Ergative–absolutive alignment

Example comparing Latin and Dyirbal

Latin and Dyirbal are both languages which use case markings. Latin, however, has a nominative–accusative system, while Dyirbal has an ergative–absolutive one.

Latin Example

Because nominative–accusative systems align the subject of an intransitive verb with the subject of a transitive verb, the subjects in Latin are marked with the nominative case marker "-us" for both transitive and intransitive verbs. Similarly, the object is always marked with the accusative marker "-um".

Dyirbal Example

Dyirbal in contrast, uses an ergative–absolutive system. In Dyirbal, a noun has no affixes when it is the sole subject of an intransitive verb as well as when it is the object of a transitive verb. Only transitive subjects have a case marking "-ŋgu". The fact that the case marking for the subject of an intransitive verb differs from the marking on subjects of a transitive verb is the key difference of ergative–absolutive languages.

With an intransitive verb, the subject does not get an affix in Dyirbal. While with a transitive verb, it is the object that does not get an affix.

Realization of ergativity

Ergativity can be found in both morphological and syntactic behavior. All known ergative languages show ergativity in their morphology, and a small portion also show ergativity in their syntax.

Morphological ergativity

If the language has morphological case, then the verb arguments are marked thus:

• The agent of a transitive verb (A) is marked as ergative case, or as a similar case such as oblique.
• The core argument of an intransitive verb (S) and the object of a transitive verb (O) are both marked with absolutive case.

If there is no case marking, ergativity can be marked through other means, such as in verbal morphology. For instance, Abkhaz and most Mayan languages have no morphological ergative case, but they have a verbal agreement structure that is ergative. In languages with ergative–absolutive agreement systems, the absolutive form is usually the most unmarked form of a word (exceptions include Nias and Tlapanec).

Basque

The following examples from Basque demonstrate an ergative–absolutive case marking system:

Here -Ø represents a zero morpheme, as the absolutive case is unmarked in Basque with proper nouns (i.e., Martin, Diego, Berlin...). The forms for the ergative are -k after a vowel, and -ek after a consonant. It is a further rule in Basque grammar that in most cases a noun phrase must be closed by a determiner. The default determiner (commonly called the article, which is suffixed to common nouns and usually translatable by "the" in English) is -a in the singular and -ak in the plural, the plural being marked only on the determiner and never the noun. For common nouns, this default determiner is fused with the ergative case marker. Thus one obtains the following forms for gizon ("man"): gizon-a (man-the.sing.abs), gizon-ak (man-the.pl.abs), gizon-ak (man-the.sing.erg), gizon-ek (man-the.pl.erg). When fused with the article, the absolutive plural is homophonous with the ergative singular. See Basque grammar for details.

Circassian

The following example shows an ergative–absolutive case marking system while using the same verb "break" in both intransitive and transitive forms:

Here, "table" has the absolutive case mark -р /-r/ while "man" has the ergative case mark -м /-m/. The verb "break" is in the intransitive form "мэкъутэ" and the transitive form "екъутэ". The example above specifically shows SOV order, but Circassian allows any order.

Georgian

Georgian has an ergative alignment, but the agent is only marked with the ergative case in the perfective aspect (also known as the "aorist screeve"). Thus exhibiting a form of split ergativity. Compare:

K'aci vašls č'ams. (კაცი ვაშლს ჭამს) "The man is eating an apple."

K'acma vašli č'ama. (კაცმა ვაშლი ჭამა) "The man ate an apple."

K'ac- is the root of the word "man". In the first sentence (present continuous tense) the agent is in the nominative case (k'aci ). In the second sentence, which shows ergative alignment, the root is marked with the ergative suffix -ma.

However, there are some intransitive verbs in Georgian that behave like transitive verbs, and therefore employ the ergative case in the past tense. Consider:

K'acma daacemina. (კაცმა დააცემინა) "The man sneezed."

Although the verb "sneeze" is clearly intransitive, it is conjugated like a transitive verb. In Georgian there are a few verbs like these, and there has not been a clear-cut explanation as to why these verbs have evolved this way. One explanation is that verbs such as "sneeze" used to have a direct object (the object being "nose" in the case of "sneeze") and over time lost these objects, yet kept their transitive behavior.

