unaccusative

Meanings

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

1. An unaccusative verb.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Germanic *un- Proto-West Germanic *un- Old English un- Middle English un- English un- Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Proto-Italic *kaussā Old Latin caussa Latin causa Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin accūsō Proto-Indo-European *-wós Proto-Indo-European *-iHwósder. Latin -īvus Ancient Greek αἰτῐᾱτῐκή (aitĭātĭkḗ)calq. Latin accūsātīvusder. Anglo-Norman accusatifbor. ▲ Latin accūsātīvusder. Middle French acusatifbor. ▲ Latin accūsātīvusbor. Middle English accusative English accusative English unaccusative 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.