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An unergative verb is an
intransitive verb In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb whose context does not entail a direct object. That lack of transitivity distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Additionally, intransitive verbs are ...
that is characterized semantically by having a subject
argument An argument is a statement or group of statements called premises intended to determine the degree of truth or acceptability of another statement called conclusion. Arguments can be studied from three main perspectives: the logical, the dialecti ...
which is an ''agent'' that actively initiates the action expressed by the verb. For example, in
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
, ''talk'' and ''resign'' in the sentence "You talk and you resign" are unergative verbs, since they are intransitive (one does not say "you talk someone") and "you" are the initiator or responsible for talking and resigning. But ''fall'' and ''die'' in the sentence "They fall and die" are unaccusative verbs, since usually they are not responsible for falling or dying but still the verb is intransitive, meaning it is comprehensively used without a direct object. (They cannot "fall something" or "die someone").Note: Dąbrowska (2016)pointed out that the phrase "''to die''" in English does not comply with the strict definition of an unaccusative verb, since it fails some of the distinctions from unergative verbs such as causative alternation, where an unaccusative like "break" works both ways in "The vase broke", and "He broke a vase", but an unergative works only one way like "The crowd laughed", but not "The comedian laughed the crowd". Se
Dąbrowska, A. "Unaccusative or unergative: The case of the English verb to die"
in Roczniki humanistyczne 64(11):25-39 · (January 2016).
Some languages treat unergative verbs differently from other intransitives in
morphosyntactic In linguistics, morphology () is the study of words, how they are formed, and their relationship to other words in the same language. It analyzes the structure of words and parts of words such as stems, root words, prefixes, and suffixes. Morph ...
terms. For example, in some
Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...
, such verbs use different auxiliaries when in compound tenses. Besides the above, unergative verbs differ from unaccusative verbs in that in some languages, they can occasionally use the
passive voice A passive voice construction is a grammatical voice construction that is found in many languages. In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the ''theme'' or '' patient'' of the main verb – that is, the person or thing ...
. In
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
, for example, unergatives take (to have) in the perfect tenses: : :"I call (by phone). – I have called." In such cases, a transition to an
impersonal passive The impersonal passive voice is a verb voice that decreases the valency of an intransitive verb (which has valency one) to zero. Dixon, R. M. W. & Alexandra Aikhenvald (1997). "A Typology of Argument-Determined Constructions". In Bybee, Joan, ...
construction is possible by using the adverb ''er'', which functions as a
dummy subject A dummy pronoun is a deictic pronoun that fulfills a syntactical requirement without providing a contextually explicit meaning of its referent. As such, it is an example of exophora. Dummy pronouns are used in many Germanic languages, including ...
and the passive auxiliary : : :literally, "*There is by Jan telephoned." (meaning "A telephone call by Jan is going on.") By contrast, Dutch
ergative verb In general linguistics, a labile verb (or ergative verb) is a verb that undergoes causative alternation; it can be used both transitively and intransitively, with the requirement that the direct object of its transitive use corresponds to the ...
s take ("to be") in the perfect tenses: : :"The grease solidifies – The grease ''has'' solidified." In that case, no passive construction with is possible. In other words, unergatives are truly intransitive, but ergatives are not.


See also

*
Ambitransitive verb An ambitransitive verb is a verb that is both intransitive and transitive.Dixon, R.M.W. & Aikhenvald, Alexendra Y. Changing Valency: Case Studies in Transitivity. Cambridge University Press. This verb may or may not require a direct object. Englis ...
*
Ergative verb In general linguistics, a labile verb (or ergative verb) is a verb that undergoes causative alternation; it can be used both transitively and intransitively, with the requirement that the direct object of its transitive use corresponds to the ...
* Unaccusative verb


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Unergative Verb Transitivity and valency Syntax–semantics interface