Ergative Case
Definition:
Ergative case is the case of nouns in ergative-absolutive languages that would generally be the subjects of transitive verbs in the translation equivalents of nominative-accusative languages such as English.
Discussion:
Ergative case is more likely to be formally marked on the noun than absolutive case is.
Source:
This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library. Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003.