Ergative case

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The ergative case is the grammatical case that identifies the subject of a transitive verb in ergative-absolutive languages.

In such languages, the ergative case is typically marked (most salient), while the absolutive case is unmarked. New work in case theory has vigorously supported the idea that the ergative case identifies the agent (the intentful performer of an action) of a verb (Woolford 2004).

In Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) for example the ergative case is used to mark subjects of transitive verbs and possessors of nouns.

Other languages that use the ergative case are Georgian, Chechen, and other Caucasian languages, Mayan languages, Mixe-Zoque languages, Wagiman and other Australian Aboriginal languages as well as Basque and Burushaski.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Woolford, Ellen. Lexical Case, Inherent Case, and Argument Structure. August 2004.
Bomfoco, Marco. "What is Ergativity?." EzineArticles 22 July 2006. 27 August 2006.

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Grammatical cases

Declension • List of cases • Morphosyntactic alignment

Cases

Basic	Absolutive • Accusative • Direct • Ergative • Intransitive • Nominative • Oblique

Adpositional	Ablative • Antessive • Dative • Distributive (–temporal) • Essive (–formal, –modal) • Formal • Genitive • Instructive • Instrumental (–comitative) • Possessive • Postpositional • Prepositional • Prolative • Prosecutive • Proximative • Sociative • Temporal • Vialis

Locative	Ablative • Adessive • Allative • Apudessive • Associative • Comitative • Delative • Elative • Exessive • Illative • Inelative • Inessive • Lative • Locative • Perlative • Subessive • Sublative • Superessive • Superlative • Terminative • Translative

Comparative	Comparative • Equative

Evaluative	Aversive • Benefactive • Evitative

Other	Abessive • Addirective • Adelative • Adverbial • Caritive • Causal (–final) • Final • Modal • Multiplicative • Partitive • Pegative • Privative • Postelative • Postdirective • Postessive • Separative • Subdirective • Suppressive • Vocative

Fictional	Dedative