Unaccusative
Definition, Meaning & Examples
Pronunciation /ˌʌnəˈkjuːzətɪv/ · Part of speech adjective
Quick meaning: Unaccusative is an adjective meaning (linguistics, of a verb) Intransitive and having an experiencer as its subject, that is, the (syntactic) subject is not a (semantic) agent.
Meaning
(linguistics, of a verb) Intransitive and having an experiencer as its subject, that is, the (syntactic) subject is not a (semantic) agent.
More Meanings
- (linguistics) An unaccusative verb.
Example Sentences
We have seen that Unergatives and Unaccusatives differ in 1) permitting the derivation of an Impersonal Passive, and 2) in licensing purpose clauses, since Unergatives have active subjects, and Unaccusatives do not.
The light-verb analysis sketched here also offers us a way of accounting for the fact that in Early Modern English, the perfect auxiliary used with unaccusative verbs was be (as we saw in §7.6), whereas that used with transitive and unergative verbs was have.
Word Forms
- unaccusatives
Antonyms for unaccusative
Common opposites include unergative, transitive.
Related Words
Related dictionary entries include unergative, intransitive, nonaccusative, impersonal, intr, subjective.
Related Dictionary Tools
Sources & Attribution
FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0
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