-

T
o
cl
cHAPTER 37

3
VAR IET IE S OF E

ERGATIV E tr

fr

u
ENRIQUE L . PAL ANCAR I
LT

h
T

SI

3 7 . r E n c a r r vE cASn ' (

Encerrvr, case - also ergative marker or simply ergative - is the term given to
the gramrnatical morpheme associatedwith the noun phrase (NP) functioning
I\
as subject of a transitive clause (i.e. the A syntactic relation in Dixon 1994).' In
A
semantic terms, ergatives mark NPs that typically play the role of agents in the
tr
transitive event rendered by such clauses.Two examples of this core function of
ergative markers are given in (r):

(r) a. Basque(LI) (Manandiser988:8; glossesadapted) a

J
(Miren=e-k) liburu bat irakur-r-i d-u-O
Mary=1-sp. b..p one.ABSread-r-pRp 3.aes-UI(AN('have')3sc.nnc I
'Mary has read a book' LI

b. Tauya (P-TNG), (MacDonald r99o:3zr) tl

at
(?e fanu-ni) fena?a-ra A-yau-a-?a D

DE M ma n -E R Gw o m a n -ro p 3 s c-see-3sc-rN o tl
'The man saw the woman' ir
li
.Ihis
I
'
r-r
chapter was written under the auspiccs of CONACyT Project No 47475. I wtrnt to .]
tl'rank Yury Lander for all his cornments on an eirrlier version of this chapter. To Even (
Hovdhaugen, for his support ancl inspiration while I worked on this topic in Oslo. I can be
a
contacted at Facultad de Lengr-rasy l,etras, Universidad Aut6noma de Quer6taro, CU,
(
Querdtaro Z6oro, Mexico, or at epalancar@hotrniril.com.
I T h e l c r r n '' 1 1 lr je ct'jr u se d h e r e in a lo o ' c w.r y. I
 VARIE TIE S OF E R GA TIV E 563

by virtue
Themorphemes=ek in (ra) and -ni in (rb) are instancesof ergativecase
of beingmorphemesassociated with the NPs working as subjectsin the transitive
cluur.slr,(r)'which alsoexpressthe agentsof the eventsdescribed'

37.1.LErgatives that are not ergative case

to encode an
Ergative case is one of two possible morphological mechanisms
alignment, A (transitive subject) is
eriative-absolutive alignment. In such an
object), which
trJateddifferently from S and O (intransitive subject and transitive
is used on the NP
are commonly treated alike. As illustrated in (r), ergative case
'dependent-marking' strategy. The other way to
functioning as A; this is called a
'head-marking' strategy; that is'
encode,,r.h u1 alignment is using a so-called
A' which is
using a special pronominal morphology in the verb to cross-reference
pronominal morphology
diffeient from the one encoding S or O. Traditionally' this
with 'ergative case''
has also been called 'ergative',but it should not be confused
to encode their
Thereare ergative languagesthat only use a head-marking strategy
Mixean languages'
ergative-absolutive alignment, for example Mayan languages'
An example of such a
and the Abkhaz-Abaru snbgrorrp of North west caucasian.
al'' in press):
strategyappearsin (z) in Mayan Awakatek (Mateo-Toledo et

(z) ja A-s-t/am (Wa'n)x (tzee')o

coMpl 3sc.ess-3sc.nnc-grasp Iohn tree
'John grasped the tree'
'John'' Reference to the
Notice that there is no ergative caseon the subject NP I4la'n
A relation is only in the verb with s-. Becauseof this, constructions of the
"ncodJ 'ergative case'.
type in (z) will not be regarded here as instancesof

