I wonder just how 'ergative' these kind of sentences are, vis-a-vis
Basque or Georgian.
My understanding of 'ergative', when applied to English, is for an
essentially agentless sentence, as with "the man got/became bitten",
or more extremely, "the door opens". "It rains" probably fits here
too. Genuine middles or mediopassives do have agents.
Is this correct?
Piotr Gasiorowski:
> Yes, they look "ergative" rather than "middle" (the subject of the
sentence is the logical _inactive_ object of the verb). Mediopassive
meanings refer to doing something (or having something done) for
oneself, or to oneself. The agent is affected by, or benefits from,
the consequences of the action.
Andrei Markine:
>>I have always understood that the true middle
>>voice in English was found in sentences such as-
>>This word translates badly into German.
>>The tune plays badly on a violin. etc