different between ergative vs negative

English

Etymology

From the Ancient Greek ??????? (ergát?s, “worker”), from ????? (érgon, “work”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?????t?v/
• (US) enPR: ûr'g?t?v, IPA^(key): /????t?v/

Adjective

ergative (not comparable)

1. (grammar) Used of various situations where the subjects of transitive constructions have different grammatical cases or thematic relations to those of intransitive constructions.

   The case systems of ergative languages are counterintuitive to speakers of Indo-European languages.

   • 1987, George Van Driem, A Grammar of Limbu, page 39,

     The ergative case marks the agent of a transitive verb. The ergative suffix is -le/-re/-lle/-?ille. The form of the ergative suffix is /-le/ for the indefinite and /-?ille/ for the definite after the consonants /?/, /k/, /t/, /p/, /b/, /?/, /n/ and /m/.

   • To illustrate what is meant by an ‘Ergative? structure, consider the following set of examples:
     (155) (a)      John broke the door
     (155) (b)      The door broke
     (156) (a)      John might drown the kittens
     (156) (b)      The kittens might drown
     (157) (a)      The artillery will sink the ship
     (157) (b)      The ship will sink
     (158) (a)      John rolled the ball down the hill
     (158) (b)      The ball rolled down the hill
     Following the terminology adopted in Chapter 7 (after Burzio (1986), p. 30), we might say that the (a) member of each of these pairs is a transitive structure, and the (b) member an ergative structure. In Burzio?s use of the term, an ergative Clause is an intransitive Clause which has a transitive counterpart in which the transitive Object corresponds to the ergative Subject.

   • 2000, Hans Bennis, Adjectives and Argument Structure, Peter Coopmans, Martin Everaert, Jane Barbara Grimshaw (editors), Lexical Specification and Insertion, page 28,

     A large number of adjectives that are unergative according to the tests provided in Section 2 appear to be ergative with respect to their argument structure.

   • 2008, Geoffrey Khan, HdO: The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Barwar, page 22,

     In Kurdish, on the other hand, the corresponding compound construction, which appears to have been the model for the NENA^{[North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic]} construction, is ergative in form when the verb is transitive.

Derived terms

• ergative-absolutive
• ergative case
• ergative verb

Related terms

• ergativity
• unergative

Noun

ergative (plural ergatives)

1. (linguistics) The ergative case.
   • 2006, Miriam Butt, Theories of Case, page 178.

     There are some languages in which the ergative is not acquired as quickly or as easily as described above.

2. (linguistics) An ergative verb or other expression.
   • 1987, Edward L. Keenan, Noun Phrase Accessibility and Universal Grammar, Universal Grammar: 15 Essays, page 26,

     Woodbury (1975) does argue, however, that absolutives are more relativisable in Greenlandic than are ergatives, on the grounds that (1) RCs^{[Relative Clauses]} formed on ergatives are somewhat more restricted in the distribution in matrix clauses (p. 21) than are those formed on absolutives, and (2) for certain verb classes ergatives cannot be relativised out of the active participle (p. 27).

   • 1994, Virginia Yip, Chapter 6: Grammatical consciousness-raising and learnability, Terence Odlin (editor), Perspectives on Pedagogical Grammar, page 128,

     Ergatives share close similarities with agentless passives: Both are intransitive, both lack an agent, while the patient appears in the subject position. As the acquisition data show, learners seem to treat ergatives like passives.

   • 2012, Michael A. Daniel, Timur A. Maisak, Solmaz R. Merdanova, Causatives in Agul, Pirkko Suihkonen, Bernard Comrie, V. D. Solov?ev (editors), Argument Structure and Grammatical Relations: A Crosslinguistic Typology, page 66,

     Combining two ergatives in one clause is not always ungrammatical in Agul; but one of the ergatives must be used in a non-agentive function, e.g. instrumental or temporal.

Translations

See also

• absolutive
• stative

References

• ergative at OneLook Dictionary Search

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.?a.tiv/

Adjective

ergative

1. feminine singular of ergatif

Italian

Adjective

ergative

1. feminine plural of ergativo

English

Etymology

From Middle English negative, negatif, from Old French negatif, from Latin negativus (“that denies, negative”), from negare (“to deny”); see negate.

Alternative forms

• ?ve (abbreviation)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?n???t?v/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?n???t?v/, /-??v/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /?n?(e)?????v/
• Hyphenation: neg?a?tive

Adjective

negative (comparative more negative, superlative most negative)

1. Not positive nor neutral.
2. (physics) Of electrical charge of an electron and related particles [from the 18th c.]
3. (mathematics) Of a number: less than zero

   Antonym: nonnegative

4. (linguistics, logic) Denying a proposition.

   Antonym: affirmative

5. Damaging; undesirable; unfavourable.

6. Often used pejoratively: pessimistic; not tending to see the bright side of things.

7. Of or relating to a photographic image in which the colours of the original, and the relations of left and right, are reversed.
8. (chemistry) Metalloidal, nonmetallic; contrasted with positive or basic.

