Ergative

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: en, /ˈɜːɡətɪv/
• GA enPR: ûr'gÉ™tÄ­v, IPA: en, /ˈɝɡətɪv/, /-ɾɪv/
• Hyphenation: en + er + gat + ive

Origin

From + English language -ive.

OED Online|pos=adj|id=63978|date=March 2019|nodot=1; Lexico|pos=adj

Ἐργᾰ́της is derived from ἔργον (ultimately from ) + -της.

Full definition of ergative

Adjective

1. (grammar) With the subjects of transitive constructions having grammatical cases or thematic relations different from those of from intransitive constructions.
   The case systems of ergative languages are counterintuitive to speakers of Indo-European languages.
• 1972, Robert Malcolm Ward Dixon, The Dyirbal Language of North Queensland Chapter Australian Languages, The most common situation is for nouns to inflect according to a nominative-ergative pattern, while pronouns at least superficially follow a nominative-accusative pattern. That is, nouns have a single case (nominative) marking intransitive subject and transitive object functions, and another case (ergative) for transitive subject function.
• 1986, William Auguste Foley, The Papuan Languages of New Guinea Chapter Nominals, For Podopa, the actor of most transitive verbs (and of some intransitive verbs as well) may occur with or without the ergative case suffix, but with a semantic difference. The ergative suffix indicates that the actor is acting independently, is self-motivated, and exerts his personal control over the situation; while its lack indicates that the actor is performing according to his set social obligations, not according to his own independent will, and does not assert his personal control over the situation.
• 1987, George van Driem, A Grammar of Limbu Chapter Nominal Morphology, The ergative case marks the agent of a transitive verb. The ergative suffix is -le/-re/-lle/-Ê”ille. The form of the ergative suffix is /-le/ for the indefinite and /-Ê”ille/ for the definite after the consonants /Ê”/, /k/, /t/, /p/, /b/, /Å‹/, /n/ and /m/.
• 2000, Hans Bennis, Lexical Specification and Insertion Chapter Adjectives and Argument Structure, In Section 1 I will discuss the existence of a class of ergative adjectives in Dutch. It will be demonstrated that there are a number of arguments supporting the claim that the class of adjectives should be divided into ergative and unergative adjectives. A large number of adjectives that are unergative according to the tests provided in Section 2 appear to be ergative with respect to their argument structure.
• 2008, Geoffrey Khan, HdO: The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Barwar Chapter Introduction, Another difference between C. Barwar and Kurdish is the fact that in C. Barwar the compound perfect construction is not ergative. ... In Kurdish, on the other hand, the corresponding compound construction, which appears to have been the model for the NENA Neo-Aramaic construction, is ergative in form when the verb is transitive. The loss of the ergative inflection in C. Barwar and most other NENA dialects is again a development internal to NENA. The original ergative type of construction has survived only in a few Jewish dialects on the eastern periphery.

Derived terms

Noun

• 2006, Miriam Butt, Theories of Case Chapter The Ergative Dragon, Samoan, for example, differs from the usual pattern displayed by split ergative languages in that the appearance of the ergative is grounded in sociolinguistic factors as well as syntactic ones. The more formal register of Samoan requires the ergative on all postverbal transitive subjects. The less formal register allows the ergative not to be expressed at all.
1. An ergative verb or other expression.
• 1971, John Mathieson Anderson, The Grammar of Case: Towards a Localistic Theory Chapter Locative, Unlike those with subjectivized ergatives, such locative clauses naturally do not allow for imperatives (*Contain the apples).
• 1987, Edward L. Keenan, Universal Grammar: 15 Essays Chapter Noun Phrase Accessibility and Universal Grammar, Woodbury (1975) does argue, however, that absolutives are more relativisable in Greenlandic than are ergatives, on the grounds that (1) RCs Clauses formed on ergatives are somewhat more restricted in the distribution in matrix clauses (p. 21) than are those formed on absolutives, and (2) for certain verb classes ergatives cannot be relativised out of the active participle (p. 27).
• 1994, Virginia Yip, Perspectives on Pedagogical Grammar Chapter Grammatical Consciousness-raising and Learnability, Ergatives share close similarities with agentless passives: Both are intransitive, both lack an agent, while the patient appears in the subject position. As the acquisition data show, learners seem to treat ergatives like passives.
• 2012, Michael A. Daniel, Argument Structure and Grammatical Relations: A Crosslinguistic Typology Chapter Causatives in Agul, Combining two ergatives in one clause is not always ungrammatical in Agul; but one of the ergatives must be used in a non-agentive function, e.g. instrumental or temporal.

Further reading

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