Longman Dictionary of

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ergative
ergative adj
a term originally referring to languages in which the complement of a
transitive verb and the subject of an intransitive verb are assigned the
same CASE 1 . By extension, sometimes used to refer to English verbs such
as break, which can occur in sentences such as He broke the window and
The window broke, where the window seems to have the same THEMATIC
ROLE in the two sentences even though on the surface it is object in one
sentence and subject in the other.
ergative verb n
a verb which can be used both transitively and intransitively with the
same meaning. For example, boil in:
He boiled a kettle of water.
The kettle boiled.
error n
1 (in the speech or writing of a second or foreign language learner), the
use of a linguistic item (e.g. a word, a grammatical item, a SPEECH ACT,
etc.) in a way which a fluent or native speaker of the language regards as
showing faulty or incomplete learning. A distinction is sometimes made
between an error, which results from incomplete knowledge, and a mistake
made by a learner when writing or speaking and which is caused by
lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, or some other aspect of PERFORM-
ANCE. Errors are sometimes classified according to vocabulary (lexical
error), pronunciation (phonological error), grammar (syntactic error),
misunderstanding of a speaker’s intention or meaning (interpretive error),
production of the wrong communicative effect, e.g. through the faulty use
of a speech act or one of the RULES OF SPEAKING (pragmatic error). In the
study of second and foreign language learning, errors have been studied
to discover the processes learners make use of in learning and using a language
(see ERROR ANALYSIS).
2 see under SPEECH ERROR.
see also DEVELOPMENTAL ERROR, GLOBAL ERROR
error analysis n
the study and analysis of the ERRORs made by second language learners.
Error analysis may be carried out in order to:
a identify strategies which learners use in language learning
b try to identify the causes of learner errors
c obtain information on common difficulties in language learning, as an
aid to teaching or in the preparation of teaching materials.
Error analysis developed as a branch of APPLIED LINGUISTICS in the 1960s,
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