Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg i. Br.
English Department
HS "The Syntax and Semantics of the English Verb Phrase"
Winter Term 2007/2008

Ergativity and Causativity

Regina Männle
Deutsch (HF) / Englisch (HF)
Staatsexamen und Magister
5. Fachsemester

I. Ergativity

I.1 Introduction

The term `ergativity′ is used to describe a grammatical pattern in which there is a formal parallel between the object of a transitive clause and the subject of an intransitive clause. The subject of the transitive clause, however, is treated differently. Dixon, in his standard survey of ergativity, uses the following symbols for these three elements: S = intransitive subject, A = transitive subject, and O = transitive object (1994 : 6)1.

(1) The master comes

         S

(2) The master hears the slave

         A                        O

Initially, the term `ergativity′ was only associated with case marking on constituents of a noun phrase. Manning summarises this as folllows: "The more patient-like argument of a transitive verb appears in the same absolutive case2 as the single argument of an intransitive verb, while the more agent-like argument of a transitive verb is marked differently, in what is known as the ergative case" (1996 : 3). Thus, ergativity is the counterpiece to accusativity, where one case is employed for the intransitive (S) and the transitive subject (A) (nominative) and another case marks the transitive object (O) (accusative).

The term `ergativity′ derives from the Greek words ergon `work, deed′ and ergáts `doer (of an action)′ (Bussmann 1996 : 151) and thus relates to the active ­ the "more agent-like" ­ member of the pair involved in a transitive structure. Dixon states that the first use of this term was in 1912 in a study on the Dagestanian language Rutul (1994 : 3).3

I.2 Absolutive-ergative system vs. other systems

From the point of view of nominative-accusative languages such as English or German the absolutive-ergative system is often treated as an exception. Indeed, in Europe there are only two languages (or language families) that show ergativity: Basque, which is fully ergative at the morphological level, and North-east, North-west, and South Caucasian. In Africa, as well, ergative languages are very rare. However, according to Comrie and

^{1 Comrie also uses the symbols S and A, but chooses P for the transitive object because he thinks that "A and P are reminscient of the semantic terms agent and patient" (Comrie 1981 : 333).
2 Dixon points out that the case marking S and O was originally called `nominative′, but is nowadays referred to as `absolutive′ (1994 : 1).
3 According to the OED, however, Lyons (1968) was the first to use this term, whereas Marouzeau (1943) introduced the corresponding adjective, i.e. `ergative′.}