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ergative verb. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
ergative verb, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
ergative verb in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Noun
ergative verb (plural ergative verbs)
- (linguistics) An ambitransitive verb where the patient is the object of the transitive, but becomes the experiencer of the intransitive use.
- 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".
2000, Susan Hunston, Gill Francis, Pattern Grammar: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.
Synonyms
Translations
ambitransitive verb where the patient is the object of the transitive, but becomes the experiencer of the intransitive use
See also
References