en

ergative language

1

Terminological databases

EKI terminibaas Esterm

ID 736952 Last modified 02.06.2017
View dataset
View dataset
Domain Linguistics - Language & Literature
  • keel, mille transitiivse lause agent on markeeritud (nt ergatiiviga), patsient aga markeerimata käändes (absolutiivis) ning intransitiivse lause ainus osaleja on markeerimata käändes
  • a language in which the single argument ("subject") of an intransitive verb behaves like the object of a transitive verb, and differently from the agent ("subject") of a transitive verb
Good to know
  • nt baski keel
  • For instance, instead of saying "I moved her" and "she moved", speakers of an ergative language would say the equivalent of "I moved her" and "her moved".
ergatiiv-absolutiivne keel
ergatiivne keel
ergative-absolutive language
Usage examples
  • Ergative case is the case of nouns in ergative-absolutive languages that would generally be the subjects of transitive verbs in the translation equivalents of nominative-accusative languages such as English.
ergative language
Usage examples
  • An ergative language maintains a syntactic or morphological equivalence (such as the same word order or grammatical case) for the object of a transitive verb and the single core argument of an intransitive verb, while treating the agent of a transitive verb differently. This contrasts with nominative–accusative languages such as English, where the single argument of an intransitive verb and the agent of a transitive verb (both called the subject) are treated alike and kept distinct from the object of a transitive verb.

Word forms not available

Etymology not available

Related words not available

Search the same word

in the EU's IATE term base

Web examples

Online Language Learning Tool SkELL allows users to search for phrases in sentences, collocates and similar words. These examples have been automatically selected and may contain errors.