Ergative pattern

Ergative pattern is a term used for a situation in which one case marker or affix is used to mark the subject of intransitive verbs as well as the object of transitive verbs, while another case marker or affix is used for the subject of transitive verbs. The former case marker is called the Absolutive (ABS), and the latter, the Ergative (ERG).

Example
The following examples from the paleosiberian language Chukchee are taken from Spencer (1991:24):


 * (i)||@tl@g-e||l_?unin||ek-@k	||
 * ||father-ERG||saw||son-ABS||
 * colspan="2"|'The father saw the son.'||
 * }
 * colspan="2"|'The father saw the son.'||
 * }
 * colspan="2"|'The father saw the son.'||
 * }


 * (ii)||ek-@k||k@tg@ntatg_?e||
 * ||son-ABS||ran||
 * colspan="2"|'The son ran.''||
 * }
 * colspan="2"|'The son ran.''||
 * }
 * colspan="2"|'The son ran.''||
 * }

Link
Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics