unaccusative

U1N1A1C3C3U1S1A1T1I1V4E1
UK, US/ˌʌnəˈkjuːzətɪv/

adjective

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

Opposite
unergativetransitive
OriginEnglish accusative ← Middle English accusative ← Latin accūsātīvus →
RareScrabble 19
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Meanings

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

    The light-verb analysis sketched here also offers us a way of accounting for the fact that in Early Modern English, the perfect auxiliary used with unaccusative verbs was be (as we saw in §7.6), whereas that used with transitive and unergative verbs was have.

    2004, Andrew Radford, Minimalist Syntax: Exploring the structure of English, University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, →ISBN, →OCLC, §9.6, page 352
noununaccusative (plural unaccusatives)

plural unaccusatives

  1. human sciencesAn unaccusative verb.

    We have seen that Unergatives and Unaccusatives differ in 1) permitting the derivation of an Impersonal Passive, and 2) in licensing purpose clauses, since Unergatives have active subjects, and Unaccusatives do not.

    1998, Eloise Jelinek, “The Projection of Arguments”, in Miriam Butt, Wilhelm Geuder, editors, Voice and Transitivity as Functional Projections in Yaqui

Synonyms & antonyms

Opposite
unergativetransitive
Opposite
unergative

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*né
  2. Proto-Indo-European*n̥-
  3. Proto-Germanic*un-
  4. Proto-West Germanic*un-
  5. Old Englishun-
  6. Middle Englishun-
  7. Englishun-
  8. Proto-Indo-European*h₂éd
  9. Proto-Italic*ad
  10. Proto-Italic*ad-
  11. Latinad-
  12. Proto-Italic*kaussā
  13. Old Latincaussa
  14. Latincausa
  15. Latinaccūsō
  16. Ancient Greekαἰτῐᾱτῐκή (aitĭātĭkḗ)
  17. Latinaccūsātīvus
  18. Anglo-Normanaccusatif
  19. Latinaccūsātīvus
  20. Middle Frenchacusatif
  21. Latinaccūsātīvus
  22. Middle Englishaccusative
  23. Englishaccusative
  24. Englishunaccusative

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.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Hungarian unakkuzatív
  • unakkuzatívintransitive and having an experiencer as its subject, that is, the (syntactic) subject is not a (semantic) agent
Polish nieakuzatywny
  • nieakuzatywnyintransitive and having an experiencer as its subject, that is, the (syntactic) subject is not a (semantic) agent
Spanish inacusativo
  • inacusativointransitive and having an experiencer as its subject, that is, the (syntactic) subject is not a (semantic) agent
Cite this entry
APA

unaccusative. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unaccusative

MLA

“unaccusative.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unaccusative. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unaccusative,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unaccusative.

Source: unaccusative on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.