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Adyghe is an ergative-absolutive language, unlike nominative-accusative languages, such as English, where the single argument of an intransitive verb ("She" in the sentence "She walks.") behaves grammatically like the agent of a transitive verb ("She" in the sentence "She finds it."), in ergative-absolutive language, the subject of an intransitive verb behaves like the object of a transitive ...
Many languages, including English, have ditransitive verbs that denote two objects, and some verbs may be ambitransitive in a manner that is either transitive (e.g., "I read the book" or "We won the game") or intransitive (e.g., "I read until bedtime" or "We won") depending on the given context.
The agent of a transitive verb (A) is marked as ergative case, or as a similar case such as oblique. The core argument of an intransitive verb (S) and the object of a transitive verb (O) are both marked with absolutive case. [3] If there is no case marking, ergativity can be marked through other means, such as in verbal morphology.
Verbs that can be used in an intransitive or transitive way are called ambitransitive verbs. In English, an example is the verb to eat; the sentences You eat (with an intransitive form) and You eat apples (a transitive form that has apples as the object) are both grammatical. The concept of valency is related to transitivity. The valency of a ...
Transitive alignment: certain Iranian languages, such as Rushani, distinguish only transitivity (in the past tense), using a transitive case for both A and O, and an intransitive case for S. That is sometimes called a double-oblique system, as the transitive case is equivalent to the accusative in the non-past tense.
That is, in the past tense (or perhaps perfective aspect), the agent and object of a transitive verb are marked with the same case ending, while the subject of an intransitive verb is not marked. In the present tense, the object of the transitive verb is marked, the other two roles are not – that is, a typical nominative–accusative ...
An ambitransitive verb is a verb that is both intransitive and transitive. [1]: 4 This verb may or may not require a direct object.English has many ambitransitive verbs. . Examples include read, break, and understand (e.g., "I read the book", saying what was read, or just "I read all afternoo
In general linguistics, a labile verb (or ergative verb) is a verb that undergoes causative alternation; that is, it can be used both transitively and intransitively, with the requirement that the direct object of its transitive use corresponds to the subject of its intransitive use, [1] as in "I ring the bell" and "The bell rings."