Absolute vs Ergative - What's the difference?
absolute | ergative |
(obsolete) Absolved; free.
(obsolete) Disengaged from accidental circumstances.
(archaic) Complete in itself; perfect.
* (rfdate) :
(grammar) Not immediately dependent on the other parts of the sentence; as
# (of a case form) syntactically connected to the rest of the sentence in an atypical manner; ablative absolute; nominative absolute; genitive absolute; accusative absolute.
# standing by itself in a loose syntactical connection, and qualifying the sentence as a whole rather than any single word in it.
# (of an adjective or possessive pronoun) lacking a modified substantive.
# (comparative, superlative) expressing a relative term without a definite comparison.'
# having no direct object.
# (Irish, Welsh) an inflected verb that is not preceded by any number of articles or compounded with a preverb.
(obsolete) Absorbed in, as an occupation.
Unrestricted; in sole control; possessing absolute power; independent, as in ownership or authority.
Pure; unmixed; as, absolute alcohol.
(figurative) Complete; utter; outright; unmitigated; entire; total; not qualified or diminished in any way; unrestricted; without limitation.
Unconditional; free from any conditions, limitations, and relations;
# having unlimited power, without limits set by a constitution, parliament, or other means.
# proceeding from or characteristic of an absolute ruler.
* 1962 , Hannah Arendt, On Revolution , (1990), page 155:
# Absolutist; arbitrary; despotic.
Real; actual.
(archaic) Certain; free from doubt or uncertainty, as a person or prediction.
* (rfdate) (William Shakespeare), Cymbeline , Act 4, Scene 2:
Positive; unquestionable; peremptory.
Free from conditional limitations; operating or existing in full under all circumstances without variation.
(philosophy) Existing, able to be thought of, or able to be viewed without relation to other things.
* (rfdate) :
Authoritative; peremptory.
* (rfdate) :
(philosophy) Fundamental; ultimate; intrinsic; free from the variability and error natural to the human way of thinking and perception.
(physics) Independent of arbitrary units of measurement not comparative or relative as,
# having reference to or derived from the simplest manner from the fundamental units of mass, time, and length.
# relating to the absolute temperature scale.
(legal) Complete; unconditional; final; without encumbrances; not liable to change or cancellation.
(education) Pertaining to a grading system based on the knowledge of the individual and not on the comparative knowledge of the group of students.
(art) Concerned entirely with expressing beauty and feelings, lacking meaningful reference.
(dance) Utilizing the body to express ideas, independent of music and costumes.
(math) Indicating an expression that is true for all real number; unconditional.
That which is independent of context-dependent interpretation, inviolate, fundamental.
Anything that is absolute.
(geometry) In a plane, the two imaginary circular points at infinity; in space of three dimensions, the imaginary circle at infinity.
(philosophy, usually capitalized) A realm which exists without reference to anything else; that which can be imagined purely by itself; absolute ego.
* 1983 , (Lawrence Durrell), Sebastian'', Faber & Faber 2004 (''Avignon Quintet ), page 1039:
(philosophy, usually capitalized) The unity of spirit and nature; God.
(philosophy, usually capitalized) The whole of reality; the totality to which everything is reduced.
Concentrated natural flower oil, used for perfumes.
(grammar) Used of various situations where the subject of transitive constructions have different grammatical cases or thematic relations to those of intransitive constructions.
* 1987 , George Van Driem, A Grammar of Limbu ,
*
* 2000 , Hans Bennis, Adjectives and Argument Structure'', Peter Coopmans, Martin Everaert, Jane Barbara Grimshaw (editors), ''Lexical Specification and Insertion ,
* 2008 , Geoffrey Khan, HdO: The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Barwar ,
(linguistics) The ergative case.
* 2006 , Miriam Butt, Theories of Case ,
(linguistics) An ergative verb or other expression.
* 1987 , Edward L. Keenan, Noun Phrase Accessibility and Universal Grammar'', ''Universal Grammar: 15 Essays ,
* 1994 , Virginia Yip, Chapter 6: Grammatical consciousness-raising and learnability'', Terence Odlin (editor), ''Perspectives on Pedagogical Grammar ,
* 2012 , Michael A. Daniel, Timur A. Maisak, Solmaz R. Merdanova, Causatives in Agul'', Pirkko Suihkonen, Bernard Comrie, V. D. Solov?ev (editors), ''Argument Structure and Grammatical Relations: A Crosslinguistic Typology ,
As nouns the difference between absolute and ergative
is that absolute is (philosophy) that which is totally unconditioned, unrestricted, pure, perfect, or complete; that which can be thought of without relation to others while ergative is (linguistics) the ergative case.As an adjective ergative is
(grammar) used of various situations where the subject of transitive constructions have different grammatical cases or thematic relations to those of intransitive constructions.absolute
English
Alternative forms
*Adjective
(en-adj)- So absolute she seems, And in herself complete.
