Ergative Verbs

Ergative Verbs:

In English, there is a category of verbs known as Ergative Verbs. They are verbs which allow the three-voice option of active, middle or passive (Lock, 1996). Examples include close,evaporate, bend, increase, sink, shrink, drown, break, change, drop, etc.

e.g.

1. The sun evaporates water.  (Active Voice)
2. Water is evaporated (by the sun).  (Passive Voice)
3. Water evaporates. (Middle Voice)
4. Someone dropped a pen. (Active Voice)
5. A pen was dropped (by someone). (Passive Voice)
6. A pen dropped. (Middle Voice)

What is the middle voice? The middle voice can be seen as in the middle of active voice and passive voice. When it is used, the object of a transitive clause (e.g. water in sentences 1 anda pen in sentence 4) becomes the subject of an intransitive clause (see sentences 3 and 6). These subjects can be argued as the doers of the actions represented by the ergative verbs (e.g. evaporate in sentence 3 and drop in sentence 6) and act upon themselves, but the actions involved normally come about more or less spontaneously. There may be no doers at all, and even if there are doers, the actions are often not done deliberately or intentionally by the doers.

FUENTE : http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Chan-ErgativeVerbs.html

b. To Raise and To Rise

To raise is a transitive verb, which can take an object. The following examples illustrate the use of the Present Continuous, Simple Past, and Present Perfect tenses of the verb to raise. The verbs are underlined, and the objects of the verbs are printed in bold type.

e.g. She is raising poodles.

      He raised the window.

      They have raised a crop of wheat.



To rise is an intransitive verb, which cannot take an object. The following examples illustrate the use of the Present Continuous, Simple Past, and Present Perfect tenses of the verb to rise.

e.g. The moon is rising in the east.

      They rose to the occasion.

      The temperature has risen by five degrees.