Active languages are characterized by dividing nouns into active (“animate”) and inactive (“inanimate”) classes and by the corresponding principle of dividing verbs into active (verbs of action) and stative (verbs of state) groups. Both of these groups form “covert” categories. Corresponding syntactic correlates are the opposition between active and inactive constructions and the distinction between near and distant objects.
Standardized
IF alignment is predominantly active, THEN both nouns and verbs are subdivided into active and inactive classes (animate vs. inanimate, action vs. state), and there is a corresponding distinction of active vs. inactive syntactic constructions, showing a distinction of objects into “near” and “distant” rather than direct and indirect/oblique.
Klimov being a “stadialist”, these implications are to be seen as characterizing developmental stages, with the ergative stage developing from the active stage and developing into the accusative stage.
Klimov being a “stadialist”, these implications are to be seen as characterizing developmental stages, with the ergative stage developing from the active stage and developing into the accusative stage.