Ergative case
WiktionaryText
Noun
ergative case
- : case used to indicate the agent of a verb. The ergative case is used to mark the subject of a transitive verb, while the subject of an intransitive verb is put in the absolutive case. Some languages that employ the ergative case include Basque, Chechen, Dyirbal, Georgian, Hindi, Inuktitut, Samoan, Tibetan, and Yup'ik.
See also
- Appendix:Grammatical cases
- Wikipedia article on Ergative-absolutive languages