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Information about Split Ergativity

Split ergativity is shown by languages that have a partly ergative behaviour, but employ another syntax or morphology — usually accusative — in some contexts. In fact, most of the so-called ergative languages are not pure but split-ergative.

The split is usually conditioned by one of these:
  1. The presence of a discourse participant (a first or second person) in the proposition. The Australian language Dyirbal behaves ergatively in all morphosyntactic contexts, except when one of these is involved. When a first or second person pronoun appears, however, it is marked according to a nominative-accusative pattern (with the least marked case when it is the agent or intransitive, and with the most marked case when it is the patient). This can be explained in terms of the high animacy of a first or second person speaker in the animacy hierarchy.
  2. The use of certain tenses and/or aspects in the verb. The Indo-Iranian family, for example, shows a split between the perfect and the imperfect aspect. A verb in the perfect aspect causes its arguments to be marked using an ergative pattern, while the imperfect aspect triggers accusative marking. (Related languages and others always tend to associate past tense and/or perfect aspect with ergativity.)
  3. The type of marking involved. Some languages (including various Austronesian languages of New Guinea, such as Sinaugoro) exhibit an ergative-absolutive pattern with respect to case marking, but a nominative-accusative pattern with respect to agreement.
  4. The agentivity of the intransitive subject. In languages like Dakota, arguments of active verbs such as to run are marked like transitive agents, as in accusative languages, while arguments of inactive verbs such as to stand are marked like transitive objects, as in ergative languages. Languages with this kind of marking are known as split-S languages, and are formally a subtype of active languages.

Examples

An example of split ergativity conditioned by tense and aspect is found in the Hindi-Urdu language, which has an ergative case on subjects in the preterite and the perfect tenses for transitive verbs in the active voice, while in other tenses and aspects (habitual, progressive) subjects appear in the nominative case. Example sentences for Hindi-Urdu are:

लड़का किताब ख़रीदता ह?
laṛka kitāb xarīdtā hai
boy.NOMINATIVE(Msg) book.NOMINATIVE buy.HABITUAL.Msg be.PRESENT ¹
"The boy buys a book."


लड़के-ने किताब ख़रीद?
laṛke-ne kitāb xarīdī
boy-ERGATIVE book.NOMINATIVE(Fsg) buy.PRETERITE.Fsg ¹
"The boy bought a book."


:(¹) The morph-by-morph analysis has been simplified to show the features relevant to the topic of split ergativity.
In computer science, SYNTAX is a system used to generate lexical and syntactic analyzers (parsers) (both deterministic and non-deterministic) for all kind of context-free grammars
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For other uses, see Morphology.
Morphology is the field within linguistics that studies the internal structure of words. (Words as units in the lexicon are the subject matter of lexicology.
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A nominative-accusative language (or simply accusative language) is one that marks the direct object of transitive verbs distinguishing them from the subject of both transitive and intransitive verbs.
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Dyirbal (also Djirubal) is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken in northeast Queensland by about 5 speakers. It is a member of the small Dyirbalic branch of the Pama-Nyungan family.
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For other uses, see Morphology.
Morphology is the field within linguistics that studies the internal structure of words. (Words as units in the lexicon are the subject matter of lexicology.
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A nominative-accusative language (or simply accusative language) is one that marks the direct object of transitive verbs distinguishing them from the subject of both transitive and intransitive verbs.
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In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof) in the described event or state. For example, in English the difference between I swim and I am swimming is a difference of aspect.
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Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European family of languages. It consists of four language groups: the Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Nuristani, and Dardic.
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Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia. It is on par with Indo-European, Afro-Asiatic and Uralic as one of the best-established ancient language families.
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New Guinea<nowiki />

Political division of New Guinea

Geography
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Location Island north of Australian continent
Coordinates
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CASE may stand for:
  • Computer-aided software engineering
  • Community for Alternative Sources of Energy
  • Centre for Apologetic Scholarship and Education at New College, UNSW
  • Centre for Astronomy & Science Education at The University of Glamorgan

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In languages, agreement is a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence or phrase. Agreement happens when one word changes in form depending on which other words it is being related to.
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Sioux is a Siouan language.

Regional variation

Sioux has 3 major regional varieties, with various sub-lects:
  1. Santee (a.k.a. Dakota)
  2. * Santee
  3. * Sisseton
  4. Yankton (a.k.a.

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An active-stative language, or active language for short, is one in which the sole argument of an intransitive verb is sometimes marked in the same way as the agent of a transitive verb (that is, like a subject in English), and sometimes in the same way as the direct object
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An active-stative language, or active language for short, is one in which the sole argument of an intransitive verb is sometimes marked in the same way as the agent of a transitive verb (that is, like a subject in English), and sometimes in the same way as the direct object
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Hindi}}} 
Writing system: Devanagari script 
Official status
Official language of:  India
 Fiji (as Hindustani)
Regulated by: Central Hindi Directorate (only in India)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-1: hi
ISO 639-2:
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Urdu}}} 
Writing system: Urdu alphabet (Nasta'liq script) 
Official status
Official language of:  Pakistan ;
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Hindi}}} 
Writing system: Devanagari script 
Official status
Official language of:  India
 Fiji (as Hindustani)
Regulated by: Central Hindi Directorate (only in India)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-1: hi
ISO 639-2:
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Urdu}}} 
Writing system: Urdu alphabet (Nasta'liq script) 
Official status
Official language of:  Pakistan ;
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