English
ergativity
Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /ɜː(ɹ)ɡəˈtɪv.ɪ.ti/
Noun

ergativity (uncountable)

  1. (linguistics) The property of a grammar's (or, by extension, a language's) being ergative; the attribute of possessing a grammatical pattern such that the object of a transitive verb is treated the same way as the subject of an intransitive one, while the subject of the transitive verb is treated differently.
    Ergativity entails that the grammar give treatment to the subject (A) of a transitive verb that is differentiated from the treatment given to the object (O) of such a verb and the subject (S) of an intransitive verb, which are treated similarly to each other. Such differential treatment may take the form of a special case marker (such as an affix or a particle) used with A but not with O or S, or of a specific agreement pattern (for example, the verb may agree in person and number with A, but not with O and S).
    • 1991, Ronald W. Langacker, Foundations of Cognitive Grammar: Descriptive Application, Volume 2, Stanford University Press, page 386 ↗,
      We can speak of ergative/absolutive organization whenever intransitive subjects pattern with transitive objects (to the exclusion of transitive subjects). So defined, ergativity is independent of case marking and has many linguistic manifestations, some being observable in any given language. At the same time, ergativity competes with accusativity even in languages where it represents the predominant pattern.
    • 1994, Robert M. W. Dixon, Ergativity, Cambridge University Press, page 1 ↗,
      Ergativity is thus complementary to the familiar grammatical pattern of accusativity, in which one case (nominative) marks both intransitive and transitive subject, with another case (accusative) being employed for transitive object.
    • 2000, Javier Rivas, Ergativity and Transitive Gradients in the Accusative and Infinitive Construction, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Imprenta Universitaría, page 153 ↗,
      Apart from the types of split ergativity-accusativity dealt with in the previous section, there are languages which show degrees of ergativity in their morphology and also —although less frequently— in their syntax, […] . Actually, Dixon (1994: 172) claims that syntactic ergativity is much stranger cross-linguistically than some degree of morphological ergativity. […] There are many languages in the world which show some degree of ergativity.
Translations

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