Verbs
Hi,
Is open an ergative verb? Yes, you might say, as in the following sentence:
The door opened.
The subject is not the entity that did the action here.
What about this?
The accident happened.
Here, too, the subject is not the entity that did the action.
Is happen an ergative verb too?
If not, what's the difference between that and open?
Why do both act as ergative verbs seemingly, but happen isn't apparently part of ergative verbs? Then, what is it?
Top answer
anonymous What about this? The accident happened. No, because you can say Someone opened the door but not Someone happened the accident .
- anonymous What about this?
- The accident happened.
- No, because you can say Someone opened the door but not Someone happened the accident .
- Of course, you can cheat and look the verbs up on the link below, which lists ergative verbs.
- 'open' is on the list; 'happen' is not.
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anonymousWhat about this? The accident happened.
No, because you can say Someone opened the door but not Someone happened the accident.
Of course, you can cheat and look the verbs up on the link below, which lists ergative verbs. 'open' is on the list; 'happen' is not.
0Thank you very much for your useful answer.
Therefor, what type of verbs are: happen, appear, disappear, arrive, die, occur and etc, in this case, please?
They are neither ergative verbs no middle (voice) verbs, I think. So what?
0
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