37.r.2Where is ergativecase?
of the erga-
I basethe observationsin this chapteron the study of the behaviour
comes from
tive markersfrom about r4o languages.Much of the information
who have described such lan-
the analysisand understandingof the linguists
Eurasia (N.B.
guages. Ergativecaseis found in almost all ergativelanguagesin
ihe ,ru-b", of languagesin parentheses representthe languagesfor which I had
Caucasian
information about ergativecasewhen compiling this chapter):in all
(18
languages, exceptthe Abkhaz-.\bazasubgroupof North West Caucasian lan-
guages); in the ergativelanguagesofthe Indo-Iranian subgroupoflndo-European
(rz); in a number of languageisolates,such
G); in all Tibeto_Burmanlanguages
languages
u, Burqo. (r) and Sumerian(r); in a number of ergativeUralo-Yukaghir
(r); and in chukotko-Kamchatkanchuckchee (r). In oceania - including Papua
- in many Papuan
New Guinea,Australia, and the Pacific islands it is found
 )64 E N R IQUE L . PAL ANCAR

languages(:); in all Australian languagesthat are ergative (i6 Non-Pama Nprngan

and 7o Pama-Nnrngan; the sample comes mostly from Blake ry77); and in Aus-
tronesian (+ Oceanic). In the Americas, it is found in Eskimo (:), in a number
of Zoquean languages from the Mixe-Zoque macrophylum (r), and recently, as
descriptive work progressesin the area, it is being found in many South-American
languages from various subgroups (Carib (z); Chibchan (r); Yanomam (r); and
Panoan (r)). All in all, it appears that the number of ergative languages which
employ ergative case as a morphological exponent of ergative-absolutive align-
ment far surpassesthe number of languages which use head-marking patterns
exclusively.

37.r.3 Formal varieties of ergative case

In phonologicalterms, ergativecasesare in generalhighly grammaticalizedmor-
phemes:bisyllabicergativesare scarce(e.g.both the allomorph -njdja of Djingili
(AT-NPN) (Chadwickry76) and Ngangikurrunggur-ni4gi (Hoddinott and Kofod
1976)should be consideredrare typologically).Much more common are ergatives
rn lCYl or lYCl, and even onilylCl (e.g. Kabardian (CA-NW) -m, Colarusso
r99z);Basque(LI) = k (= e-k, afterconsonants); etc.).Interestingly,
though per-
haps irrelevant,ergativesinV alsoappearrarely (e.g.Khinalug (CA-E) -1, Kibrik
r994b).
Morphologicallyspeaking,afltxal ergativecasesare more frequent than other
morphologicaltypes,but this may just reflectthe morphologicaltypology of the
languagein question.\A4renaffixal,it is more common to find ergativecasesof
the agglutinativetype than of the inflectionalIndo-European-liketype. In many
Ianguages of the Pacific,caseis markedby adpositions,and thus ergativeadposi-
tions are found when the languagehasergative-absolutive alignment(e.g.Tokelau
(AU-Pol) e te malo [rnc sec government]'the government',Hovdhaugenet al.
tgSg:+g). Interestingly,nominal casein ergativelanguagesis often encodedby
meansof phrasal clitics, and as clitics are syntacticallybound morphemes,this
function fits the prototypicalrole of an ergativecase.Consequentlymany ergative
casesare clitics,and in this respect,ergativeadpositionsof the Pollnesiantype are
syntacticallyequatedwith ergativeclitics.
On the other hand, affixalor clitic-like,ergativeallomorphyabounds,although
it is commonlyconditionedon morphophonologicalgrounds.Nevertheless, lexical
restrictionsalso occur.If the languageallows ergativecasewith various types of
nouns (animatevs. inanimate,etc.),the allomorphyis normally not conditioned
by the semantictype of the noun; but in the Bzhedugand Shapsugdialectsof
CircassianAdyghe,proper nouns receive-e, while common nouns receive-lz
(Ahmed-e [Ahmed-Enc.PN]vs. ps'as'e-m[girl-nnc]; Zekokh ry69 in Kumachov
et al. ry96). Similarly, the ergativecaseused with nominals is frequently the one
 ......-

