ergative-absolutive language
- noun
- /ˈɜrɡətɪv ˌæb.səˈluː.tɪv ˈlæŋɡwɪdʒ/
- Specialized
- In an ergative-absolutive language, the object and intransitive subject share the same grammatical marking.
Examples
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Basque is an example of an ergative-absolutive language.
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Many indigenous languages of Australia display patterns consistent with an ergative-absolutive language.
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Basque is a well-known example of an ergative-absolutive language studied by linguists.
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Many linguists study ergative-absolutive languages to understand their structure.
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Basque is a well-known example of an ergative-absolutive language studied by linguists.
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In an ergative-absolutive language, the object and intransitive subject share the same grammatical marking.
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Many indigenous languages of Australia display patterns consistent with an ergative-absolutive language.
Synonyms
A language that marks the doer of a verb without an object like the receiver in verbs with objects
Surface Forms
Morphology
ergative-absolutive + language
The phrase follows a transparent compositional pattern (modifier + 'language') so knowing the modifier would signal that this names a type of language. However, 'ergative-absolutive' is a technical, specialized label whose meaning is not predictable from everyday vocabulary and is not decomposed here, so a B1 learner would likely need prior exposure or specialist knowledge rather than being able to infer the full meaning.
Etymology
The term ergative-absolutive language comes from a simple picture: imagine people in a sentence wearing labels — the ergative label marks the 'doer' who acts on someone, while the absolutive label marks the 'object' that is acted on and also the 'subject' of verbs like 'sleep' that have no object. So, the name tells us that in these languages the object and the lone subject are treated the same, while the subject who does something to someone else is marked differently.
