The Ergative Case?

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Ike Dexu
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The Ergative Case?

Post by Ike Dexu »

I've been wondering what the Ergative case is for quite a while, and nowhere I've looked seems to explain it well. Could anyone give me a simpler explanation of it, and how it is used?
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Micamo
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Re: The Ergative Case?

Post by Micamo »

Ike Dexu wrote:I've been wondering what the Ergative case is for quite a while, and nowhere I've looked seems to explain it well. Could anyone give me a simpler explanation of it, and how it is used?
Ergative case is one that is used to mark the agent and patient of transitive verbs, in contrast with the Absolutive which marks the subject of intransitive verbs.

Let's take 2 examples.

"I die." (Intransitive)
"I kill him." (Transitive)

If English was an ergative-absolutive language, then it might mark the cases in this way:

"I-absolutive die."
"I-ergative kill him-ergative."
My pronouns are <xe> [ziː] / <xym> [zɪm] / <xys> [zɪz]

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MrKrov
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Re: The Ergative Case?

Post by MrKrov »

Micamo wrote:Ergative case is one that is used to mark the agentand patient of transitive verbs, in contrast with the Absolutive which marks the subject of intransitive verbs and patients of transitive verbs.
If English was an ergative-absolutive language, then it might mark the cases in this way:

"I-absolutive die."
"I-ergative kill him-ergative."
Oh no no.

"I-abs die."
"I-erg kill him-abs."
Last edited by MrKrov on 18 Oct 2010 21:26, edited 1 time in total.
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Micamo
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Re: The Ergative Case?

Post by Micamo »

Really? A quick look at the Wiki article on Basque says you're right. I've misunderstood it myself this whole time then <.<
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Re: The Ergative Case?

Post by Ossicone »

Ossicone wrote:Examples in my mind allow for the deeper understanding, rather than a superficial knowledge. For example, I did not understand Ergative-Accusative languages until I saw an example and tried using it. However, I had read plenty of explanations and could recite them back to you.
O_o
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Micamo
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Re: The Ergative Case?

Post by Micamo »

I understood it (at least, how morphosyntactic alignment works), and had made several conlang attempts "using" it. I just thought it was A=O rather than S=O alignment.

But yeah yeah, gloat all you want.
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Re: The Ergative Case?

Post by Ossicone »

Micamo wrote:I understood it, and had made several conlang attempts "using" it. I just thought it was A=O rather than S=O alignment.
All I did was watch a Basque tv sketch show.

But more importantly, for the orignal poster, I recommend looking at Basque (an/or some other Erg-Acc). Eventually, it'll dawn on you.
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Re: The Ergative Case?

Post by Ike Dexu »

I kind of get it. xD

Thanks.
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Micamo
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Re: The Ergative Case?

Post by Micamo »

Ossicone wrote:All I did was watch a Basque tv sketch show.
I remember when I tried to teach myself Japanese this way. After 3 weeks of near-continuous watching of Japanese television (thanks to internet streams) I still didn't understand a single word.
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MrKrov
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Re: The Ergative Case?

Post by MrKrov »

Did it at least have subtitles?
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Re: The Ergative Case?

Post by Micamo »

MrKrov wrote:Did it at least have subtitles?
Mostly, yes. I'm just terrible at languages period.
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