October 14, 2015
reflexive and ergative verbs
Reflexive verbs
1 The reflexive pronouns (see pronouns) are:
| Singular: | myself; yourself; himself; herself; itself |
| Plural: | ourselves; yourselves; themselves |
We use a reflexive pronoun after a transitive verb (see Clauses, Sentences and Phrases) when the direct object is the same as the subject of the verb:
I am teaching myself to play the piano.
Be careful with that knife. You might cut yourself.
These are the verbs most often found with reflexive pronouns:
- cut
- dry
- enjoy
- hurt
- introduce
- kill
- prepare
- teach
Some verbs change their meaning slightly when they have a reflexive pronoun as direct object:
- amuse
- apply
- busy
- content
- behave
- blame
- distance
- express
- find
- help
- see
| Would you like to help yourself to another drink? | = | Would you like to take another drink? |
| I wish the children would behave themselves. | = | I wish the children would behave well. |
| He found himself lying by the side of the road. | = | He was surprised when he realised that he was at the side of the road. |
| I saw myself as a famous actor. | = | I imagined that I was a famous actor. |
| She applied herself to the job of mending the lights. | = | She worked very hard to mend the lights. |
| He busied himself in the kitchen. | = | He worked busily in the kitchen. |
| I had to content myself with a few Euros. | = | I had to be satisfied with a few Euros. |
The verb enjoy always has an object:
We all enjoyed the party.
I really enjoyed my lunch.
If enjoy has no other object, we use a reflexive pronoun:
They all enjoyed They all enjoyed themselves.I really enjoyed I really enjoyed myself.
NOTE: We do not use a reflexive pronoun after verbs which describe things people usually do for themselves:
He washed in cold water.
He always shaved before going out in the evening.
Michael dressed and got ready for the party.
We only use reflexives with these verbs for emphasis:
He dressed himself in spite of his injuries.
She’s old enough to wash herself.
Ergative verbs
1. Ergative verbs are both transitive and intransitive:
| Peter closed the door | Transitive: N + V + N | |
| The door closed | Intransitive: N + V | |
| I boiled a pan of water | Transitive: N + V + N | |
| The pan boiled | Intransitive: N + V |
2. Common ergative verbs are:
- begin
- break
- change
- close
- drop
- crack
- dry
- end
- finish
- grow
- improve
- increase
- move
- open
- shake
- start
- stop
- tear
- turn
I broke the glass.
I dropped the glass and it broke.
The referee blew his whistle and started the match.
The match started at 2.30.
We grew some tasty potatoes.
The potatoes were growing well.
The wind shook the trees.
The trees shook in the wind.
3. Many verbs to do with cooking are ergative verbs:
- bake
- boil
- cook
- defrost
- freeze
- melt
- roast
You should roast the meat at 200 degrees centigrade.
The meat was roasting in a hot oven.
I always defrost meat before I cook it.
I am waiting for the meat to defrost.
Melt the chocolate and pour it over the ice cream.
The chocolate was melting in a pan.
4. Verbs to do with vehicles are often ergative:
- back
- crash
- drive
- fly
- reverse
- run
- sail
- start
- stop
I’m learning to fly a plane.
The plane flew at twice the speed of sound.
He crashed his car into a tree.
His car crashed into a tree.
5. We use some ergative verbs with only a few nouns:
- catch: dress, coat, clothes, trousers etc.
- fire : Gun, pistol, rifle, rocket.
- play: guitar, music, piano, violin, CD, DVD etc.
- ring: bell, alarm
She caught her dress on a nail.
Her dress caught on a nail.
He fired a pistol to start the race.
A pistol fired to start the race.
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Comments
Hi Teacher,
My question is if my understaing is right about Ergative verbs. In my understanding, the verbs refer back to the subject and as you said it changes slightly its meaning. For ex, Vinitha broke a glass - transitive, A glass broke - intransitive verb and the pistol fired, her dress caught. these are all Ergative verbs but we can not use all verbs like this, I never used like this i napped, the bell rang and some verbs are transitive but not intranstive for ex, Sam kissed Laura here
we can't say Laura kissed so Can i say this verb as a Ergative verb.
Thanks in advance,
Ramachandran. G
Hi Ranachandran G,
An ergative verb is one which can be either transitive or intransitive, depending on the context. For example, we can say:
The water boiled. [intransitive]
Paul boiled the water. [transitive]
Kissed is a transitive verb and cannot be used intransitively, so it is not an ergative verb.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglsh Team
Hi,
Is this sentence ok?
I really enjoyed with them
Hi Sridhar_45,
No, I'm afraid not. 'Enjoy' is a transitive verb, which means it needs an object:
I enjoyed the party.
I enjoyed the party with them.
I enjoyed it with them.
I hope that clarifies it for you.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Do you have any lesson regarding with Basic Sentence Patterns? Thanks.
Hello dencasi,
We have a section entitled 'clause, phrase and sentence' which should help you. In the menu on the right you can find sub-pages on different aspects of the structures of these elements.
I hope that helps you.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi! Sir.
First, thank you for the reply. I do really appreciate it a lot.
I speak English ever since I'm 7 years old (I live with the Americans since I'm 6 yrs. of age) and now I'm having a hard time to identifying, naming, classifying and understanding why the function of a word/phrase or clauses, is that way. But whenever I take some exercises here in British Council, I can get a high score, but then when it comes to I identifying, etc. in the sentence. It really giving me a hard time and it really affect my grades (I'm majoring in English).
I hope you can help me. :D :)
Thanks :)
Hi dencasi,
As I mentioned in my reply to your other comment, I'd encourage you to make the most you can of diagramming sentences. It's great that you get high scores when you actually use English grammar - that confirms that you actually know how to use grammar to communicate. The diagramming is a completely different kind of exercise, which perhaps you don't consider useful. But as I said in my other comment, try to find something useful in it, as surely there are lots of things you can learn from it.
Best wishes,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
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