Differing noun-pronoun alignment

In rare cases, such as the Australian Aboriginal language Nhanda, different nominal elements may follow a different case-alignment template. In Nhanda, common nouns have ergative–absolutive alignment—like in most Australian languages—but most pronouns instead follow a nominative–accusative template. In Nhanda, the absolutive case has a null suffix while ergative case is marked with some allomorph of the suffixes -nggu or -lu. See the common noun paradigm at play below:

Intransitive Subject (ABS)

pundu

rain.ABS

yatka-yu

go-ABL.NFUT

Rain is coming.

Transitive Subject-Object (ERG-ABS)

nyarlu-nggu

woman-ERG

yawarda

kangaroo.ABS

nha-'i

see-PAST

The woman saw the kangaroo

Compare the above examples with the case marking of pronouns in Nhanda below, wherein all subjects (regardless of verb transitivity) are marked (in this case with a null suffix) the same for case while transitive objects take the accusative suffix -nha.

Intransitive Pronoun Subject (NOM)

wandha-ra-nyja

Where-3.OBL-2SG.NOM

yatka-ndha?

go-NPAST

Where are you going?

Transitive Pronoun Subject-Object (NOM-ACC)

nyini

2.NOM

nha-'i

see-PST

ngayi-nha

1-ACC

You saw me

Syntactic ergativity

Ergativity may be manifested through syntax in addition to morphology. While all known ergative languages show ergativity in their morphology, only a small portion also show ergativity in their syntax. As with morphology, syntactic ergativity can be placed on a continuum, whereby certain syntactic operations may pattern accusatively and others ergatively. The degree of syntactic ergativity is then dependent on the number of syntactic operations that treat the subject like the object. Syntactic ergativity is also referred to as inter-clausal ergativity, as it typically appears in the relation of two clauses.

Syntactic ergativity may appear in:

• Word order (for example, the absolutive argument comes before the verb and the ergative argument comes after it)
• Syntactic pivots
• Relative clauses – determining which arguments are available for relativization
• Subordination
• Switch reference

Example

Example of syntactic ergativity in the "conjunction reduction" construction (coordinated clauses) in Dyirbal in contrast with English conjunction reduction. (The subscript (i) indicates coreference.)

English (SVO word order):

1. Father returned.
2. Father saw mother.
3. Mother saw father.
4. Father_(i) returned and father_(i) saw mother.
5. Father_(i) returned and _____(i) saw mother.
6. Father_(i) returned and mother saw father_(i).
7. * Father_(i) returned and mother saw _____(i). (ill-formed, because S and deleted O cannot be coreferential.)

Dyirbal (OSV word order):

1. Ŋuma banagan^yu. (Father returned.)
2. Yabu ŋumaŋgu buṛan. (lit. Mother father-ŋgu saw, i.e. Father saw mother.)
3. Ŋuma yabuŋgu buṛan. (lit. Father mother-ŋgu saw, i.e. Mother saw father.)
4. Ŋuma_(i) banagan^yu, yabu ŋumaŋgu_(i) buṛan. (lit. Father_(i) returned, mother father-ŋgu_(i) saw, i.e. Father returned, father saw mother.)
5. * Ŋuma_(i) banagan^yu, yabu _____(i) buṛan. (lit. *Father_(i) returned, mother _____(i) saw; ill-formed, because S and deleted A cannot be coreferential.)
6. Ŋuma_(i) banagan^yu, ŋuma_(i) yabuŋgu buṛan. (lit. Father_(i) returned, father_(i) mother-ŋgu saw, i.e. Father returned, mother saw father.)
7. Ŋuma_(i) banagan^yu, _____(i) yabuŋgu buṛan. (lit. Father_(i) returned, _____(i) mother-ŋgu saw, i.e. Father returned, mother saw father.)

Crucially, the fifth sentence has an S/A pivot and thus is ill-formed in Dyirbal (syntactically ergative); on the other hand, the seventh sentence has an S/O pivot and thus is ill-formed in English (syntactically accusative).

