
Case markers often distinguish between the various arguments of a predicate, such as the Agent and Patient. Three basic types of arguments are generally distinguished: the subject of a transitive clause, the object of a transitive clause, and the subject of an intransitive clause. <br><br>

A 'yes' value indicates that the language has what is known as a Tripartite system on <b>Full NPs</b> (not just pronouns), where all of the subject of intransitive clauses, the subject of transitive clauses, and the object of transitive clauses are formally distinct from each other. <br><br>An example from Comrie (2008) is Hindi. 'Boy' has a different form in the intransitive sentence <i><b>laRkaa</b> kal aay-aa</i> 'boy yesterday come.AOR-SG.M' from that in the sentence <i>laRke ne laRkii ko dekh-aa</i> 'boy.OBL ERG girl ACC see-SG.M'. <br><br>

<b>Note:</b> Languages have no overt case marking will be marked <b>N/A</b> for this property. <br><br> 

<b>Glossing Convention:</b> The subject of a transitive clause will be glossed ergative <b>ERG</b>, the object of a transitive clause will be glossed accusative <b>ACC</b>, and the subject of an intransitive clause will be glossed nominative <b>NOM</b>.<br><br>

<b>Reference</b><br>
Comrie, Bernard. 2008. Alignment of Case Marking. In Haspelmath et al. (2008), chapters 98-99. Available online at <a href=â€http://wals.info/feature/98â€>http://wals.info/feature/98</a href>. 
