nounsabsolvo

Nounsabsolvo is a neologism used in linguistic theory and in some constructed language communities to designate a proposed subclass of nouns that participate in absolutive constructions within ergative–absolutive alignment systems. The term fuses “noun” with the Latin-derived absolutive, signaling its association with absolutive case marking. It is not widely standardized and appears mainly in theoretical discussions and language-design exercises rather than in conventional grammars.

Although the designations vary, most analyses describe nounsabsolvo as nouns that exhibit a stable relationship to the absolutive argument across both transitive and intransitive clauses. In languages with a split or full ergativity, nouns labeled as nounsabsolvo are claimed to form syntactic units that align with the absolutive role irrespective of agentive or patientive semantics. Proponents argue this helps account for cross-linguistic patterns in case marking, noun phrase order, and agreement in certain polysynthetic or highly synthetic languages. Critics warn that the category risks reifying a lexical class based on morphosyntactic behavior that can be better explained by existing constructs such as noun incorporation, possessor marking, or case-marking on nouns themselves.

Usage and debate: In conlang design exercises, nounsabsolvo often appear with a dedicated absolutive marker on the noun, or with consistent triggering of absolutive agreement on verbs. In natural-language data, the validity of the category is debated, with some scholars arguing it obscures more fundamental typological parameters and others using it as a useful heuristic for modeling complex case systems.

See also: absolutive, ergative language, case marking, noun incorporation. Notes: The term remains niche and is not universally adopted.