accusative and ergative languages

[Larry Trask]

On Sat, 10 Jul 1999 PIE at AN3039.spb.edu wrote:

[LT]

>> But Dixon also cites examples of ergative constructions which, in his
>> view, have very clearly *not* developed from passives, but from other
>> constructions.  His examples are Hittite and Pari.

> Pardon my ignorance, but i wonder what Hittite constructions can be
> claimed as ergative? Could you clarify Dixon's opinion?

> Does he mean the tendency to avoid using inanimates as 1st actants of
> two-argument predicate and to transform them to animates in -nt-, like
>
>     eshanants inan karapzi,
>     witenants eshar parkunut,    etc?

Dixon appears to be relying entirely on the views of Garrett, as
presented in this article:

A. Garrett (1990), `The origin of NP split ergativity', Language 66:
261-296.

It would appear that Garrett argues for an instrumental origin for the
Hittite construction he (she?) interprets as an ergative.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk