusative, ergative-absolutive and tripartite systems

References

Bibliography

• Anderson, Stephen. (1976). On the notion of subject in ergative languages. In C. Li. (Ed. ), Subject and topic (pp. 1-24). New York: Academic Press.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Dixon, R. M. W. (1994). Ergativity. Cambridge University Press.
• Foley, William; & Van Valin, Robert. (1984). Functional syntax and universal grammar. Cambridge University Press.
• Kroeger, Paul. (1993). Phrase structure and grammatical relations in Tagalog. Stanford: CSLI.
• 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.
• Patri, Sylvain (2007), L'alignement syntaxique dans les langues indo-européennes d'Anatolie, (StBoT 49), Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, ISBN 978-3-447-05612-0
• Plank, Frans. Studien zu den Bogazkoy -Texten (abbreviated StBoT) edited by the German Akademie der Wissenschaften und Literatur, Mainz, since 1965 (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.