"engative verbs" ?

Question

Hi everbody,Could anyone explain the meaning of "engative verbs" in English Grammar, and give some examples, please?Any'll be much appreciated. Thank in advance.

Philip · Accepted Answer

YulysessHi everbody,

Could anyone explain the meaning of "engative verbs" in English Grammar, and give some examples, please?

Any'll be much appreciated. Thank in advance.

'Engative' is a new term for me. I have no idea. If it's a typo and you mean 'negative', I'm not sure what that is, either. Are you talking about verbs with a negative feeling associated with them, such as 'hate', 'fear', 'dislike'?

Anonymous · Answer

"Ergative," perhaps?

Yulysess · Answer

Hi Philip,

I don't know exactly what they are. They could be the verbs you offered, perhaps. When I googled the phrase, I found a title like"A Study of Engative Verbs in English." on a site, but all Japanese, I couldn't understand even a word.

Maybe some Japanese friends check them up, and inform us. If they, much appreciated.Thanks again.

Paco2004 · Answer

Hello

Some verbs can be used as both a transitive verb and an intransitive verb. If the object of the transitive of a verb can be the subject of its intransitive use, such a verb is called "ergative verb". For example, "move" is an ergative verb. We can say "John moved the stone" as well as "The stone moved". Another example is "break". We can say "John broke the glass" as well as "The glass broke". Other examples are : alter, balance, beat, begin, bend, bleed, boil, burn, burst, change, circulate, close, commence, dash, decrease, increase, diminish, drop, dry, embark, end, explode, fade, fill, form, freeze, gather, grow, harden, improve, increase, issue, melt, open, pass, roll, separate, shake, shine, shiver, shoot, slip, spread, start, stir, stop, split, spread, start, tear, thaw, thicken, turn, twist, upset, etc.. It is said there are about 600 ergative verbs in English. Most of them are those used to describe either (1) movement of a thing or (2) change of the state of a thing.

paco

[PS] The page you linked tells nothing about the ergative verb. It is a page explaining the educational curricula of that school.

Philip · Answer

Yulysess
Hi Philip,
I don't know exactly what they are. They could be the verbs you offered, perhaps. When I googled the phrase, I found a title like"A Study of Engative Verbs in English." on a site, but all Japanese, I couldn't understand even a word.
Maybe some Japanese friends check them up, and inform us. If they, much appreciated.Thanks again.Bir sey degil.

Cevaplar ben de bekliyorum.

Philip · Answer

Paco2004Hello

Some verbs can be used as both a transitive verb and an intransitive verb. It is said there are about 600 ergative verbs in English. Most of them are those used to describe either (1) movement of a thing or (2) change of the state of a thing.

paco

[PS] The page you linked tells nothing about the ergative verb. It is a page explaining the educational curricula of that school.

Thanks, Paco, for the information. I've always known that certain verbs can be used transitively or in-, but I'd never heard the term for them.

Yulysess · Answer

Hello Paco,

Thanks for your interest. I know "ergative verbs" and their functions already. But the phrase I'm trying to be informed not "ergative" but "engative", that is, not "r" but "n".

There is a study title on the page I linked such as " A Study on Engative Verbs in English". Any knowledge about them, thanks.

Forbes · Answer

I googled "engative verb" and all the examples were clearly misprints for "negative verb". I also tried dictionary.com and it does not recognise "engative".

Rho · Answer

Sorry paco, your definition of 'ergative verbs' is different from what I've learnt. I'm a bit puzzled. Let me quote from {{http://www2.let.uu.nl/UiL-OTS/Lexicon/}} its definition, just to be sure:
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unaccusative verb (another term is ergative verb):

GENERAL: Special kind of intransitive verb. Semantically, its subject does not actively initiate or is not actively responsible for the action of the verb; rather, it has properties which it shares with the direct object of a transitive verb (or better, with the grammatical subject of its passive counterpart). EXAMPLE: in English 'arrive,' 'die' and 'fall' are unaccusative verbs.

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Paco2004 · Answer

Hello Roh

I don't think there is a big difference between the definition that I gave and the one that you gave. When ergative verbs are used intransitively, they are called "unaccusative verbs" (definition by Perlmutter). Unaccusative/ergative intransitive verbs are different from other kind of intransitive verbs (unergative verbs) in that the action is initiated not by the subject but we can assume a real agent that causes the intransitive action of the subject. Take "The ice melted". The ice's melting doesn’t happen due to the ice's own will. There must be something (like the sun) that caused the ice to melt. So "melt" is an unaccusative/ergative intransitive verb. Take "The boy fell from the tree" as another example. The action of "fall" does not take place because of the boy's will. There must be something that caused the boy to fall. So "fall" is an unaccusative/ergative intransitive verb. Take "dance" in "Mary danced" as an example of unergative intransitive verb. Mary danced because she wanted to dance. The action "dance" was initiated by the subject Mary. So "dance" is not an unaccusative/ergative verb but an unergative intransitive verb.

paco

"engative verbs" ?

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