Here we look at alignment of case marking of full noun phrases, following WALS feature 58, by Bernard Comrie. Alignment refers to the comparison between the marking of the A (transitive agent/subject) argument and the P (transitive patient/object) argument with the marking of the S (intransitive subject) argument. Here only the alignment of case/adpositions is considered, and only the marking of full NPs (person forms are treated in Feature 59). Neutral alignment refers to situations where both A and P are coded like the S. In accusative alignment, A is coded like the S and P is coded in a special way (by accusative case). In ergative alignment, P is coded like the S and A is coded in a special way (by ergative case).
