unergatives

Unergatives are a class of intransitive verbs in linguistics that take a single argument—the subject—and do not assign a direct object. The subject is typically interpreted as the agentive doer of an action or activity. English examples commonly cited as unergatives include run, walk, talk, laugh, and hurry. These verbs describe ongoing or intentional activities carried out by an animate participant.

The unergative–unaccusative distinction contrasts unergatives with unaccusatives. Unaccusatives are intransitive verbs whose subject is not an external agent but a patient or theme that undergoes a change of state or location, such as break, die, arrive, disappear, or melt. In many languages, this distinction correlates with different syntactic behavior, particularly in how the verb’s argument structure is realized and how phrases are higher in the clause.

Semantically, unergatives express dynamic activity with volitional or agentive subjects, often compatible with manner adverbs (e.g., “She spoke loudly,” “They ran quickly”). In contrast, unaccusatives express events where the subject is affected by the event itself, frequently lacking an explicit external agent (e.g., “The door opened,” “The lake froze”).

Cross-linguistic research on unergatives and unaccusatives informs theories of clause structure, argument realization, and movement operations in the verb phrase. Some languages maintain a robust split between the two classes, while others show more fluid or less clearly defined patterns.