V A R IE TIE S OF E R GA TIV E 565

employed with pronouns and other determiners, but there is a tendency for ergative
formations to become morphologically opaque with the latter. For example, Basque
has transparent case in first and second person (hi:k lyou.familiar=Encl vs. gl-
zon=e=k [man=oEr=Enc]), but in demonstratives,there is root suppletion (hau
[this.ees] vs. hon=e-k [this.Enc:r-rnc]). In other languages,the ergativemarker
is altogether different in demonstrative pronominal paradigms (e.g. Adyghe and
Kabardian (CA-NW) both have -m for nominal ergative, but Adyghe has -i' for
demonstratives(a-i' [he/that.u-Enc]), while Kabardian has -ba (a,ba [he/that.u-
nnc]). In Eastern Caucasian languages, the ergative forms for lirst and second
person have become suppletive or opaque, e.g. Lezgian zun ll.l.usl vs. za [I.enc]
(Haspelmath ry%a); or Tsova Tush so [I.ees] vs. as [I.enc] (Holisky and Gagua
1 994.

37.r.4 Restrictions on ergative case

Since Silverstein's (1976) seminal article, it is well known in linguistic theory
that the use of ergative case on a particular noun may be ruled by an animacy
hierarchy. This is especially the case for Australian languages, where in many
of them, personal pronouns, proper and kinship nouns follow a nominative-
accusativealignment whereas ergative alignment is used for other nouns (ani-
mate or inanimate). Specific languagesidiosprcratically set their own boundaries
acrossthis hierarchy. In most Caucasian languages,regardlessof their affiliation,
the first and second personal pronouns together with proper names more often
than not lack an absolutive/ergative inflectional contrast. The same is true for
plural pronouns (and nouns) in many ergative languages(e.g. Basque hai-e-k
fyonder.pr-r-pnc/ess.prl ).

37.L.5Ergative caseon non-typical hosts

Besidesnouns, in a number of languages ergative case is also used with verbal
forms to express adverbial meanings. This mechanism appears to be particularly
productive in Caucasian languages,where ergative case is often labelled 'obliquel
An example of a purpose adverbial function is given in (3) for Ubykh (CA-NW)
(Hewitt zoo5:r3o):

(:) ('txe-mega O-'s-tg'a-w-te-n) 'a-mega-pu'a-ua

write-read(.ans) 3sc-lsc-study-Eur-Class.II-enc/oer npp-school-to
s - k t ' a- n- A
1s c - go- en s -E rN
'I go to school in order to learn to read and write'
 VA R IE TIE S OF E R GA TIV E 565

employedwith pronouns and other determiners, but there is a tendency for ergative
formations to become morphologically opaque with the latter. For example, Basque
has transparent case in first and second person (hi=k fyou'familiar=encl vs. gl-
znn=a=k [man=onr,=Enc]), but in demonstratives, there is root suppletion (har.l
ergative marker
lthis.ess] vs. hon=e-k [this.nnc=r-enc]). In other languages,the
is altogether different in demonstrative pronominal paradigms (e.g. Adyghe and
Kabardian (CA-NW) both have -m for nominal ergative, but Adyghe has -i' for
demonstratives(a-i' [he/that.N.r-snc]),while Kabardian has -ba (Q-be lhelthat.I{L-
nnc]). In Eastern Caucasian languages, the ergative forms for first and second
person have become suppletive or opaque, e.g. Lezgian zun fl.rgs) vs. za [I.nnc]
(Haspelmath ry%a); or Tsova Tirsh so [I.ees] vs. as [I.nnc] (Holisky and Gagua
ryed.

37.r.4Restrictionson ergativecase
Since Silverstein's (1976) seminal article, it is well known in linguistic theory
that the use of ergative case on a particular noun may be ruled by an animacy
hierarchy. This is especially the case for Australian languages' where in many
of them, personal pronouns, proper and kinship nouns follow a nominative-
accusativealignment whereas ergative alignment is used for other nouns (ani-
mate or inanimate). Specific languagesidiosyncratically set their own boundaries
acrossthis hierarchy. In most Caucasian languages,regardlessof their affiliation,
the first and second personal pronouns together with proper names more often
than not lack an absolutive/ergative inflectional contrast. The same is true for
plural pronouns (and nouns) in many ergative languages (e.g. Basque hai-e-k
l yo n dere. l- r - e nc / n e s .rr-l).

