accusative and ergative languages

[Larry Trask]

On Mon, 19 Jul 1999, Patrick C. Ryan wrote:

> Still no word on the scene of the great "shredding" which was
> *claimed* by Larry.

I suggest you read my article in the following forthcoming book:

K. Davidse (ed.), Case and Grammatical Relations Across Languages, vol.
5: Nominative and Accusative, Amsterdam: John Benjamins

The book should be out within a few months, but I don't have a date yet.

> And what are subject properties that an absolutive NP never displays?

As I've already explained: in Basque, and reportedly in many other
ergative languages, the absolutive NP in a transitive sentence --
entirely *unlike* the absolutive NP in an intransitive sentence --
cannot control empty NPs, cannot itself be an empty NP, cannot control
reflexive or reciprocal pronouns, can itself be a reflexive or
reciprocal pronoun, cannot be coordinated with an intransitive subject,
and (in varieties with genitivization only) can be genitivized in
suitable circumstances.

In Basque, there is *no* syntactic property shared by absolutive NPs in
transitive sentences and absolutive NPs in intransitive sentences, apart
from those that are shared also by ergative NPs and sometimes also by
dative NPs.  The only properties peculiar to all absolutive NPs and
shared by nothing else are purely morphological ones: case-marking and
verbal agreement.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk