Ergativity
- LAST REVIEWED: 19 September 2022
- LAST MODIFIED: 15 January 2019
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199772810-0132
- LAST REVIEWED: 19 September 2022
- LAST MODIFIED: 15 January 2019
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199772810-0132
Introduction
Ergativity refers to a system of marking grammatical relations in which intransitive subjects pattern together with transitive objects (“absolutive”), and differently from transitive subjects (“ergatives”). This ergative alignment pattern may be manifest, for example, in terms of morphological case marking on nominals, or patterns of agreement on the predicate. This contrasts with the more commonly discussed nominative-accusative–type alignment, in which both transitive and intransitive subjects pattern alike (“nominative”), and differently from transitive objects (“accusative”). This article uses the common abbreviations “A” for transitive subject, or most agent-like nominal; “P” for transitive object, or most patient-like nominal; and “S” for the single argument of an intransitive. While counts vary, some surveys estimate that ergativity occurs as a major alignment type in approximately one-quarter of the world’s languages (see General Overviews). However, as many authors have noted, it often does not make sense to speak in terms of ergative languages but instead in terms of ergative patterns or constructions. This is because ergative languages are frequently “split”: they show ergative in some portion of the grammar but nominative-accusative patterning in another (see Split Ergativity). Even canonically nominative-accusative languages may show ergativity in some constructions, such as nominalizations. Work on ergativity has increased steadily over the years as more research has been conducted on ergative languages, many of which are underdocumented. Important questions arise as to the notion of “subject” in an ergative system, since transitive subjects are treated differently from intransitive subjects, at least at a morphological level. Some morphologically ergative languages also display patterns of Syntactic Ergativity, in which some syntactic operations, for example A-bar extraction, is sensitive to the distinction between ergative and absolutive arguments. Other morphologically ergative languages appear to make no syntactic division between A versus S/P arguments, raising further questions about degrees of ergativity. Other research focuses on the existence of a single “ergativity parameter”; as more languages are investigated, many researchers have converged on the idea that “ergativity” is not a single unitary phenomenon with one underlying source but may instead be better characterized as a pattern arising by various mechanisms.
General Overviews
The sources in this section provide important overviews on a range of characteristics of ergative patterns. Topics surveyed include description and distribution of alignment patterns; morphological versus syntactic ergativity; case marking and verb agreement; split ergativity; connection to passives and historical development; and nominalization. Comrie 1978 and Dixon 1979 are two of the most frequently cited articles on ergativity. Both present overviews of the phenomena under investigation and survey data from a range of languages. Dixon 1994 is an expansion of Dixon 1979, bringing in additional data and generalizations. Moravcsik 1978 examines cross-linguistic distribution of ergative and nonergative patterns within languages, while Nichols 1993 looks at the geographical distribution of different alignment types in the world’s languages. McGregor 2009 provides a survey focusing on case marking patterns on nominals. While these articles avoid any specific theoretical framework, discussion of the semantic or functional basis of ergativity is present in many. The two articles in The world atlas of language structures online (WALS), Siewierska 2011 and Comrie 2011, provide basic cross-linguistic overviews. More recently, the overview article Deal 2015 discusses different “ways” of being ergative, along with some possible universals connecting to ergativity and an overview of recent types of analysis.
Comrie, Bernard. 1978. Ergativity. In Syntactic typology: Studies in the phenomenology of language. Edited by Winfred P. Lehmann, 329–394. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.
Important and frequently cited early article which provides one of the first general overviews of the phenomenon of ergativity. Examples from a number of different language families are provided.
Comrie, Bernard. 2011. Alignment of case marking of full noun phrases. In The world atlas of language structures online. Edited by Matthew S. Dryer and Martin Haspelmath. Munich: Max Planck Digital Library.
Chapters 98 and 99 offer an overview of morphological case patterns in nominals; includes discussion of ergative alignment.
Deal, Amy Rose. 2015. Ergativity. In Syntax—theory and analysis: An international handbook. Vol. 1. Edited by Artemis Alexiadou and Tibor Kiss, 654–707. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
A recent survey of topics and analyses in ergativity, with a useful breakdown of distinct but often-conflated “ways of being ergative,” including the ergative property (subjects of transitives behave differently), the absolutive property (objects of transitives behave like subjects of intransitives), and the argument-structural property (unaccustive subjects behave differently from unergative and transitive subjects).
Dixon, Robert M. W. 1979. Ergativity. Language 55:59–138.
DOI: 10.2307/412519
A canonical and frequently cited work on ergativity. Provides a data-rich and detailed survey of a wide range of topics in ergativity and presents a number of generalizations and trends found within ergative systems (see also Universals). Available online.
Dixon, Robert M. W. 1994. Ergativity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
An important book developed from the Dixon 1979 article, providing additional updates and details. Discusses historical, semantic, and discourse-based motivations for ergativity and problems posed for theoretical work on ergativity.