37.L.5Ergative caseon non-typical hosts

Besidesnouns, in a number of languages ergative case is also used with verbal
forms to express adverbial meanings. This mechanism appears to be particularly
productive in Caucasian languages,where ergative case is often labelled'obliquel
An example of a purpose adverbial function is given in (3) for Ubykh (CA-NW)
(Hewitt zoo5:r3o):

(:) ('txe-mepa A:s-tF a-w-ts-n) 'a-mepa-q'a-Ra

write-read(.ees) 3 sc- I sc-study-nur-Class.II-snc/oer ppp-school-to
s - k t ' q- n- O
ls c - go- t ns - n IN
'I go to school in order to learn to read and write'
 ENRIQUE L . PAL ANCAR
566
Along the
v A Rr E T r E s o F
3 7 .2 FuN C TToN A L functionir
E RGA TIV E CA S E volitional
of active/
Indo-ArY
Be si d es enc odingt h e s u b j e c to fa tra n s i ti v e c l a u se,ergati vecaseal soS beervesaS
defined
semantic,role
grammatical exponency of u" ugt"t'.The "t "T::-*t action' In the
and bears control upon a given
as the participant that instigatel
a human being' and is thought
to have acted 37.2.1 |
prototypical case it is constr-uedas Expressing
(for a full discussion see Palancar zooz)'
intentionally a.rd ,rotitiorrally Ergative'
a n a gent is per haps th e fo re m o s tc h a ra c te ri s ti c ofergati vecase' andassuchi ti s ertheles
languages'
."plJit.d in sundry ways acrossergative ^^" is optional in
-:,- case
transitiv
languages' ergative
In a number of Australian and Papuan it
In princi
rooo;. Some of these languagesuse
transitive constructions (Blake tg77;Foley are foun
the agentfrom the patientt" i ITI:
io disambiguate of a tota
for pragmaticpurposes ls
of ergative case on an agent noun
(P-W)' the use (24 per
of circumstances. In Dani (+a) where
expectation (Foley zooo:375)' See
associatedwith events contrary to pythons
cretic)a
ap'man'because normally men eat
the ergative is not used on the noun casein
syncret
it is1h. .ur. in (+b). The use of ergative
and not the other way around, as ished.B
by the man: icates.'l
(+a) would emphasizethe agentive role played
(e.g.ho
(+) a. (aP) Palu na-sikh-e
cold') a
man PYthon eat-RM'PASr-3sc'seJv
o=k (h)
'The man ate the PYthon'
b. aP (Palu-nen) na-sikh-e
man python-ERG eat-RM'p'tsr-3sc'seJv a
- r 'L .'
J/.L
1 f

' T he P Y t h o na te th e m a n '
Amonl
in transitive
case is grammatically obligatory egory
In other languages where ergative application -
its
aspectual splits that condition ergativ
constructions - besides possible
allomc
th e c as em ay alt er n a ." * i .t' o th e re n c o d i n g p o s si bi l i ti es.Th.euseoftheergati ve
vast m
i n s uc hs it uat ions " i " fo " " ' a re a d i n g o ft" tto l ' v o l i ti on' i ntenti on' and/orre-
Cauca
sponsibility.Citingvariousauthors,Foley(zooo)pointsoutthattheuseofergative
ergatir
ca s einP apuanla n g u a g e s o fte n c o n tri b u te s to somesubtl emeani ngw hereactors (Anderson
(zoo-o:375)mentions that'in-Folopa Marat
are depicted as wilful alents. Foley "kill", alwaysco-
as agentiveand wilful, like across
and wade rggg), certaii.,r"rb, construed
langur
o c c ur wit hs ubjec ts i n e rg a ti v e .u s " ,w h " ." a -,n o n-agenti veverbs,l"do/say"
i ke..l i ke,' ,never
"q".t"
be construed either way' e'g'
do so. In between ur" rr.r-b, that can : ry90)'
Oc
Th es am eis t r ueo fl n d o -Ary a n l a n g u a g e s (IE)l i keU rdu/H i ndi w i thi nfi ni ti val
Butt zoo5:5)' as in (l): cause
constructions (tsutt and King r99l;
scatt€
zLt ja-na ht
(i I lnaclYa=ne/=kd and I
go-INF'M'sG be'3sc'pnes
Nadya'r.sc=enc/=nAT zoo'M'sG Sanu
/ Dat=Experiencer)
'Nadya wants to go to the zoo' (Erg=Control
 V A R IE TIE S OF E R GA TIV E 567

