- Object of transitive sentence
Dyirbal form - Subject of intransitive sentence
Dyirbal form
English gloss"the man""the woman""the wallaby"English gloss"the man""the woman"B. English and almost all European languages are classified as "nominative/
accusative." In a nominative/accusative language the subject of a transitive
sentence is marked in the same way as the subject of an intransitive sentence,
but the object of a transitive sentence is marked differently. In English this
difference shows up in the pronominal system. For example, she (the
nominative form of the third person singular feminine pronoun) is used as the
subject of both transitive and intransitive sentences; her (the object or
accusative form of the third person singular feminine pronoun) is used in object
position. Thus, She hit the ball, She ran, but The fans watched her.
In contrast, some of the world's languages-among them Dyirbal-are
classified as "ergative/absolutive" languages. What property of the Dyirbal
example sentences distinguishes Dyirbal from nominative/accusative languages?
In other words, what property defines an ergative/absolutive language as
opposed to a nominative/accusative language? Limit yourself to the words
displayed in question A.