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Unergative verb


An unergative verb is an intransitive verb distinguished semantically by having an agent argument, or that treats the argument like the ergative argument of a transitive verb. For example, in English, run, talk and resign are unergative verbs, and fall and die are unaccusative verb.Lexicon

Some languages treat unergative verbs distinctly from other intransitives in morphosyntactic terms. For example, in some Romance languages, such verbs use different auxiliaries when forming the compound tenses.

Besides the above, unergative verbs differ from unaccusative verbs in that, in some languages, they can be passivized to a limited extent.

In Dutch for example, unergatives take hebben (to have) in the perfect tenses:

In such cases, a transition to an impersonal passive construction is possible using the adverb er (that functions as a dummy subject) and the passive auxiliary worden:

By contrast, ergative verbs take zijn ("to be") in the perfect tenses:

In that case, no passive construction with worden is possible. In other words, unergatives are truly intransitive, but ergatives are not.


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