This paper is an attempt to develop an analysis of Ergativity syntax, focusing on the past transitive structures in Kurdish where Ergativity manifests itself. Adducing evidence from a diverse array of structures that share formal characteristics with the past transitive structure in Kurdish, I will argue that Ergativity emerges in transitive structures where (a) the transitive verb, subcategorizing for a complement DP, is defective in terms of Accusative case assignment (i.e., unaccusative) and (b) the external argument, i.e., the subject DP, is licensed as the specifier of a high Applicative head that takes vP as its complement. Thus analyzed, Ergativity is construed as a natural computational corollary deriving from the interaction of independently motivated operations of the narrow syntax.
