ने: Agent ~> Agent

There are to be no construals, only Agent, when ने is marking a subject that is performing some action on an object (which would be Theme).

• उसने
  she-ERG

  कपड़े
  clothes

  धोए
  washed

  ।
  .

  'She washed the clothes.' 001

• मैंने
  I-ERG

  उसको
  he-DAT

  बहुत
  a-lot

  मारा
  hit

  ।
  .

  'I hit him a lot.' 002

• मैंने
  I-ERG

  उसको
  he-DAT

  बहुत
  a-lot

  थप्पड़
  slap

  मारे
  hit

  ।
  .

  'I slapped him a lot.' 003

"Body emission" verbs#

There is a set of intransitive "body emission" verbs¹, such as छींकना "to sneeze", खाँसना "to cough", मूतना "to urinate", that can optionally take the ergative marker for their subject. The presence of the marker indicates greater agency, so we treat it as Agent↝Agent (the lack of the marker would make it a Theme↝Theme).

• उसने
  he-ERG

  छींक
  sneeze

  मारी
  hit

  ।
  .

  'He sneezed.' 003