Activative

Activative is a term used in linguistic typology to describe a grammatical category, often described as a type of voice or alignment, that marks the actor or initiator of an event. The precise definition and analysis of activative forms vary among researchers, but the core idea is that certain languages use a distinct morphological or syntactic marking to foreground agency, volition, or initiation in relation to a verb, especially in situations that are intransitive or where the perspective centers on the doer of the action.

In practice, activative marking may appear as a dedicated affix, stem modification, or case/argument marking that attaches to the subject or to the core of the predicate. It can interact with tense, aspect, and mood, and it may contrast with other voice or case systems within the same language, such as forms that highlight the patient or undergoer. Some analyses treat activative as a specialized subtype of voice, while others view it as a form of differential agent marking or a distinct cross-linguistic alignment mechanism.

Cross-linguistically, activative phenomena are relatively rare and widely debated in terms of terminology and theoretical status. Researchers differ on how best to categorize activative constructions—whether as a true voice system, a variant of ergativity, or a separate morphosyntactic strategy for encoding agency and initiativity. The study of activatives often involves examining how languages encode the actor’s role in events that may otherwise be described from a patient-centered or neutral perspective, and how these markers interact with other grammatical relations.

See also: voice, ergativity, causative, applicative.