Re: [tied] ergative

Thank you, Miguel.
So it is someone called Dirr who is responsible for this hybrid.
I would have preferred he had stuck to the normal way of making case
names and called it (why not?) "executive".
Thus the mystification around ergativity would not have been so
confusing and understanding of it simplified.
Lars

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:
> On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 11:32:08 +0000, squilluncus
> <grvs@...> wrote:
>
> >How is this casename composed? Other casenames have Latin ppp
stems
> >in them from verbs nominare, vocare, accusare, dare, auferre,
(col)
> >locare, gignere ... But I know of no verb ergare.
> >Is it formed from the preposition erga, towards, vis-à-vis?
> >Or is it Gr. ergon?
>
> Yes.
>
> >Does somebody know who coined this term and when?
>
> According to Dixon, "Ergativity", p. 3:
>
> "It seems that the first use of the term 'ergative' (based
> upon the Greek <ergon> 'work, deed') was by Dirr (1912) in a
> description, written in Russian, of the Dagestanian language
> Rutul. However, the term did not come into general
> circulation until the publication of Dirr's (1928) survey,
> written in German, of thirty-five Caucasian languages(1)
>
> (1) See Seely (1977) for an exemplary historical account of
> the use of 'ergative' and related labels."
>
>
> That would be:
>
> Dirr, A. 1912 'Rutul'skij jazyk', Sbornik materialov dlja
> opisanija plemen Kavkaza 42:3, 1-204, Tbilisi.
> Dirr, A. 1928 'Einfuehrung in das Studium der kaukasischen
> Sprachen', Leipzig.
> Seely, J. 1977 'An ergative historiography',
> Historiographica Linguistica 4, 191-206.
>
>
> =======================
> Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
> mcv@...