Unaccusative Verb (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In linguistics, an unaccusative verb is an intransitive verb whose (syntactic) subject is not a (semantic) agent; that is, it does not actively initiate, or is not actively responsible for, the action of the verb. Unaccusative verbs thus contrast with unergative verbs. An unaccusative verb's subject is semantically similar to the direct object of a transitive verb, or to the subject of a verb in the passive voice. English unaccusative verbs include die and fall, but not run or resign, which are unergative. In nominative-accusative languages, the accusative case, which marks the direct object of transitive verbs, usually represents the non-volitional argument (often the patient). But for unaccusative verbs, the subject is non-volitional and yet is not marked by the accusative.