Ergativeabsolutive
Ergative-absolutive is a type of grammatical alignment found in some languages. In such systems, the core argument of a transitive clause (the agent) is marked differently from the core arguments of intransitive clauses and the object of a transitive clause. The agent receives the ergative marking, while the absolutive serves for the subject of an intransitive clause and the object of a transitive clause.
This contrasts with nominative-accusative alignment where the subject of both intransitive and transitive clauses shares a
In practice, ergativity is usually expressed through noun case marking, pronoun inflection, or verbal agreement. Many
Split ergativity is common; in some languages ergativity appears in perfective aspects while non-perfective forms use
Representative languages include Basque (a European language isolate) with clear ergative alignment; Georgian (Kartvelian) in the
The study of ergativity informs theories of syntax, case marking, and language change, and shows that human