Nominative–accusative is a form of
morphosyntactic alignment in which subjects of
transitive and
intransitive verbs are distinguished from objects of transitive verbs through
word order,
case marking, and/or verb
agreement. Nominative–accusative alignment can be realized through
morphology, by visible coding properties, and/or
syntax, by behavioral properties during participation in specific constructions. This type of alignment has a broad global distribution and is one of the major alignment systems characterizing a critical portion of the world’s languages.