1. Of or relating to a grammatical case that marks the subject of a transitive verb in certain languages.
Usage: linguistics; technical

1. A word or form in the ergative case.
Usage: linguistics; technical

Examples

• In ergative languages like Basque, the subject of a transitive verb takes the ergative case.
• The ergative case is used to mark the agent of an action in many indigenous languages.
• Linguists study ergative systems to understand how different languages encode grammatical relationships.
• The word functions as an ergative in this sentence structure.
• Some languages have ergative-absolutive alignment rather than nominative-accusative alignment.