Dictionary

ergative verb en · NOUN

Meanings

1. An ambitransitive verb where the patient is the object of the transitive, but becomes the experiencer of the intransitive use.
   • Consultation of a corpus of authentic English solved the problem, as clarify was found being used transitively in examples such as She clarified the situation and intransitively in examples such as The situation clarified, and could thus be classified as an ergative verb. 2000, Susan Hunston, Gill Francis, Pattern Grammar:
   • Break is an ergative verb because when we say "The window broke", the window is the thing getting broken, it is not the vandal.
   • Although it is both transitive and intransitive, paint is not an ergative verb, because when we say "Bob paints", this is very different from when we say "Bob gets painted".

Forms

Synonyms

labile verb

Translations (10)

es ambitransitivo (ambitransitive verb where the patient is the object of the transitive, but becomes the experiencer of the intransitive use) · gl ergativo (ambitransitive verb where the patient is the object of the transitive, but becomes the experiencer of the intransitive use) · es ergativo (ambitransitive verb where the patient is the object of the transitive, but becomes the experiencer of the intransitive use) · es inacusativo (ambitransitive verb where the patient is the object of the transitive, but becomes the experiencer of the intransitive use) · pt verbo inacusativo (ambitransitive verb where the patient is the object of the transitive, but becomes the experiencer of the intransitive use) · cmn 作格動詞 /作格动词 (ambitransitive verb where the patient is the object of the transitive, but becomes the experiencer of the intransitive use) · fi ergatiivinen verbi (ambitransitive verb where the patient is the object of the transitive, but becomes the experiencer of the intransitive use) · pl ergatyw (ambitransitive verb where the patient is the object of the transitive, but becomes the experiencer of the intransitive use) · pt verbo ergativo (ambitransitive verb where the patient is the object of the transitive, but becomes the experiencer of the intransitive use) · pl ergativus (ambitransitive verb where the patient is the object of the transitive, but becomes the experiencer of the intransitive use)