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Active-inactive alignment

Concept
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A grammatical framework in some languages that classifies subjects as either active (volitional agents) or inactive (non-volitional participants).

Detailed Definition
A grammatical concept from linguistics describing how languages mark the subjects of verbs differently based on whether the verb is active or inactive, transitive or intransitive. Found in languages like Basque, Georgian, and some Native American languages, this system affects how poets structure agency and action in verse, particularly important for translation work where English's nominative-accusative system must be rendered into or from languages with active-inactive alignment.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Basque, "I run" uses one marking while "I break it" uses different marking for the subject based on verb transitivity; Some languages mark subjects of active verbs differently from those of inactive verbs; The subject "I" in "I fall" receives different case marking than "I" in "I push"
Additional Notes
Found in languages like Basque and Georgian, this grammatical concept helps poets understand how different languages structure agency and action in verse. Important for translating poetry between languages with different alignment systems.
Also Known As
Split-S alignment Active-stative alignment Agent-patient system Ergative alignment
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