Deconstructing Ergativity: Two Types of Ergative Languages and Their Features

by Maria Polinsky

Book Overview

Nominative-accusative and ergative are two common alignment types found across languages. In the former type, the subject of an intransitive verb and the subject of a transitive verb are expressed the same way, and differently from the object of a transitive. In ergative languages, the subject of an intransitive and the object of a transitive appear in the same form, the absolutive, and the transitive subject has a special, ergative, form. Ergative...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0190256591
• ISBN13: 9780190256593
• Release Date: May 2016
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 410 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.2"