Can 'spell' be an ergative verb?
How acceptable is it to say things like:
This word spells differently in my book.
By analogy to other examples of ergative use, such as:
The glass broke.
Solution 1:
Ergativization of standard transitive verbs is somewhat productive, meaning that many transitive verbs can be used in an ergative way on the fly.
For example, even a verb like "to eat", which is normally used intransitively with an agentive subject can undergo ergativization, as in:
- John eats the soup.
- The soup eats good. ["Eating the soup is easy or nice"]
In your example of
- John spells the word.
- The word spells differently in my book.
the ergativization is also rather easy to comprehend, in my opinion. I suspect many others will also find it easy.
So, while it is not very standard to use "spell" as an ergative, it can be done pretty easily without confusion. Most speakers of English will understand what you mean. Furthermore, I actually find the ergative construction colorful and refreshing.