McGregor, William B. 2009. Typology of ergativity. Language and Linguistics Compass 3:480–508.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-818X.2008.00118.x
Survey article with a special focus on patterns of morphological case marking on nominals. In addition to overview of basic topics, also discusses historical source of ergative case markers. Available online by subscription.
Moravcsik, Edith A. 1978. On the distribution of ergative and accusative patterns. Lingua 45:233–279.
DOI: 10.1016/0024-3841(78)90026-8
Surveys a number of languages and offers generalizations about the distribution of ergative and nominative patterns (see also Split Ergativity). Claims that no ergative system is ergative through-and-through. Available online by subscription.
Nichols, Johanna. 1993. Ergativity and linguistic geography. Australian Journal of Linguistics 13:39–89.
DOI: 10.1080/07268609308599489
Article examining the geographic distribution of ergativity, noting the uneven representation of certain alignment types in certain regions (see Languages by Region). Notes a close connection between ergative and active-stative alignments, which is proposed to be a transitional stage between ergative and nominative-accusative systems. Available online by subscription.
Siewierska, Anna. 2011. Alignment of verbal person marking. In The world atlas of language structures online. Edited by Matthew S. Dryer and Martin Haspelmath. Munich: Max Planck Digital Library.
Chapter 100 offers an overview of alignment type in terms of agreement on the predicate; includes discussion of ergative alignment.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Acceptability Judgments
- Accessibility Theory in Linguistics
- Acquisition, Second Language, and Bilingualism, Psycholin...
- Adjectives
- Adpositions
- Affixation
- African Linguistics
- Afroasiatic Languages
- Agreement
- Algonquian Linguistics
- Altaic Languages
- Ambiguity, Lexical
- Analogy in Language and Linguistics
- Anaphora
- Animal Communication
- Aphasia
- Applicatives
- Applied Linguistics, Critical
- Arawak Languages
- Argument Structure
- Artificial Languages
- Attention and Salience
- Australian Languages
- Austronesian Linguistics
- Auxiliaries
- Balkans, The Languages of the
- Baudouin de Courtenay, Jan
- Berber Languages and Linguistics
- Bilingualism and Multilingualism
- Biology of Language
- Blocking
- Borrowing, Structural
- Caddoan Languages
- Caucasian Languages
- Causatives
- Celtic Languages
- Celtic Mutations
- Chomsky, Noam
- Chumashan Languages
- Classifiers
- Clauses, Relative
- Clinical Linguistics
- Cognitive Linguistics
- Colonial Place Names
- Comparative Reconstruction in Linguistics
- Comparative-Historical Linguistics
- Complementation
- Complexity, Linguistic
- Compositionality
- Compounding
- Comprehension, Sentence
- Computational Linguistics
- Conditionals
- Conjunctions
- Connectionism
- Consonant Epenthesis
- Constructions, Verb-Particle
- Contrastive Analysis in Linguistics
- Conversation Analysis
- Conversation, Maxims of
- Conversational Implicature
- Cooperative Principle
- Coordination
- Copula
- Creoles
- Creoles, Grammatical Categories in
- Critical Periods
- Cross-Language Speech Perception and Production
- Cyberpragmatics
- Default Semantics
- Definiteness
- Dementia and Language
- Dene (Athabaskan) Languages
- Dené-Yeniseian Hypothesis, The
- Dependencies
- Dependencies, Long Distance
- Derivational Morphology
- Determiners
- Dialectology
- Dialogue
- Diglossia
- Disfluency
- Distinctive Features
- Dravidian Languages
- Ellipsis
- Endangered Languages
- English as a Lingua Franca
- English, Early Modern
- English, Old
- Ergativity
- Eskimo-Aleut
- Euphemisms and Dysphemisms
- Evidentials
- Exemplar-Based Models in Linguistics
- Existential
- Existential Wh-Constructions
- Experimental Linguistics
- Fieldwork
- Fieldwork, Sociolinguistic
- Finite State Languages
- First Language Attrition
- Formulaic Language
- Francoprovençal
- French Grammars
- Frisian
- Gabelentz, Georg von der
- Gender
- Genealogical Classification
- Generative Syntax
- Genetics and Language
- Gestures
- Grammar, Categorial
- Grammar, Cognitive
- Grammar, Construction
- Grammar, Descriptive
- Grammar, Functional Discourse
- Grammars, Phrase Structure
- Grammaticalization
- Harris, Zellig
- Heritage Languages
- History of Linguistics
- History of the English Language
- Hmong-Mien Languages
- Hokan Languages
- Honorifics
