Forum:Ergative/Absolutive in English!

I found that English noun phrases often follow Ergative / Absolutive pattern. For example:

The house (is) on fire = The house is burning The house (is) on fire (set) by me = I am burning the house down

You can see how "house" becomes an object when we use the verb "burn" but remains unchanged when we use a noun phrase.

I (am) in a slumber. = I dream You (are) in my dreams. = I dream of you

Although it's me who is sleeping and dreaming in both cases, because in the second sentence dreaming becomes transitive, the subject moves to the second place (my dreams). Similarly,

We are in a meeting These topics (were mentioned) in our meeting

and so forth. It looks like such manner of speech naturally leads to ergative/absolutive construction of the sentence. Funny, isn't it? Adagio burner 22:49, April 28, 2010 (UTC)