Editing Ergative–absolutive alignment (section)

===Sign languages===
Sign languages (for example, [[Nepalese Sign Language#NSL Morhosyntax|Nepali Sign Language]]) should also generally be considered ergative in the patterning of [[Actant#In linguistics|actant]] incorporation in verbs.<ref>MW Morgan (2009) Cross-Linguistic Typology of Argument Encoding in Sign Language Verbal Morphology. Paper presented at Association of Linguistic Typology, Berkeley</ref> In [[sign language]]s that have been studied, [[classifier handshape]]s are incorporated into verbs, indicating the [[Subject (grammar)|subject]] of [[intransitive verb]]s when incorporated, and the [[Object (grammar)|object]] of [[transitive verb]]s. (If we follow the "[[semantic phonology]]" model proposed by [[William Stokoe]] (1991)<ref>William Stokoe (1991) Semantic Phonology. Sign Language Studies, 71 ,107–114.</ref> this ergative-absolutive patterning also works at the level of the lexicon: thus in [[Nepali Sign Language]] the sign for TEA has the motion for the verb DRINK with a [[manual alphabet]] handshape च /ca/ (standing for the first letter of the [[Nepali language|Nepali]] word TEA चिया /chiya:/) being incorporated as the [[Object (grammar)|object]].)