Agentive

From UniLang Wiki

Some languages distinguish the subjects of verbs as being active or inactive: they are said to have an agentive (or active) system. The subject of the transitive verb is normally an agent, unless the action is inadvertant; the subjects of intransitive verbs can be agents or patients according to the meaning of the verb or the circumstances involved.

e.g. Pomo (Amerind, Hokan family)
wéno ˀa: sdí:qˀ
I [agent] swallowed my medicine
qʰawé:qadé:n to: sdí:qˀ
I [patient] [accidentally] swallowed my chewing-gum

For alternative constructions, see the accusative, ergative, inverse, and topic systems.