different between intransitive vs ergativity

English

Etymology

From in- +? transitive.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?t?æns?t?v/, /?n?t?ænz?t?v/

Adjective

intransitive (not comparable)

1. (grammar, of a verb) not transitive: not having, or not taking, a direct object

   The word "drink" is a transitive verb in "they drink wine", but an intransitive one in "they drink often."

2. (rare) not transitive or passing further; kept; detained
   • 1664-1667, Jeremy Taylor, Dissuasive from Popery

     And then it is for the image's sake and so far is intransitive; but whatever is paid more to the image is transitive and passes further.

Synonyms

• neuter

Antonyms

• transitive

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• ergative

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.t???.zi.tiv/
• Rhymes: -iv
• Homophone: intransitives

Adjective

intransitive

1. feminine singular of intransitif

German

Pronunciation

Adjective

intransitive

1. inflection of intransitiv:
   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

Adjective

intransitive

1. feminine plural of intransitivo

Anagrams

• intravenisti

English

Etymology

From ergative +? -ity.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??(?)???t?v.?.ti/

Noun

ergativity (uncountable)

1. (linguistics) The property of a grammar's (or, by extension, a language's) being ergative; the attribute of possessing a grammatical pattern such that the object of a transitive verb is treated the same way as the subject of an intransitive one, while the subject of the transitive verb is treated differently.
   • 1991, Ronald W. Langacker, Foundations of Cognitive Grammar: Descriptive Application, Volume 2, Stanford University Press, page 386,

     We can speak of ergative/absolutive organization whenever intransitive subjects pattern with transitive objects (to the exclusion of transitive subjects). So defined, ergativity is independent of case marking and has many linguistic manifestations, some being observable in any given language. At the same time, ergativity competes with accusativity even in languages where it represents the predominant pattern.

   • 1994, R. M. W. Dixon, Ergativity, Cambridge University Press, page 1,

     Ergativity is thus complementary to the familiar grammatical pattern of accusativity, in which one case (nominative) marks both intransitive and transitive subject, with another case (accusative) being employed for transitive object.

   • 2000, Javier Rivas, Ergativity and Transitive Gradients in the Accusative and Infinitive Construction, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Imprenta Universitaría, page 153,

     Apart from the types of split ergativity-accusativity dealt with in the previous section, there are languages which show degrees of ergativity in their morphology and also —although less frequently— in their syntax, […] . Actually, Dixon (1994: 172) claims that syntactic ergativity is much stranger cross-linguistically than some degree of morphological ergativity. […] There are many languages in the world which show some degree of ergativity.

Usage notes

• Writers distinguish between morphological and syntactic ergativity, based on how it is manifested. (In studied languages, syntactic ergativity has not been observed to exist in the absence of the morphological sort.) For more details, see Ergativity#Realization of ergativity on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Coordinate terms

• accusativity

Translations

See also

• absolutive case
• accusativity
• ergative case

Further reading

• Ergative–absolutive language on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Nominative–accusative language on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Morphosyntactic alignment on Wikipedia.Wikipedia