In ergative-absolutive languages, the absolutive case is used to mark the subject of an intransitive verb or the object of a transitive verb. In such languages, the ergative case is typically marked (most salient), while the absolutive case is unmarked.

In nominative-absolutive languages, the absolutive case marks the object of a transitive verb or an involuntary subject of an intransitive verb.

See also

• morphosyntactic alignment