Ergativity
//ɜː(ɹ)ɡəˈtɪv.ɪ.ti// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 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. uncountable
"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."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Japan fans may like the article "Ergativity and Bare Nominals in Early Old Japanese.""
Etymology
From ergative + -ity.
Related phrases
More for "ergativity"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.