Abstract:The misuse of "ergativity" and relevant terms is rooted in the different interpretations in linguistic typology and formal syntax (notably generative grammar).This paper revisits the problems majorly by (re-)introducing the notion in the framework of typology.It claims that ergativity is a formal coding strategy of grammatical relations between the verb and its core arguments.This work sheds light on the analysis of some complex syntactic structures in Chinese (e.g.the ba-construction) and shows that the so-called ergative structures in Chinese are invariably unaccusative in nature.A set of criteria of ergative alignment is proposed accordingly and a sample of 78 languages is analyzed.