Peshpeg: Difference between revisions

Case marking on the core arguments of a verb depend on the declension a given noun falls under.  Class I nouns follow an ergative-absolutive pattern, Class II nouns follow a nominative-accusative pattern, and Class III nouns take no marking whatsoever.  Typically when a Class I noun acts upon a Class II noun, the Class II noun takes accusative marking, so the resulting clause exhibits tripartite properties; if a Class II noun acts upon a Class I noun, both agent and patient are unmarked, so ambiguity results.  When a Class III noun acts upon a Class I or Class II noun, both agent and patient once again are unmarked and the same ambiguity arises.  Either context or word order then becomes important to disambiguate the roles of the core arguments.