Along these lines, it is very common that languagesuse ergative case on the NPs
functioning as subject of intransitive (unergative) verbs to render the actors as
volitional or having control. This encoding possibility gives rise to the emergence
of active/patient systems(Mithun r99r), and it is found acrossa number of Tibetan,
Indo-Aryan (Kachru 1987),and Eastern Caucasianlanguages.

37.2.rErgativecasepolysemypatterns
Ergativecase is often used across languagesto expressother semantic roles. Nev-
ertheless,in many languagesergative caseexpressesnothing elsebut the agent in a
transitive construction. I call the latter cases'asyncretic' and the former 'syncretic'.
In principle, there is nothing typologically odd about asyncretic ergatives,as they
are found in all families. Figures may give a useful indication: twenty-one out
of a total of eighty-eight ergative markers in Australian languages are asyncretic
(24 per cent). The same is true of Tibeto-Burman (four asyncretic vs. eight syn-
cretic) and in Caucasianwhere the proportion is larger (seven asyncreticvs. twelve
syncretic). At times we find the vestiges of old syncretisms that have long van-
ished.Basque asyncretic ergative =k used to encode causewith intransitive pred-
icates.This old causal use still survives in sporadic, formal, idiomatic expressions
(e.g.hotz=q=k n-en-go-enIcold=oer=enc lsc-p,tsr-EcoN'be.located'-esr] 'I was
cold') and in the lexicalized adjective hotzakil 'very cold' (lit. 'dead from cold' hotz-
a-k (h)il Icold=oeE=enc die.rnr] ).

icpatterns
cOmmonsyncret
37.2.1.1
Among syncretic instances, instrument is by far the most common semantic cat-
egory found in ergative syncretisms. Figures speak for themselves: all syncretic
ergativemarkers in Australian also expressinstrument (savethe Djingili (AT-NPN)
allomorph -njdja, which is better seen as an oblique). The pattern is found in the
vastmajority of East Caucasianlanguages(Lak being an exception; N.B. North West
Caucasianlanguages have a separate Instrumental marker, and South Caucasian
ergativesare asyncretic). It is also found in Indo-Aryan Brokskat, Konkani, and
Marathi, but not in Urdu/Hindi, which has its own Instrumental. It is widespread
acrossTibeto-Burman and in Papuan languages,and a number of South-American
languageshave it too, for example, Shipibo-Konibo and Sanumd (Borgman
1 9 90) .
Occasionally,when an ergative expressesinstrument, it may also serveto express
causein intransitive clauses (e.g. 'they died from hunger'). The pattern is rather
scattered,but appears in a number of East Caucasian, Tibeto-Burman, Papuan,
and Indo-Aryan languages,as well as in isolated cases.It is illustrated in (6) from
Sanumd(Ml) (Borgman r99o):
568 ENRIQUE L . PAL ANCAR