- Anyhow in 'anyhow, I made it home' is an absolute .
- Hungry in 'Feed the hungry.'
- Older in 'An older person should be treated with respect.
- Kill in 'If looks could kill...'
- When caught, he told an absolute lie.
- the more absolute' the ruler, the more ' absolute the revolution will be which replaces him.
- I am absolute ’t was very Cloten.
- absolute motion
- absolute time or space
- Absolute rights and duties are such as pertain to man in a state of nature as contradistinguished from ''relative'' rights and duties, or such as pertain to him in his social relations.
- To Cusa we can indeed articulately trace, word and thing, the recent philosophy of the absolute .
- The peddler stopped, and tapped her on the head, With absolute forefinger, brown and ringed.
Derived terms
* ablative absolute * absolute address * absolute curvature * absolute equation * absolute magnitude * absolute majority * absolute monarchy * absolute music * absolute pitch * absolute power * absolute space * absolute term * absolute temperature * absolute value * absolute zeroSynonyms
* categorical, unconditional, unlimited, unrestricted * (having unlimited power) autocratic, despotic * (complete in itself) fixed * (able to be viewed without relation to other things) independentAntonyms
* conditional, limited * (able to be viewed without relation to other things) relative, dependentNoun
(en noun)- moral absolutes
- Withdrawn as a Buddha he sat, watching the alien world from his perch in the absolute .
Usage notes
* (not dependent on anything else) Usually preceded by the word the . * (sense) Usually preceded by the word theReferences
*External links
* (projectlink) *Anagrams
* ----ergative
English
Adjective
(-)- The case systems of ergative languages are counterintuitive to speakers of Indo-European languages.
page 39,
- The ergative' case marks the agent of a transitive verb. The '''ergative''' suffix is ''-le/-re/-lle/-?ille''. The form of the '''ergative suffix is ''/-le/'' for the indefinite and ''/-?ille/'' for the definite after the consonants ''/?/'', ''/k/'', ''/t/'', ''/p/'', ''/b/'', ''/?/'', ''/n/'' and ''/m/ .
- To illustrate what is meant by an ‘Ergative? structure, consider the following set of examples:
(155) (a) John broke the door''
(155) (b) ''The door'' broke
(156) (a) John might drown ''the kittens''
(156) (b) ''The kittens'' might drown
(157) (a) The artillery will sink ''the ship''
(157) (b) ''The ship'' will sink
(158) (a) John rolled ''the ball'' down the hill
(158) (b) ''The ball'' rolled down the hill
Following the terminology adopted in Chapter 7 (after Burzio (1986), p. 30), we might say that the (a) member of each of these pairs is a ''transitive'' structure, and the (b) member an ''ergative'' structure. In Burzio?s use of the term, an ''ergative Clause is an intransitive Clause which has a transitive counterpart in which the transitive Object corresponds to the ergative Subject.
page 28,
- A large number of adjectives that are unergative according to the tests provided in Section 2 appear to be ergative with respect to their argument structure.
page 22,
- In Kurdish, on the other hand, the corresponding compound construction, which appears to have been the model for the NENA[North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic] construction, is ergative in form when the verb is transitive.
Derived terms
* ergative case * ergative verbNoun
(en noun)page 178.
- There are some languages in which the ergative is not acquired as quickly or as easily as described above.
page 26,
- Woodbury (1975) does argue, however, that absolutives are more relativisable in Greenlandic than are ergatives', on the grounds that (1) RCs[Relative Clauses] formed on '''ergatives''' are somewhat more restricted in the distribution in matrix clauses (p. 21) than are those formed on absolutives, and (2) for certain verb classes ' ergatives cannot be relativised out of the active participle (p. 27).
page 128,
- Ergatives' share close similarities with agentless passives: Both are intransitive, both lack an agent, while the patient appears in the subject position. As the acquisition data show, learners seem to treat ' ergatives like passives.
page 66,
- Combining two ergatives' in one clause is not always ungrammatical in Agul; but one of the ' ergatives must be used in a non-agentive function, e.g. instrumental or temporal.