Nominative–absolutive alignment
In linguistic typology, nominative–absolutive alignment is a type of morphosyntactic alignment in which the sole argument of an intransitive verb shares some coding properties with the agent argument of a transitive verb and other coding properties with the patient argument of a transitive verb. It is typically observed in a subset of the clause types of a given language.
The languages for which nominative–absolutive clauses have been described include the Cariban languages Panare and Katxuyana, the Northern Jê languages Canela, Kĩsêdjê, and Apinajé, as well as in the main clauses of the Tuparian languages.
Examples
Northern Jê
In the Northern Jê language Canela, different main clause constructions present different combinations of alignment patterns, including split-S, ergative–absolutive, and nominative–absolutive. An example of the latter alignment type is given below.;intransitive
;transitive
In nominative–absolutive clauses, the sole argument of an intransitive verb is aligned with the agent argument of a transitive verb in that both may be expressed by nominative pronouns, such as wa ‘I.NOM’ or ca ‘you.NOM’, which occupy the same position in a phrase. At the same time, the sole argument of an intransitive verb is aligned with the patient argument of a transitive verb in that both may be indexed on the verb by person prefixes of the absolutive series. There are no elements which pattern as ergative or accusative in this type of clauses in Canela.
The historical origin of the nominative–absolutive clauses in Canela has been shown to be a reanalysis of former biclausal constructions as monoclausal, with the loss of the ergative.
Cariban
In the Cariban language Panare, future, desiderative, and nonspecific aspect clauses instantiate the nominative–absolutive alignment. An example is given below.In Panare nominative–absolutive clauses, the nominative and absolutive are distinguished as follows. The unmarked nominative noun or pronoun always follows the predicate, with nominative agreement in the auxiliary if there is one. In contrast, the absolutive arguments are indexed by means of verbal prefixes or by absolutive nouns phrases, which are in a complementary distribution with the absolutive person prefixes.