(6) a. Agent hama sam-atiip\ se kite

(kamisamak6-nii) Possess
We.EXCL-ERG/IcENvisitor lpr.sxcr hit eur may eve
'We will hit the visitors'(P'zg) two opt
b. Instrument (kusiali a-nd) sa ia pia kule
(8) a.
spoon 3sc-pnc/rNslsc eat intend pns
'I am about to eatwith a spoon'(p. tr:)
c. Cause (kamali te wasu-nb) ipa ulu a
high.fever 3sc deadly-nnc/causmy son 3sc
floma-so-ma
b.
d i e -ro c -c o v tP l
'My son died from a deadly high fever' (p.pz)

Possessoris another semantic category that ergative markers also express cross-
linguistically, but in overall frequency, the pattern is much less common than A som
the syncretism with instrument. Ergative markers expressinga possessiverelation the erg
are typical of Eskimo and Tibeto-Burman languages. It is illustrated in (7) in causat
Ladakhi (TB) (Koshal ;9Zil.The pattern is sporadically found elsewhere, as in
(Faar-
Caucasian Lak (Van den Berg zoo5) or in Mixe-Zoquean Chiapas Zoque
lund p.c.). (N.B. A similar head-marked pattern is found in Mixean and Mayan
37.2.t.
languages.)
Syncre
0 a. Agent (thug-gu-yi) Pel-lden-ni ke-ne Spe-thE langua
boy-ers-Enc/ecpu Paldan-cBNfrom-eer book-les sixty-s
khyers no ma
take.sruPr-Pnr' same l
'The boy took the book from Paldan'(p.ls) Manip
b. Possessor(khyi-yi) sge-me-rig-mo duk langua
dog-Enc/cnNtail-Ass-long-ensbe.rns source
'The dog'stail is long' (p.l+) Tibetc
both instru-
However,it is typologically rare to find an ergativecasethat expresses code i
ment and possessorat the sametime, only in someTibeto-Burmanlanguagesis (P-TN
this pattern possible(e.g.Athpare -4a (Ebert 1997b),Limbu -le (Yan Driem 1987), -se (G
and Tibetan-s haveit (Denwoodry9il).(N.8. PanoanShipibo-Konibohasit too; is fou
Yalenzuelat997.) but ot
appea

37.2.r.2 (Jncommon ergative syncretisms

Other syncreticpatternsare lesscommon or revealsyncreticphenomenathat are
yet to be uncoveredin undescribedlanguages. In North WestCaucasianlanguages 37.2.
with nominal case, the ergativecase hasbeen treated asan'oblique'markerbecause At th
of its divergentfunctions. Apart from their locativefunctions,which other syncretic concl
ergativemarkersalso have (seenext section),in theselanguagesergativesare the How<
casegovernedby adpositions;the casethat marks the possessor in head-marked instrt
 V A R IE TIE S OF E R GA TIV E 569

possessionrelations; they cover adverbial functions with verbs (see 3); and they
may even expressa dative participant, as well as other demoted patients. The last
two options are illustrated in (8) in Kabardian (CA-NW):

(8) a. (l'e-m) tye*e-r (feze-m)

man-ERG/AGENbook-ess woman-pnc/p,tr
O-je-ri-t-a-s'
3sc.ees- 3 sc.pan-3 sc.snc- give-r'nn-essnr
'The man gavethe book to the woman' (Kumachov et al. 1996:roo)
b. g'a:13-r (tyele-m) A-j-aw-dga-O
boy-ans book-nnc/pEMorED.PAr he-it-ovN-read-rNrn'pRss
'The boy is readingthe book' (Hewitt zoo5;:u4)

A somewhatsimilar phenomenonis found in carib Tiriy6 (Meira 1999),where

the ergativemarker is usedto encodea dativeparticipantaswell as the causeein
causativeconstructions.