9. (New Age jargon, derogatory) Often preceded by emotion, energy, feeling, or thought: to be avoided, bad, difficult, disagreeable, painful, potentially damaging, unpleasant, unwanted.
   • 2009, Christopher Johns, Becoming a Reflective Practitioner, John Wiley & Sons, page 15

     Negative feelings can be worked through and their energy converted into positive energy... In crisis, normal patterns of self-organization fail, resulting in anxiety (negative energy).

   • 2011, Joe Vitale, The Key: the missing secret for attracting anything you want, Body, Mind & Spirit, [1]

     The threat of negative feelings may seem very real, but they are nothing more than mirages... Allow the unwanted feelings to evaporate and dissolve as the mirages that they are.

   • 2011, Anne Jones, Healing Negative Energies, Hachette, page 118

     If you have been badly affected by negative energy a salt bath is wonderful for clearing and cleansing yourself... Salt attracts negative energy and will draw it away from you.

10. Characterized by the presence of features which do not support a hypothesis.
11. (slang) HIV negative
    • quoted in 2013, William I. Johnston, HIV-Negative: How the Uninfected Are Affected by AIDS (page 145)

      We certainly told him at that time that I was negative. We talked about transmission. We told him we don't do anything that would cause me to become positive.

Synonyms

• (damaging): undesirable

Antonyms

• positive

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

negative (plural negatives)

1. Refusal or withholding of assents; prohibition, veto [from 15th c.]

   • “Upon my word, I can’t eat a morsel,” answered the lady […] There is indeed in perfect beauty a power which none almost can withstand; for my landlady, though she was not pleased at the negative given to the supper, declared she had never seen so lovely a creature.

   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. XV, Practical — Devotional

     Geoffrey Riddell Bishop of Ely […] made a request of him for timber from his woods towards certain edifices going on at Glemsford. The Abbot, a great builder himself, disliked the request; could not however give it a negative.

2. (law) A right of veto.
   • 1787, Luther Martin, cited in The Constitutional Convention Of 1787: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia Of America's Founding (2005), Volume 1, page 391

     And as to the Constitutionality of laws, that point will come before the Judges in their proper official character. In this character they have a negative on the laws.

   • 1788, Alexander Hamilton, Federalist no. 68

     The qualified negative of the President differs widely from this absolute negative of the British sovereign; […]

   • 1983, INS v. Chadha, Opinion of the Court

     In the convention there does not seem to have been much diversity of opinion on the subject of the propriety of giving to the president a negative on the laws.

3. (photography) An image in which dark areas represent light ones, and the converse. [from 19th c.]
4. (grammar) A word that indicates negation.
5. (mathematics) A negative quantity.
6. (weightlifting): A rep performed with weight in which the muscle begins at maximum contraction and is slowly extended; a movement performed using only the eccentric phase of muscle movement.
7. The negative plate of a voltaic or electrolytic cell.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

negative (third-person singular simple present negatives, present participle negativing, simple past and past participle negatived)

1. (transitive) To refuse; to veto.
   • 1887, L. T. Meade, The Palace Beautiful: A Story for Girls, Chapter XVIII, [2]

     Poppy earnestly begged to be allowed to go with Jasmine on the roof, but this the good lady negatived with horror.

   • 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 12, [3]

     And being of warm blood he had not the phlegm tacitly to negative any proposition by unresponsive inaction.

2. (transitive) To contradict.
   • 1892, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Chapter XXXIII, [4]

     "A comely maid, that," said the other.

     "True, comely enough. But unless I make a great mistake—" And he negatived the remainder of the definition forthwith.

3. (transitive) To disprove.
   • 1882, J. H. Riddell, "Old Mrs Jones" in The Collected Ghost Stories of Mrs. J. H. Riddell, Dover, 1977, page 192, [5]

     At one time an idea got abroad that the whole tale of her fortune had been a myth; […] but the boastings of various servants who declared they had seen her with “rolls on rolls” of banknotes […] negatived the truth of this statement.

4. (transitive) To make ineffective; to neutralize.
   • 1959, Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War, translated by G. A. Williamson, Penguin, 1970, Chapter 5, page 98,

     Yet he made his largesse daily more lavish, as he saw the king negativing his efforts by taking care of the orphans and showing his remorse for the murder of his sons by his tenderness towards their little ones.

Derived terms

• negativation

Interjection

negative

1. (law, signalling) An elaborate synonym for no.

Anagrams

• agentive, gate vein, veganite

Danish

Adjective

negative

1. inflection of negativ:
   1. definite attributive positive degree/superlative degree
   2. plural

German

Pronunciation

Adjective

negative

1. inflection of negativ:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Italian

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ive

Adjective

negative f pl

1. feminine plural of negativo

Noun

negative f

1. plural of negativa

Anagrams

• agentive, negatevi

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ne.?a??ti?.u?e/, [n??ä??t?i?u??]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ne.?a?ti.ve/, [n????t?i?v?]

Adjective

neg?t?ve

1. vocative masculine singular of neg?t?vus

Norwegian Bokmål

Adjective

negative

1. inflection of negativ:
   1. definite singular
   2. plural

Norwegian Nynorsk

Adjective

negative

1. inflection of negativ:
   1. definite singular
   2. plural

Swedish

Adjective

negative

1. absolute definite natural masculine form of negativ.