- Humor in Language
- Hungarian Vowel Harmony
- Iconicity
- Ideophones
- Idiolect
- Idiom and Phraseology
- Imperatives
- Indefiniteness
- Indo-European Etymology
- Inflected Infinitives
- Information Structure
- Innateness
- Interface Between Phonology and Phonetics
- Interjections
- Intonation
- IPA
- Irony
- Iroquoian Languages
- Islands
- Isolates, Language
- Jakobson, Roman
- Japanese Word Accent
- Jones, Daniel
- Juncture and Boundary
- Khoisan Languages
- Kiowa-Tanoan Languages
- Kra-Dai Languages
- Labov, William
- Language Acquisition
- Language and Law
- Language Contact
- Language Documentation
- Language, Embodiment and
- Language for Specific Purposes/Specialized Communication
- Language, Gender, and Sexuality
- Language Geography
- Language Ideologies and Language Attitudes
- Language in Autism Spectrum Disorders
- Language Nests
- Language Revitalization
- Language Shift
- Language Standardization
- Language, Synesthesia and
- Languages of Africa
- Languages of the Americas, Indigenous
- Languages of the World
- Learnability
- Lexemes
- Lexical Access, Cognitive Mechanisms for
- Lexical Semantics
- Lexical-Functional Grammar
- Lexicography
- Lexicography, Bilingual
- Lexicon
- Linguistic Accommodation
- Linguistic Anthropology
- Linguistic Areas
- Linguistic Landscapes
- Linguistic Prescriptivism
- Linguistic Profiling and Language-Based Discrimination
- Linguistic Relativity
- Linguistics, Educational
- Listening, Second Language
- Literature and Linguistics
- Loanwords
- Machine Translation
- Maintenance, Language
- Mande Languages
- Markedness
- Mass-Count Distinction
- Mathematical Linguistics
- Mayan Languages
- Mental Health Disorders, Language in
- Mental Lexicon, The
- Mesoamerican Languages
- Metaphor
- Metathesis
- Metonymy
- Minority Languages
- Mixed Languages
- Mixe-Zoquean Languages
- Modification
- Mon-Khmer Languages
- Morphological Change
- Morphology
- Morphology, Blending in
- Morphology, Subtractive
- Movement
- Munda Languages
- Muskogean Languages
- Nasals and Nasalization
- Negation
- Niger-Congo Languages
- Non-Pama-Nyungan Languages
- Northeast Caucasian Languages
- Nostratic
- Number
- Numerals
- Oceanic Languages
- Papuan Languages
- Penutian Languages
- Philosophy of Language
- Phonetics
- Phonetics, Acoustic
- Phonetics, Articulatory
- Phonological Research, Psycholinguistic Methodology in
- Phonology
- Phonology, Computational
- Phonology, Early Child
- Pidgins
- Polarity
- Policy and Planning, Language
- Politeness in Language
- Polysemy
- Positive Discourse Analysis
- Possessives, Acquisition of
- Pragmatics, Acquisition of
- Pragmatics, Cognitive
- Pragmatics, Computational
- Pragmatics, Cross-Cultural
- Pragmatics, Developmental
- Pragmatics, Experimental
- Pragmatics, Game Theory in
- Pragmatics, Historical
- Pragmatics, Institutional
- Pragmatics, Second Language
- Pragmatics, Teaching
- Prague Linguistic Circle, The
- Presupposition
- Pronouns
- Psycholinguistics
- Quechuan and Aymaran Languages
- Questions
- Reading, Second-Language
- Reciprocals
- Reduplication
- Reflexives and Reflexivity
- Register and Register Variation
- Relevance Theory
- Representation and Processing of Multi-Word Expressions in...
- Salish Languages
- Sapir, Edward
- Saussure, Ferdinand de
- Second Language Acquisition, Anaphora Resolution in
- Semantic Maps
- Semantic Roles
- Semantic-Pragmatic Change
- Semantics, Cognitive
- Sentence Processing in Monolingual and Bilingual Speakers
- Sign Language Linguistics
- Slang
- Sociolinguistics
- Sociolinguistics, Variationist
- Sociopragmatics
- Sonority
- Sound Change
- South American Indian Languages
- Specific Language Impairment
- Speech, Deceptive
- Speech Perception
- Speech Production
- Speech Synthesis
- Suppletion
- Switch-Reference
- Syllables
- Syncretism
- Synonymy
- Syntactic Change
- Syntactic Knowledge, Children’s Acquisition of
- Tense, Aspect, and Mood
- Text Mining
- Tone
- Tone Sandhi
- Topic
- Transcription
- Transitivity and Voice
- Translanguaging
- Translation
- Trubetzkoy, Nikolai
- Tucanoan Languages
- Tupian Languages
- Typology
- Usage-Based Linguistics
- Uto-Aztecan Languages
- Valency Theory
- Verbs, Serial
- Vocabulary, Second Language
- Voice and Voice Quality
- Vowel Harmony
- Whitney, William Dwight
- Word Classes
- Word Formation in Japanese
- Word Recognition, Spoken
- Word Recognition, Visual
- Word Stress
- Writing, Second Language
- Writing Systems
- Yiddish
- Zapotecan Languages