"ergativity" meaning in English

See ergativity in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ɜː(ɹ)ɡəˈtɪv.ɪ.ti/ [UK]
Etymology: From ergative + -ity. Etymology templates: {{suffix|en|ergative|ity}} ergative + -ity Head templates: {{en-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. Wikipedia link: ergativity Tags: uncountable Categories (topical): Linguistics Derived forms: split ergativity Related terms: absolutive case, accusativity, ergative case Coordinate_terms: accusativity Translations (linguistics: structuring property of grammar): ergativiteit [feminine] (Dutch), ergatiivisuus (Finnish), Ergativität [feminine] (German), ergatività [feminine] (Italian), ergatividad [feminine] (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-ergativity-en-noun-CZRGyvHi Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms suffixed with -ity Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, sciences

Download JSON data for ergativity meaning in English (4.3kB)

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  "etymology_text": "From ergative + -ity.",
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          "word": "accusativity"
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        {
          "ref": "1991, Ronald W. Langacker, Foundations of Cognitive Grammar: Descriptive Application, Volume 2, Stanford University Press, page 386",
          "text": "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.",
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          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "text": "2000, Javier Rivas, Ergativity and Transitive Gradients in the Accusative and Infinitive Construction, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Imprenta Universitaría, page 153,\nApart 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."
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        "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."
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        "(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."
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          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "linguistics: structuring property of grammar",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
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          "word": "ergativiteit"
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          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "linguistics: structuring property of grammar",
          "word": "ergatiivisuus"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "linguistics: structuring property of grammar",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Ergativität"
        },
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          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "linguistics: structuring property of grammar",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
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          "word": "ergatività"
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        {
          "code": "es",
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        }
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        "(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."
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      "code": "nl",
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      "sense": "linguistics: structuring property of grammar",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
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      "word": "ergativiteit"
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      "code": "fi",
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      "sense": "linguistics: structuring property of grammar",
      "word": "ergatiivisuus"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "linguistics: structuring property of grammar",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Ergativität"
    },
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      "code": "it",
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      "sense": "linguistics: structuring property of grammar",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
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      "word": "ergatività"
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      "tags": [
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}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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