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Tolik Posted 15 years ago
Grammar
The Passive with Ergatives
Hi There!
I have a question about one of my grammar courses. I am a English teacher trainee at the Fontys University in Sittard, Holland.
Well, in the last grammar class, we discussed the passive.
I didn't quite get the ergatives part.
An ergative sentence isn't a transitive (because it does not contain a subject).
Since it has no subject, I figured that it had to be an intransitive sentence, but that's also not true,
because you can 'transform' a ergative sentence, wtihout a subject, into a passive sentence.
How is that possible?
Regards,
Tolik
I have a question about one of my grammar courses. I am a English teacher trainee at the Fontys University in Sittard, Holland.
Well, in the last grammar class, we discussed the passive.
I didn't quite get the ergatives part.
An ergative sentence isn't a transitive (because it does not contain a subject).
Since it has no subject, I figured that it had to be an intransitive sentence, but that's also not true,
because you can 'transform' a ergative sentence, wtihout a subject, into a passive sentence.
How is that possible?
Regards,
Tolik
Top answer
what do you mean by ergative sentence? Can you give an example?
- what do you mean by ergative sentence?
- Can you give an example?
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3 Answers
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I'm sorry, I ment a ergative verb.
e.g. the door suddenly opened.
opened would be the ergative verb here.
e.g. the door suddenly opened.
opened would be the ergative verb here.
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Tolikyou can 'transform' a ergative sentence, wtihout a subject, into a passive sentence.Can you please give us an example of the kind of transformation you're talking about, showing the original sentence and its transformation?
Thanks.
CJ
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