Category talk:English ergative verbs

Could we add "sink" here? (as in "The ship sank"?)

And loosen? and freshen (as in "The wind freshened"?)  There must be lots of others!

Dbfirs 22:21, 8 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Done and done, thanks :) I just made this category and am adding those words I can think of...  You can add them too, just edit the verb article and at the bottom put


 * I'm amazed how many more words you have found, but I can't work out how to use "wind" ergatively.  Perhaps I am just not familiar with the usage?  Dbfirs 14:02, 17 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Yeah now I think you're right. I was confused because of senses 2-3.  But sense 3 shouldn't even really be there.  Sense 3 is for the word "winded", not "wind".  It's not ergative because you say "I was winded", not "I winded".  Thanks for pointing out the mistake.  Interestingly enough, "unwind" and "rewind" ARE definitely ergative :) Language Lover 04:28, 19 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I spoke too soon, having failed to notice there were a whole other batch of senses under "Etymology 2". Consider:  "The God wound the river through the mountains.  The river wound through the mountains."  Now I think *that* is why it was listed as ergative.  What do you think? Language Lover 04:36, 19 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Ok, now I'm convinced it's ergative. "I wound up the string.  The string wound up."  QED.  Language Lover 04:40, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

I just wrote an article on ergative verbs
My project on wiktionary, to create this category, helped me learn a lot about these wonderful verbs. I just wrote an article about ergative verbs: Ergative Verbs. Hope you enjoy :) Language Lover 18:19, 26 October 2008 (UTC)

Build, build up
Seems the verbs "build" and "build up" are also ergative. Could you add them?

Terminology: "ergative" vs. "labile" verb
As the updated Wikipedia article explains, the term "ergative verb" is no longer used by anyone in linguistics. The term of choice is "labile verb".--Haspelmt (talk) 15:09, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

RFD discussion: November 2016–November 2021

 * See Appendix talk:English ergative verbs.