Editing Ergative–absolutive alignment (section)

===Syntactic ergativity===
Ergativity may be manifested through syntax, such as saying "Arrived I" for "I arrived", in addition to morphology. Syntactic ergativity is quite rare, and while all languages that exhibit it also feature morphological ergativity, few morphologically ergative languages have ergative syntax. As with morphology, syntactic ergativity can be placed on a continuum, whereby certain syntactic operations may pattern accusatively and others ergatively. The degree of syntactic ergativity is then dependent on the number of syntactic operations that treat the subject like the object. Syntactic ergativity is also referred to as inter-clausal ergativity, as it typically appears in the relation of two clauses.

Syntactic ergativity may appear in:
* [[Word order]] (for example, the absolutive argument comes before the verb and the ergative argument comes after it)
* [[Syntactic pivot]]s
* [[Relative clause]]s – determining which arguments are available for relativization
* [[Subordination (linguistics)|Subordination]]
* [[Switch reference]]

{{Expand section|date=June 2008}}

====Example====

Example of syntactic ergativity in the "[[conjunction reduction]]" construction ([[coordinated clause]]s) in [[Dyirbal language|Dyirbal]] in contrast with English conjunction reduction. (The subscript (i) indicates coreference.)

[[English language|English]] ([[Agent–verb–object|SVO]] word order):
# Father returned.
# Father saw mother.
# Mother saw father.
# Father<sub>(i)</sub> returned and father<sub>(i)</sub> saw mother.
# Father<sub>(i)</sub> returned and ____<sub>(i)</sub> saw mother.
# Father<sub>(i)</sub> returned and mother saw father<sub>(i)</sub>.
#<nowiki>*</nowiki> Father<sub>(i)</sub> returned and mother saw ____<sub>(i)</sub>. (ill-formed, because S and deleted O cannot be [[coreference|coreferential]].)

[[Dyirbal language|Dyirbal]] ([[Object–subject–verb|OSV]] word order):
# Ŋuma banagan<sup>y</sup>u. (''Father returned.'')
# Yabu ŋumaŋgu buṛan. (lit. ''Mother father-''ŋgu'' saw'', i.e. ''Father saw mother.'')
# Ŋuma yabuŋgu buṛan. (lit. ''Father mother-''ŋgu'' saw'', i.e. ''Mother saw father.'')
# Ŋuma<sub>(i)</sub> banagan<sup>y</sup>u, yabu ŋumaŋgu<sub>(i)</sub> buṛan. (lit. ''Father''<sub>(i)</sub>'' returned, mother father-''ŋgu<sub>(i)</sub>'' saw'', i.e. ''Father returned, father saw mother.'')
#<nowiki>*</nowiki> Ŋuma<sub>(i)</sub> banagan<sup>y</sup>u, yabu ____<sub>(i)</sub> buṛan. (lit. *''Father''<sub>(i)</sub>'' returned, mother ____''<sub>(i)</sub>'' saw''; ill-formed, because S and deleted A cannot be coreferential.)
# Ŋuma<sub>(i)</sub> banagan<sup>y</sup>u, ŋuma<sub>(i)</sub> yabuŋgu buṛan. (lit. ''Father''<sub>(i)</sub>'' returned, father''<sub>(i)</sub>'' mother-''ŋgu'' saw'', i.e. ''Father returned, mother saw father.'')
# Ŋuma<sub>(i)</sub> banagan<sup>y</sup>u, ____<sub>(i)</sub> yabuŋgu buṛan. (lit. ''Father''<sub>(i)</sub>'' returned, ____''<sub>(i)</sub>'' mother-''ŋgu'' saw'', i.e. ''Father returned, mother saw father.'')

Crucially, the fifth sentence has an S/A pivot and thus is ill-formed in Dyirbal (syntactically ergative); on the other hand, the seventh sentence has an S/O pivot and thus is ill-formed in English (syntactically accusative).

