Nominative–accusative Language
Nominative–accusative is a form of morphosyntactic alignment in which subjects of transitive and intransitive verbs are distinguished from objects of transitive verbs through word order, case marking, and/or verb agreement. Nominative–accusative alignment can be realized through morphology, by visible coding properties, and/or syntax, by behavioral properties during participation in specific constructions. This type of alignment has a broad global distribution and is one of the major alignment systems characterizing a critical portion of the world’s languages.
A transitive verb is associated with two noun phrases (or arguments): a subject and a direct object. An intransitive verb is associated with only one argument, a subject. Nominative–accusative alignment uses the same coding system for subjects of transitive and intransitive verbs, and a different coding system for direct objects of transitive verbs. These different kinds of arguments are represented as A, S, and O. A is the subject (or most agent-like) argument of a transitive verb, O is the direct object (or most patient-like) argument of a transitive verb, and S is the sole argument of an intransitive verb.
Read more about Nominative–accusative Language: Nominative–accusative Vs. Ergative–absolutive, Coding Properties of Accusativity, Behavioral Properties of Accusativity, Distribution
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