rarissimum 38: absolutive (marking intransitive subject and transitive direct object) as the morphologically marked case vis-Ã -vis (zero-marked) ergative (marking transitive subject), (a) on NPs which are not focused or topicalized and then are not case-marked at all, (b) on NPs which are focused
Where found
(a) Nias (Sundic, Western Malayo-Polynesian, Austronesian)
(b) Yukaghir (isolate or Uralic); dialects of Komi (Permic, Finno-Ugric, Uralic) Old Wardaman (Australian) (?); Kabardian (Northwest Caucasian) (?)
Domain
morphology: inflection
Subdomain
markedness: case
Keywords
absolutive, ergative, focus
Type
rarissimum
Universals violated
Source
Donohue, Mark & Lea Brown (1999). Ergativity: Some additions from Indonesia. Australian Journal of Linguistics 19: 57-76. Irina Nikolaeva (p.c.) for Yukaghir and Komi
