Active language

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As active language (: Also , active-inactive language active Tripod language ) is called within the relational typology a type of language, which the agent (this is "active") both transitive and intransitive always brings in the same way the term sets and the patient (this is "inactive") is always referred to in a different way in all sentences. The difference to German, for example, is that the intransitive subject does not receive a uniform case ( nominative ), but that the marking changes depending on the semantic role. There is also a contrast to ergative languages , which uniformly mark the intransitive subject as absolute; however, some ergative languages ​​also partially allow ergative cases for "active" participants, and thus tend more or less into an active / inactive system (for example in Georgian ).

A pure active / inactive system is typically marked by two rows of pronominal elements on the verb, i.e. That is , there are two morphological categories active and inactive (the former having nothing to do with the genus verbi of the same name ).

Languages ​​of this type can be found outside of Europe, mostly in indigenous American languages , but also in others.

In these examples you can see that the Dakota only marks the 1st person singular ("I / me") on the verb, the 3rd person singular is not explicitly expressed. The two forms that are translated as "I / myself" are not assigned depending on "subject / object", but depending on the active / inactive status of the participant:

  agent Patiens
transitive wa -kastaka
" I hit him"		 ma -kastaka
"he hits me "
intransitive wa -lową
" I'm singing"		 ma -khuže
" I 'm sick"
  • Another active language is z. B. the guaraní .
  • Even in German (which is an accusative language ) there are constructions that correspond to the essence of an active language: I freeze ( I am inactive here) instead of intransitive I freeze , i.e. H. in accordance with transitive he hits me where I am also inactive.

See also

Other systems:

Generic term:

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