Ladekwa and ergativity

Hi everyone,

 

What is the difference between the agent case and the ergative case in ergative languages--or for that matter, the difference between the patient case and the absolutive case in same? There seems to me at least to be considerable overlap between these two conceptualisations of cases. All verbs have a patient, whether express or implied, just like all verbs in an ergative language have an absolutive case as a minimum, but some verbs will also have an ergative case, just like some verbs will have an agent case in Ladekwa. And the ergative case is the subject of transitive verbs just like the agent case is in Ladekwa. I'm no expert, but the only thing to distinguish Ladekwa from a straightforwardly ergative language to me is its use of the focus case as well.

 

Regards

Geoff