ergative-absolutive
Case-marking system type
Ergative-absolutive describes a grammatical system where the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb are marked the same way, while the agent of a transitive verb is marked differently.
This contrasts with English's nominative-accusative pattern.
In an ergative-absolutive language, "she" in she sleeps would take the same form as "her" in he sees her, while "he" in that sentence would take a special ergative form.
Basque, many Australian Aboriginal languages, and some Caucasian languages work this way.
Correct relative positioning
- transitivityRelation that chains through
- agentOne who acts independently
- patientAble to wait calmly
- subjectMatter under discussion
Pyrenees ethnic group
- GeorgianOf four kings' era
- MayanOf ancient Mesoamerican civilization
- TibetanOf a Himalayan region
- InuitArctic indigenous people
Sumerian · Hindi · Samoan · Polynesian · cross-linguistic · Dixon · typology · agglutinative
- diachronicConcerning change over time
- agreeHold the same view
- minimalismAesthetic of reduction
alignment
Correct relative positioning
- transitivityRelation that chains through
- agentOne who acts independently
- patientAble to wait calmly
subject · object · syntax · typology · morphology · passive · valency
Basque
Pyrenees ethnic group
Inuit · Sumerian · Hindi · Samoan · Polynesian · cross-linguistic · Dixon · typology · agglutinative · tripartite
Chomsky
- diachronicConcerning change over time
- agreeHold the same view
- minimalismAesthetic of reduction
- grammatical alignmentsyntactic alignment, tripartite, DOM, DSM
- grammardeclension, pronouns, adjectives, conjugation, nouns