37.2.13Local syncretisms
Syncreticergative markers often encode spatial categories.Ergatives in Australian
languagesmay encode locative as well as instrument (seventeenout of a total of
sixty-sevensyncretic instances in sixty-five languages),but in this linguistic area,
no marker appears to encode agent and locative alone, without instrument. The
same pattern is found in Shipibo-Konibo (Pan), in Vach Khanty (UY), and in
Manipuri Meithei (TB). All ergative (oblique) markers in North West Caucasian
languagesalso expressa locative relation. After locative, ergativesencoding spatial
source (ablative) also occur, but more infrequently; they are especially typical of
Tibeto-Burman and Papuan languages.As with the locative, all such markers en-
codeinstrument and causeas well (e.g. Dani (P-W) -(n)en (Bromley r98r); Tauya
(P-TNG) -n I (MacDonald rsso); Athpare (TB) -rJa (Ebert Dgtb); Thakali (TB)
-se (Georg 1996)). Other spatial casesare rare' Perlative ('through/by the park')
is found in Indo-Iranian Konkani (Maffei 1986) and Marathi (Kashli Wali p.c.),
but outside Indo-Iranian this syncretism is not found, as with the allative, which
appearscircumscribed to South-American languages.

37.2.r.4Non-existentsyncreticp atterns
At this stage of the question and with scanty data, it is unwise to make any
conclusive serious statement about the typological absenceof certain syncretisms.
However, one may advance at least one: even though the syncretism comitative-
instrument is common cross-linguistically for instrumental cases,the comitative is
57O ENRIQUE L . PAL ANCAR

not found in ergativesyncretismsthat encode instrument or otherwise (Stolz rqq6b; E Eas

Palancar zooz).3 iE InC
LI Lat
MI ME
NPN NC
37.2.2 The origin of ergatives NW Nt
What do these slncretic patterns reveal about ergativecase?Ergativity has long been PPa
seenin linguistics as an emergent structure that came about through the reanalysis Pan Pa
of a nominative-accusative alignment. In this view, passivehas been believed to be Pol Pc
the most common path for this reanalysis,especiallyfor the Indo-Iranian' Polyne- TB Ti
sian, and Eskimo ergativelanguages(for a fu1l discussionon the matter seePalancar TNG Ti
zooz). However, the evidence provided is not fully convincing, and there are many UYU
who remain sceptical. Recently, Butt and King (r99r, zoo3, zoo4) have challenged wv
such a view with convincing arguments, for example the old Sanskrit inflectional
instrumental with multiple allomorphy used with demoted agents in passive-like
structures could not possibly have given rise to current ergative markers, as these
are of recent development, and behave like clitics. Butt and King's solution is that
ergative case=ne in Urdu/Hindi stems from a grammaticalized adposition janiyE
'for the sakeof, becauseofl which was used in the past tenseto emphasizesemantic
agentivity. All in all, ergative symcretisms are often taken to shed light on the
possible emergence of the alignment they manifest. Palancar (zooz) treats ergative
sprcretisms involving instrument (and cause)as reflecting a more abstract energetic
category he calls 'energiser',much along the lines of the 'effector' category in Van
Valin and Wilkins Gggz).Such a view proves more convenient than explaining
which was first, instrument or agent. The oblique ergativesof the Caucasian type
reflect very old markers whose history is difficult to trace. As for the spatial casesin
the syrcretisms, the spatial categoriesinvolved (mainly source and location) served
as a model to metaphorically construe other more abstract, semantic categories
such as agent/instrument/cause in order to foreground the energetic role played by
such participants in the clausal event.

AsrnEvrATroNs ( reNcuecEs, LANGUAGE GRouPs'

AND REGION S)

AT Australian
AU Austronesian
CA Caucasian
3 The apparentexceptionto this rule is found in Circassianlanguages.As the ergativesin these
languagesare really oblique markers,an NP functioning as comitative can also receivethis case
providing the relevantcross-referencingmorphology appearsin the verb. I thank Yury Lander for this
observation.
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i

V A R IE TIE S OF E R GA TIV E \7I

t-

I E East
I IE Indo-European
LI Language Isolate
MI Macro-|€
NPN Non-Pama-Nyungan
NW North West
P Papuan
Pan Panoan
Pol Polinesian
TB Tibeto-Burman
TNG Tians-New-Guinea
UY Uralo-Yukaghir
W West