Question

What is the difference between unaccusaives and intransitives?
Is 'arrive' an unaccusative verb? Is 'die' an intransitive verb?
My book says that 'There arrived a party from Seattle' is grammatcal, but 'He arrived an arrival'. is ungrammatical. And 'He died a terrible death'. is grammatical. Is my book right?

An0nymous · Accepted Answer

From what I can gather, an unaccusative verb is an intransitive verb that strongly suggests a transitive construction, with the corresponding transitive version of the verb (almost all verbs can be transitive or intransitive). For example, melt is unaccusative: The ice melted. strongly suggests a corresponding sentence with its transitive counterpart: The heat melted the ice. Thus, neither "arrive" nor "die" appear to be unaccusative, because neither has a obvious transitive counterpart. For example: He died. and He arrived. have no corresponding transitive constructions. Moreover, die can be forced into transitive usage but only with difficulty: He died a bad death., and arrive is apparently one of those rare verbs that is intransitive only. Thus, with no strong transitive counterpart, arrive and die don't appear to fit the unaccusative mold.

The sentences, There arrived a party from Seattle. and He died a terrible death., are correct. He arrived an arrival. is incorrect; arrive is intransitive only.

CalifJim · Answer

miles LeeWhat is the difference between unaccusaives and intransitives?

Unaccusatives are a subclass of intransitives.
Ergatives are another subclass of intransitives.

'die' and 'arrive' are both intransitive.

'die' is unaccusative.
'arrive' is ergative.

CJ

Miles Lee · Answer

Well, thank you so much and you helped me a lot, but here is another question.
My book says that an unaccusative verb can occur in 'the there construction'.
You said 'melt' is an unaccusative verb. Then, is the sentence 'There melts the ice' grammatical?
And all the unaccusative verbs can occur in this construction? You can help me a lot. ^

An0nymous · Answer

Many, if not all, verbs can be used with the word "there." The present tense is usually not used with the there construction, except for effect (e.g.: There goes the fire engine!). There melts the ice. is theoretically correct, grammatically, but would typically not be used in real life speech or writing. Some examples of verbs used with there (note: the there construction would be considered rather weak, stylistically, and would not often be used, except where stylistic "weakness" is the desired effect):

I left the block of ice on the kitchen table and forgot about it. When I came back, there had melted a huge pool of water on the kitchen floor.

Forty-five minutes after my 911 call, there arrived a police car and an ambulance.

There died in my arms the person I loved most of all.

Miles Lee · Answer

Thank you.  I learned a lot. ^^

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