Everything about Morphosyntactic alignment
Grammatical relationship between arguments
In linguistics, morphosyntactic alignment is the grammatical relationship between arguments—specifically, between the two arguments of transitive verbs like the dog chased the cat, and the single argument of intransitive verbs like the cat ran away. English has a subject, which merges the more active argument of transitive verbs with the argument of intransitive verbs, leaving the object in transitive verbs distinct; other languages may have different strategies, or, rarely, make no distinction at all. Distinctions may be made morphologically, syntactically, or both. Wikipedia →
🧠Start here: a 6-step reading path
- Read the overview: Morphosyntactic alignmentA 5-minute orientation
- Skim a recent paper: Functional Alignment Philosophy in Total Knee Arthroplasty – Rationale and technique for the varus morphotype using a CT based robotic platform and individualized planningInfluential work since 2022
- Pick up a classic book: Ergativity and Other Alignment Types in Neo-AramaicThe most-reprinted book on the subject
- Read the landmark paper: The diachrony of morphosyntactic alignmentCited 8 times
- Go sideways: Ergative–absolutive alignmentA closely related topic
- Go sideways: Tripartite alignmentA closely related topic
đź“– Definitions
No dictionary entry for this exact phrase.
🗂️ The subject at a glance
🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)
The diachrony of morphosyntactic alignment
Permittito aperiat oculum : typological considerations on P-lability and its interaction with morphosyntactic alignment in Latin medical texts
🆕 Influential since 2022
đź“š Books worth reading
- 📕Ergativity and Other Alignment Types in Neo-AramaicPaul M. Noorlander · 2021
Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.
đź”— Related topics
- Ergative–absolutive alignment In linguistic typology, ergative–absolutive alignment is a type of morphosyntactic alignment in which the subject of an intransitive verb behaves like…
- Tripartite alignment In linguistic typology, tripartite alignment is a type of morphosyntactic alignment in which the main argument ('subject') of an intransitive verb, the…
- Nominative–accusative alignment In linguistic typology, nominative–accusative alignment is a type of morphosyntactic alignment in which subjects of intransitive verbs are treated like…
- Direct case A direct case (abbreviated dir) is a grammatical case used with all three core relations: both the agent and patient of transitive verbs and the argument…
- Antipassive voice The antipassive voice (abbreviated antip or ap) is a type of grammatical voice that either does not include the object or includes the object in an oblique…
- Active–stative alignment In linguistic typology, active–stative alignment (also split intransitive alignment or semantic alignment) is a type of morphosyntactic alignment in which…
- Split ergativity In linguistic typology, split ergativity is a feature of certain languages where some constructions use ergative syntax and morphology, but other constructions…
- Ergative case In grammar, the ergative case (abbreviated erg) is the grammatical case that identifies a nominal phrase as the agent of a transitive verb in ergative–absolutiv…