Ergativity and Unaccusativity:Problems and Solutions

The misuse of "ergativity" and relevant terms is rooted in the different interpretations in linguistic typology and formal syntax (notably generative grammar).This paper revisits the problems majorly by (re-)introducing the notion in the framework of typology.It claims that ergativity is a formal coding strategy of grammatical relations between the verb and its core arguments.This work sheds light on the analysis of some complex syntactic structures in Chinese (e.g.the ba-construction) and shows that the so-called ergative structures in Chinese are invariably unaccusative in nature.A set of criteria of ergative alignment is proposed accordingly and a sample of 78 languages is analyzed.