Editing Ergative–absolutive alignment (section)

==Approximations of ergativity in English==

English has derivational morphology that parallels ergativity in that it operates on intransitive verbs and objects of transitive verbs. With certain intransitive verbs, adding the suffix "-ee" to the verb produces a label for the person performing the action:

:"John has retired" → "John is a retiree"
:"John has escaped" → "John is an escapee"

However, with a transitive verb, adding "-ee" does not produce a label for the person doing the action. Instead, it gives us a label for the person to whom the action is done:

:"Susie employs Mike" → "Mike is an employee"
:"Mike has appointed Susie" → "Susie is an appointee"

Etymologically, the sense in which "-ee" denotes the object of a transitive verb is the original one, arising from French [[past participle]]s in "-é". This is still the prevalent sense in [[British English]]: the intransitive uses are all 19th-century American [[neologism|coinage]]s and all except "escapee" are still marked as "chiefly U.S." by the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]''.

English also has a number of so-called [[ergative verb]]s, where the object of the verb when transitive is equivalent to the subject of the verb when intransitive.

When English nominalizes a clause, the underlying subject of an intransitive verb and the underlying object of a transitive verb are both marked with the possessive case or with the preposition "of" (the choice depends on the type and length of the noun: pronouns and short nouns are typically marked with the possessive, while long and complex NPs are marked with "of"). The underlying subject of a transitive is marked differently (typically with "by" as in a passive construction):

:"(a dentist) extracts a tooth" → "the extraction of a tooth (by a dentist)"
:"(I/The editor) revised the essay" → "(my/the editor's) revision of the essay"
:"(I was surprised that) the water boiled" → "(I was surprised at) the boiling of the water"
:"I departed on time (so I could catch the plane)" → "My timely departure (allowed me to catch the plane)"