Impersonal verb

Impersonal verb

In linguistics, an impersonal verb is a verb that cannot take a true subject, because it does not represent an action, occurrence, or state-of-being of any specific person, place, or thing. The term weather verb is also sometimes used, since such weather-indicating verbs as "to rain" are usually impersonal.

In some languages, such as English, French, German and Dutch, an impersonal verb always takes an impersonal pronoun ("it" in English, "il" in French, "es" in German, "het" in Dutch) as its syntactical subject:

:"It snowed yesterday." (English):"Il a neigé hier." (French):"Es schneite gestern." (German):"Het sneeuwde gisteren." (Dutch)

In some other languages (necessarily null subject languages and typically pro-drop languages), such as Portuguese, Spanish, Occitan, Catalan, Italian, Romanian, and all the Slavic languages, an impersonal verb takes no subject at all, but it is conjugated in the third-person singular, which is much as though it had a third-person, singular subject:

:"Nevó ayer." (Spanish):"Nevou ontem." (Portuguese):"Sniježilo je jučer." (Croatian)

In the auxiliary language Interlingua, verbs are not conjugated by person. Impersonal verbs take the pronoun "il":

:"Il ha nivate heri." (Interlingua)

In the planned auxiliary language Esperanto, where verbs also are not conjugated for person, impersonal verbs are simply stated with no subject given or implied:

:"Neĝis hieraŭ." (Esperanto) [ [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/esper10h.htm A Complete Grammar of Esperanto] ]

Verbs meaning existence may also be impersonal.

:"There are (some) books." / "There is a book.":"Há livros." / "Há um livro." (Portuguese):"Hay libros." / "Hay un libro." (Spanish)

However, sometimes there are intransitive verbs with more or less the same meaning:

:"(Some) books exist." / "A book exists.":"Existem livros." / "Existe um livro." (Portuguese):"Existen libros." / "Existe un libro." (Spanish)

An impersonal verb is different from a defective verb in that with an impersonal verb, only one possible syntactical subject is meaningful (either expressed or not), whereas with a defective verb, certain choices of subject might not grammatically possible, because the verb does not have a complete conjugation.

Some linguists consider the impersonal subject of weather verbs to be "dummy pronouns", while others interpret them differently.

ee also

* Null-subject language
* Impersonal passive voice

References


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Impersonal verb — Impersonal Im*per son*al, a. [L. impersonalis; pref. im not + personalis personal: cf. F. impersonnel. See {Personal}.] Not personal; not representing a person; not having personality. [1913 Webster] An almighty but impersonal power, called Fate …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • impersonal verb — In current English this term is restricted to verbs used in the third person singular with indefinite it as subject, e.g. it is snowing, when it rains, it makes no difference …   Modern English usage

  • impersonal verb — noun A verb used only in the infinitive or in the third person. In the third person, the subject is either implied or a dummy …   Wiktionary

  • Impersonal — Im*per son*al, a. [L. impersonalis; pref. im not + personalis personal: cf. F. impersonnel. See {Personal}.] Not personal; not representing a person; not having personality. [1913 Webster] An almighty but impersonal power, called Fate. Sir J.… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • impersonal — [im pʉr′sə nəl] adj. [LL impersonalis] 1. not personal; specif., a) without connection or reference to any particular person [an impersonal comment] b) not existing as a person [an impersonal force] 2. not showing human feelings, esp. sympathy or …   English World dictionary

  • Impersonal — Im*per son*al, n. That which wants personality; specifically (Gram.), an impersonal verb. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • impersonal — /ɪmˈpɜsənəl / (say im persuhnuhl) adjective 1. not personal; without personal reference or connection: an impersonal remark. 2. not exhibiting a warmth of feeling flowing from a personal involvement or interest: an impersonal greeting; an… …  

  • impersonal — impersonally, adv. /im perr seuh nl/, adj. 1. not personal; without reference or connection to a particular person: an impersonal remark. 2. having no personality; devoid of human character or traits: an impersonal deity. 3. lacking human emotion …   Universalium

  • impersonal — im|per|son|al [ ım pɜrsənl ] adjective * 1. ) not showing any friendly feelings or interest in someone: His manner was cold and impersonal. a ) used about large institutions that do not think about people s individual needs and situations: an… …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • impersonal */ — UK [ɪmˈpɜː(r)s(ə)nəl] / US [ɪmˈpɜrs(ə)nəl] adjective 1) not showing any friendly feelings or interest in someone His manner was cold and impersonal. a) used about large organizations that do not think about people s individual needs and… …   English dictionary

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