What is an impersonal verb?

An impersonal verb is a verb that

• occurs only in third person singular forms
• has no specified agent, and

• has a dummy subject or no subject.

• What is a verb? (Linguistics)

Pei and Gaynor 1954 97, 139

Nida 1949 168

Hartmann and Stork 1972 108

Mish 1991 604

Context for this page:

• Concept module: impersonal verb
• In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): I
• In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
• In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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