Timeline for The definition of "active" as in "active voice"
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Dec 16, 2022 at 19:38 | comment | added | John Lawler | Right. This is true merely because intransitive verbs can't take Passive, hence they are (by this zombie Roman definition) "active". The fact has nothing to do with tense or transitivity, except as it affects the application of Passive. | |
| Dec 16, 2022 at 18:35 | comment | added | tchrist♦ | @JK2 All tensed intransitive verbs are by definition active verbs: Reasons exist. People left. Caesar died. The noise stopped. You're being tricked by this weird idea of actions. | |
| Dec 16, 2022 at 12:18 | comment | added | bakunin | @StuartF: "houses" and "inhabits" are two different words. Of course, "to house someone" and "inhabit something" are "actions" - that is, things that are done by someone/something. The king does inhabit and the palace does house .... I am aware that "doing" here is some stretch, but that is not the point. | |
| Dec 16, 2022 at 11:29 | comment | added | Stuart F | There are pairs such as "Buckingham Palace houses the king", "The king inhabits Buckingham Palace" which can be phrased both ways, so you can't objectively say who is active. But from a certain perspective you can say that somebody is doing something. (Intransitive verbs such as "exist" are often treated differently from transitive, and are handled very differently in some languages.) | |
| Dec 16, 2022 at 10:07 | comment | added | bakunin | @JK2: of course it does "denote an action"! The action of "existing". | |
| Dec 16, 2022 at 10:02 | comment | added | JK2 | Trolls exist. Ask yourself: what does the subject of the sentence - "Trolls" - do? Answer: they do exist. But does that mean the verb exist denotes an action? No! | |
| Dec 16, 2022 at 9:53 | comment | added | bakunin | @JK2: Let me answer again: Yes, i do! Ad (1): the action is the "love" the subject (investors) do to the object (the stock). Ad (2): The subject (investors) is the agent - it does the loving. | |
| Dec 16, 2022 at 9:49 | comment | added | JK2 | Let me ask again. Do you agree that (1) the verb in the "active construction" denotes an "action"; and (2) the grammatical subject of the "active construction" is the agent of the action? | |
| Dec 16, 2022 at 9:44 | comment | added | bakunin | @JK2: Yes, i do! I thought this was stated in my answer: "what do the investors do? They love." | |
| Dec 16, 2022 at 9:22 | comment | added | JK2 | Do you agree with the two presuppositions of the dictionary? | |
| Dec 16, 2022 at 8:51 | history | answered | bakunin | CC BY-SA 4.0 |