Slide 26: Impinging & Emanating Sensing: Ergative Model


As you can see from the slide, in mental clauses also, the ergative function of the participants again varies — in this case according to the direction of the sensing: whether it is impinging (the ‘please’ type) or emanating (the ‘like’ type).

Again, there is a constant.  in this case it is the Senser whose ergative function is Medium (the entity through which the sensing process unfolds), whether the clause is impinging or emanating.

However, the ergative function of the Phenomenon is Agent (the external cause of the sensing process) when the clause is impinging, but Range (the domain delimiting the boundary of the sensing process) when the clause is emanating.