Definition of UNACCUSATIVE

unaccusative

Plural: unaccusatives

Adj

  • Intransitive and having an experiencer as its subject, that is, the (syntactic) subject is not a (semantic) agent.

Noun

  • An unaccusative verb.

Origin / Etymology

From un- + accusative, from the fact that in a nominative-accusative language, the accusative case, which marks the direct object of a transitive verb, typically marks the non-volitional role. In unaccusative verbs, the non-volitional arguments do not take the accusative case.

Scrabble Score: 0

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Words With Friends Score: 0

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