Split ergativity

Few ergative languages are purely ergative. Many ergative systems have parts of their grammar which do not maintain an ergative pattern, a phenomenon known as split ergativity. Some linguists have claimed that all ergative languages have split ergativity. The two main areas of grammar that often exhibit a split in ergativity are grammatical person and grammatical aspect. In both, cross-linguistic patterns have been observed which make the split of ergativity more predicable.

With grammatical person, a directional hierarchy has been observed cross-linguistically which constricts which grammatical persons may exhibit ergativity in the same language. In languages following this pattern of split ergativity, there will be a particular point on the hierarchy in which everything to the left will exhibit ergativity, and everything to the right will not. For example, Dyirbal has split ergativity on grammatical person and divides the hierarchy at the point of 1st/2nd person pronouns. 1st/2nd person pronouns use an accusative pattern, and everything to the left of it on the spectrum follows an ergative pattern.

The same principle has been observed with grammatical aspect. The directionality hierarchy is as follows:

In Hindustani

In Hindustani (Hindi and Urdu), the ergative case is marked on agents in the perfective aspect for transitive and ditransitive verbs (also for intransitive verbs when they are volitional), while in other situations agents appear in the nominative case.

laṛkā

boy:MASC.SG.NOM

kitāb

book:FEM.SG-NOM

xarīdtā

buy:HAB.MASC.SG

hai.

be:3P.SG.PRS

'The boy buys a book'

laṛke-ne

boy:MASC.SG.ERG

kitāb

book:FEM.SG-NOM

xarīdī

buy:PRF.FEM.SG

hai.

be:3P.SG.PRS

'The boy has bought a book'

laṛkā

boy:MASC.SG.NOM

khā̃sā.

cough:PRF.MASC.SG

'The boy coughed.'

laṛke-ne

boy:MASC.SG.ERG

khā̃sā.

cough:PRF.MASC.SG

'The boy coughed (intentionally).'

Optional ergativity

Many languages with ergative marking display what is known as optional ergativity, where the ergative marking is not always expressed in all situations. McGregor (2010) gives a range of contexts when we often see optional ergativity, and argues that the choice is often not truly optional but is affected by semantics and pragmatics. Unlike split ergativity, which occurs regularly but in limited locations, optional ergativity can occur in a range of environments, but may not be used in a way that appears regular or consistent.

Optional ergativity may be motivated by:

• The animacy of the subject, with more animate subjects more likely to be marked ergative
• The semantics of the verb, with more active or transitive verbs more likely to be marked ergative
• The grammatical structure or [tense-aspect-mood]

Languages from Australia, New Guinea and Tibet have been shown to have optional ergativity.

Distribution of ergative languages

A World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) sample of 190 languages found 32 (17%) of languages use an ergative alignment in the marking of noun phrases. Prototypical ergative languages are, for the most part, restricted to specific regions of the world: Mesopotamia (Kurdish, and some extinct languages), the Caucasus, the Americas, the Tibetan Plateau, and Australia and parts of New Guinea.

Specific languages and language families include:

Americas

• Chibchan languages
• Chinookan languages (extinct)
• Coosan languages (extinct)
• Eskimo–Aleut languages
• Guaicuruan languages
• Macro-Jê languages
• Mayan
• Mixe–Zoque
• Panoan languages
• Salish languages
• Tsimshian

Africa

• Tedaga, a Nilo-Saharan language of Southern Libya and Northern Chad.
• Majang language, a Nilo-Saharan language of Ethiopia.
• Päri, although recent studies imply a nominative-accusative system.

Asia

• Assamese
• Burushaski
• Chukchi (endangered)
• Hawu
• Tibetan
• Sylheti
• Yaghnobi
• Pashto

Australian

• Most Australian Aboriginal languages, such as Dyirbal

Certain Australian Aboriginal languages (e.g., Wangkumara) possess an intransitive case and an accusative case along with an ergative case, and lack an absolutive case; such languages are called tripartite languages or ergative–accusative languages.

