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Ergativity in East Caucasian (Y. Testelets)

Since the XIXth century, the East Caucasian language family has been a testing ground for various theoretical approaches to ergativity. Most East Caucasian languages show consistent Absolutive vs. Ergative orientation in case marking and gender/number agreement of the verb. However, there are recurrent deviations like 1) case neutrality of 1st and 2nd person pronouns; 2) the biabsolutive cleft construction; 3) complex intransitive verbs with Ergative marking; 4) neutral or subject orientation of anaphora, converbs, etc., and more rare deviations like the person/number agreement in Lak, Dargwa or Tabassaran, or the accusative case in Udi. The idea of the role orientation, i.e. lack of the subject vs. object asymmetry, meets with difficulties. Two distinctions seem most prominent: one between the privileged group – Absolutive, Ergative Agent and (Dative) Experiencer and non-core arguments, and another between Absolutive and the nominals marked with the oblique cases.