Simple explanation of ergativity
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Ergative languages have the subject and direct object align in case, whereas nominative languages have the agent and subject align.
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 29 Jan 2020, 02:43.
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This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
Nominative alignment
Ergative alignment
In a nominative language like English, the subject (agent, "doer") of a transitive verb and the subject ("doer") of an intransitive verb share the same noun case, the nominative case. The object ("done-to") of a transitive verb is in the accusative case.
In the sentences "She walked the dog" and "She slept", the first sentence has a transitive verb walk [something], so the doer she is in the nominative and the object the dog is in the accusative. The second sentence has the intransitive verb sleep, and the doer she is in the nominative.
However in an ergative language, the subject (agent) of a transitive verb is in the ergative case, and the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb are both in the absolutive case. This can't be shown easily with English, so let's look at Old Miȝʋr.
The sentence "She walked the dog" is rendered as Ciret-ir zi caȝaeh. Here the pronoun zi is the third person singular ergative pronoun, while caȝaeh is rendered in the absolutive. The sentence "She slept" would be rendered as Riuy-ir ɬiug, with ɬiug being the third person singular absolutive, since riuy is an intransitive verb.
This can have some interesting effects on sentence structure, and how sentences are understood. In English we can combine the sentences "I came inside." and "I saw the dog." to say "I came inside and saw the dog." This is because the subject of the first sentence and the agent of the second sentence align.
So therefore we can take two sentences "The dog came inside." and "I saw the dog." in Old Miȝʋr and combine them to make a sentence that in effect reads "The dog came inside and I saw.", with the meaning being the exact same as the two sentences combined together, despite how it looks in English.
The dog came inside. ſasorÿl u caȝaeh.
I saw the dog. Toh-ir tlayet caȝaeh.
Since caȝaeh is in the same case in both sentences, when we combine them, we can omit the second occurrence.
ſasorÿl u caȝaeh ÿ toh-ir tlayet. ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
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