In Nominative^x, Accusative^x, Grammar^x

Although I'm a native English speaker, I've often struggled to understand English grammar, especially its morphosyntatical elements. I've done some reading on nominative-accusative as well as ergative-absolutive cases and I just don't get it. Can someone who's better at linguistics explain...

The noun after the verb is to be in nominative case and not in accusative. I think you mean this to be true in the case of a pro noun after a linking verb only. Taking your "rule" literally, we must have They invited we. because the pronoun is after the verb, the conditions under...

Mr Pedantic, Truly you deserve the epithet by which you identify yourself. I sensed you were going to put me on the spot this way. Worse still, I know there is every chance that the examples I could furnish (from Gonda or not) won’t convince you. In fact, in a way some of them don’t...

Hello Anon Are you testing our knowledge about linguistic terms? "Ergative" is originally the term used to refer to the case of the subject in the transitive sentences of ergative-absolutive languages like Georgian and Basque. In those languages, the nouns are marked by an "ergative-case marker"...

Another kind of illegitimate argument is based on analogy between one area of grammar and another. consider yet another construction where there is variation between nominative and accusative forms of pronouns: , where the subject has the form of a coordination of pronouns. This shows us not...

Hello Mara I myself want to know why it is so. My guess is that this tendency has its origin in the grammar of Old English that was spoken by English people a millennium ago. The Old English was a language very similar to the present day German. One of its features was that nouns and...

??I want that you clean up your room this instant! It would not surprise me to learn that it was possible in some NAmE Englishes. Some Romance language speaking immigrants may speak it. Quote from Everything2 : The Subjunctive Mood of English After verbs which formerly...

People sometimes refer to the CGEL on this site. Conveniently, some sample chapters from this publication are now online at CGEL sample chapters The preliminary chapter includes the odd lapse of logic. This is one of the first. Apologies for the fairly lengthy quotation: Another kind of...

There is ... no basis at all for including dative among the inflectional categories of the English noun. And there is likewise no basis for including nominative or accusative (or objective) among the inflectional categories of the English noun. English nouns have no inflections whatever...

Deepa, I totally agree with you! As examples always enlighten a lot, I'll give you some impressions of my mother tongue German: I have to say that English in many cases is simpler than my native language. You mentioned e.g. the gender of a noun which is usually expressed by the article. In...