Pacific

• Proto-Polynesian (disputed)
• Samoan
• Tongan

Papua

• Eastern Trans-Fly languages
• various Trans–New Guinea languages

Europe

• Basque

Caucasus and Near East

• Hurrian (extinct)
• Urartian (extinct)
• Sumerian (extinct)
• South Caucasian: Georgian, Laz
• Northeast Caucasian: Chechen, Lezgian, Tsez, Archi (endangered)
• Northwest Caucasian: Abkhaz, Circassian, Ubykh (extinct)
• Kurdish: Sorani and Kurmanji
• Gorani
• Zaza
• Proto-Indo-European (disputed)

Languages with limited ergativity

• In Hindi (Indo-Aryan), ergative alignment occurs only when the verb is in the perfective aspect for transitive verbs (also for intransitive verbs but only when they are volitional).
• In Pashto, ergative alignment occurs only in the past tense.
• In Georgian, ergativity only occurs in the perfective.
• The Philippine languages (e.g., Tagalog) are sometimes considered ergative (Schachter 1976, 1977; Kroeger 1993); however, they have also been considered to have their own unique morphosyntactic alignment. See symmetrical voice.
• In the Neo-Aramaic languages, which are generally classified into four groups, only Northeastern (NENA) and Ṭuroyo groups exhibit split ergativity, which is formed in the perfective aspect only, whereas the imperfective aspect is nominative–accusative. Some dialects would only mark unaccusative subjects as ergative. Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, in particular, has an ergative type of construction of the perfective past verbal base, where foregone actions are verbalized by a passive construction with the patient being conferred as the grammatical subject rather than by an active construction, e.g. baxta qtile ("the woman was killed by him"). The ergative type of inflection with an agentive phrase has been extended by analogy to intransitive verbs, e.g. qim-le ("he has risen"). Aramaic has historically been a nominative–accusative language.

Sign languages

Sign languages (for example, Nepali Sign Language) should also generally be considered ergative in the patterning of actant incorporation in verbs. In sign languages that have been studied, classifier handshapes are incorporated into verbs, indicating the subject of intransitive verbs when incorporated, and the object of transitive verbs. (If we follow the "semantic phonology" model proposed by William Stokoe (1991) this ergative–absolutive patterning also works at the level of the lexicon: thus in Nepali Sign Language the sign for TEA has the motion for the verb DRINK with a manual alphabet handshape च /ca/ (standing for the first letter of the Nepali word TEA चिया /chiya:/) being incorporated as the object.)

Approximations of ergativity in English

English has a number of so-called ergative verbs, for which the object of the verb when transitive is equivalent to the subject of the verb when intransitive.

When English nominalizes a clause, the underlying subject of an intransitive verb and the underlying object of a transitive verb are both marked with the possessive case or with the preposition "of". The underlying subject of a transitive is marked differently (typically with "by" as in a passive construction):

"(a dentist) extracts a tooth" → "the extraction of a tooth (by a dentist)"

"(I/The editor) revised the essay" → "(my/the editor's) revision of the essay"

"(I was surprised that) the water boiled" → "(I was surprised at) the boiling of the water"

"I departed on time (so I could catch the plane)" → "My timely departure (allowed me to catch the plane)"

Emergence of Ergativity

Many linguists have noted grammatical similarity between ergative patterns and passives in nominative-accusative systems. In both cases, transitive subjects are more grammatically marked than objects or intransitive subjects.

There is some evidence in Australian and Polynesian languages that their ergative patterns may have historically had a relationship to passives. Some linguists have argued that all ergative patterns originally emerged from passive constructions, while others argue that ergativity can emerge in multiple ways.

In 2003, psycholinguist Goldin-Meadow found that deaf children of hearing parents have a tendency to invent ergative grammars when creating their own gesture systems to communicate. English speaking adults have a similar tendency to improvise ergative structures when asked to communicate using only their hands, despite being accustomed to an accusative pattern in spoken English. She has suggested that these tendencies may be a result of a psychological bias towards ergativity. It is an open question why ergative grammatical structures are comparatively rare across the world's languages when it has been observed they are predictably improvised. Goldin-Meadow has suggested that while an ergative pattern is intuitive, other pressures on clarity, processibility, speed, ease, and expressiveness may drive most languages to develop a non-ergative structure.