Thursday, August 15, 2013

ERGATIVE CONSTRUCTION

One of the most outstanding features of pre-IE languages (first of all, of the Kartvelian language) is the ergative construction, that implies usage of the subject in ergative case, and the object - in nominative case instead of accusative one. A construction that looks strange for any declension-conscious grammar, where the subject is always in nominative case, while the object - never.

But an attentive examination of Ukrainian linguistic artefacts proves that the Ukrainians used to have at least some part of ergative construction in their language too: they did use objects in nominative case.

We see that from those beautiful and famous Ukrainian Cossack nicknames-surnames, that represent combination of a verb with an object. In all of them the object is used in nominative case, while a Ukrainian mind expects there an accusative one:

Zagubibatko (not Zagubi+batka)
Ubiyvovk (not Ubiy+vovka)
Strizhikurka (not Strizhi+kurku)
Pletikosa (not Pleti+kosu)
Prudivus (not Prudi+vusa)

In Russian language the same phenomenon is present in a proverb 'Ne razley voda', where an object 'voda' is used in nominative case instead of instrumental one, as the modern Russian grammar demands .

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