Abstract: English is not consideied an ergative language in traditional sense.But the paradigmatic difference between verbs likeloseandbreaktriggers the conceptual difference between transitivity and ergativity.Sentences likeHe lost my bookdenotes a transitive event in which the actor(he) acts upon the goal(my book),but sentences likeThe rock broke the windowdenotes an ergative event in which the instigator(the rock) acts upon the medium(the window) and the medium(the window) itself co-participates in the whole process of breaking.The paper mainly explores the semantic and syntactic structures of ergativity and transitivity,which renders a better understanding of the nature of English grammar and offers a new perspective on studying language.
Publication Year: 2009
Publication Date: 2009-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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