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| colspan="2" | ''Father returned.''
|-
| <span style="color:#008000">father</span>
| returned
|-
| <span style="color:#008000">'''S'''</span>
| VERB<sub>intrans</sub>
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| colspan="6" | ''Father returned, and father saw mother.''
|-
| <span style="color:#008000">father</span>
| returned
| and
| <span style="color:#008000">father</span>
| saw
| <span style="color:#800000">mother</span>
|-
| <span style="color:#008000">'''S'''</span>
| VERB<sub>intrans</sub>
| <small>CONJ</small>
| <span style="color:#008000">'''A'''</span>
| VERB<sub>trans</sub>
| <span style="color:#800000">'''O'''</span>
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| colspan="6" | ''Father returned and saw mother.''
|-
| <span style="color:#008000">father</span>
| returned
| and
| <small><span style="color:#008000">____</span></small>
| saw
| <span style="color:#800000">mother</span>
|-
| <span style="color:#008000">'''S'''</span>
| VERB<sub>intrans</sub>
| <small>CONJ</small>
| <span style="color:#008000">'''A'''</span>
| VERB<sub>trans</sub>
| <span style="color:#800000">'''O'''</span>
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| colspan="2" | ''Ŋuma banagan<sup>y</sup>u.''
|-
| ŋuma<span style="color:#008000">'''-∅'''</span>
| banagan<sup>y</sup>u
|-
| father<span style="color:#008000">'''-<small>ABS</small>'''</span>
| returned
|-
| <span style="color:#008000">'''S'''</span>
| VERB<sub>intrans</sub>
|-
| colspan="2" | "Father returned."
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| colspan="3" | ''Yabu ŋumaŋgu buṛan.''
|-
| yabu<span style="color:#008000">'''-∅'''</span>
| ŋuma<span style="color:#800000">'''-ŋgu'''</span>
| buṛan
|-
| mother<span style="color:#008000">'''-<small>ABS</small>'''</span>
| father<span style="color:#800000">'''-<small>ERG</small>'''</span>
| saw
|-
| <span style="color:#008000">'''O'''</span>
| <span style="color:#800000">'''A'''</span>
| VERB<sub>trans</sub>
|-
| colspan="3" | "Father saw mother."
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| colspan="3" | ''Ŋuma yabuŋgu buṛan.''
|-
| ŋuma<span style="color:#008000">'''-∅'''</span>
| yabu<span style="color:#800000">'''-ŋgu'''</span>
| buṛan
|-
| father<span style="color:#008000">'''-<small>ABS</small>'''</span>
| mother<span style="color:#800000">'''-<small>ERG</small>'''</span>
| saw
|-
| <span style="color:#008000">'''O'''</span>
| <span style="color:#800000">'''A'''</span>
| VERB<sub>trans</sub>
|-
| colspan="3" | "Mother saw father."
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| colspan="5" | ''Ŋuma banagan<sup>y</sup>u, ŋuma yabuŋgu buṛan.''
|-
| ŋuma<span style="color:#008000">'''-∅'''</span>
| banagan<sup>y</sup>u
| ŋuma<span style="color:#008000">'''-∅'''</span>
| yabu<span style="color:#800000">'''-ŋgu'''</span>
| buṛan
|-
| father<span style="color:#008000">'''-<small>ABS</small>'''</span>
| returned
| father<span style="color:#008000">'''-<small>ABS</small>'''</span>
| mother<span style="color:#800000">'''-<small>ERG</small>'''</span>
| saw
|-
| <span style="color:#008000">'''S'''</span>
| VERB<sub>intrans</sub>
| <span style="color:#008000">'''O'''</span>
| <span style="color:#800000">'''A'''</span>
| VERB<sub>trans</sub>
|-
| colspan="5" | "Father returned and mother saw father."
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| colspan="5" | ''Ŋuma banagan<sup>y</sup>u, yabuŋgu buṛan.''
|-
| ŋuma<span style="color:#008000">'''-∅'''</span>
| banagan<sup>y</sup>u
| <span style="color:#008000">____</span>
| yabu<span style="color:#800000">'''-ŋgu'''</span>
| buṛan
|-
| father<span style="color:#008000">'''-<small>ABS</small>'''</span>
| returned
| <span style="color:#008000"><small>(deleted)</small></span>
| mother<span style="color:#800000">'''-<small>ERG</small>'''</span>
| saw
|-
| <span style="color:#008000">'''S'''</span>
| VERB<sub>intrans</sub>
| <span style="color:#008000">'''O'''</span>
| <span style="color:#800000">'''A'''</span>
| VERB<sub>trans</sub>
|-
| colspan="5" | "Father returned and was seen by mother."
|}