Unlock Hidden Grammar: Unaccusative Verbs Explained

Unaccusative verbs are something most people have never heard of, but they completely unlock a hidden component of grammar, across languages. Language learners can't afford to skip this -- it's the secret that unlocks the grammar of a new language you're learning.

#languagelearning #polyglot #linguistics #langauge #languages #grammar #unaccusative #FrenchVerbs #Hebrew #Russian

[ReddAngry]

Ooooh! The channel is called language jones in part because we are jonesing for language!

I know that you've got the analytics that probably show the exact opposite trend, but whenever I see a big sciency word like "unaccusative verbs" in a languagejones title, I click instantly! Great work as usual

[frizlaw]

This reminds of an experience that I had in Japan while trying to learn Japanese. There are actions that are often rendered in English with a passive form, while they are rendered in the active non-accusative form in Japanese. One such example is the Japanese verb "utsuru", which literally means "to reflect" as in "to appear" somewhere, such as in a mirror, but it's usually translated as "to be reflected", "to be shown" or "to be seen" in English. I first noticed this when I saw a hyper Japanese boy of three or four years old look at a mirror and then declare loudly, "Utsuteimasu!" This can be translated literally as, "I reflect (in the mirror)." But in English we would say, "I can see myself, " or "I see myself, " which necessitates a reflexive construction in order to convey the active non-accusative form in Japanese. I always found it a bit surprising that such a young boy would have acquired enough of his native language to be able to render what he saw with the correct verb type. Yes, I'm aware that children -- even ones in the early stages of native language acquisition -- display a remarkable ability to correctly use seemingly nuanced patterns and grammatical forms, but it was still impressive. And this video brings greater clarity to how certain actions are rendered with different verb constructions in order to convey a similar role that a "subject" plays in relation to a given verb.

[tenchfroast]

I got recommended a video by someone named Dan McClellan titled "the commandment that's always mistranslated" despite it having nothing to do with anything I watch. So I clicked on it and that guy is basically alternate timeline you where you became a theologian instead of a linguist.

[tetsi]

Gustar was one of those verbs that totally drove me crazy until I started replacing "like" in my head with "appeal" and thought of it as "something appeals to me". That finally made it click.

[scottwurzel]

This is such a better explanation for German's use of haben/sein as helping verbs than the one textbooks give. It makes so much more sense than thinking about "motion or state change."

[yuvalne]

honestly it makes sense this "unaccusative" pattern exists, since in ergative-absolutive languages the patient is the object of those verbs. i'd actually be surprised if something radically different is happening in the brains of nominative-accusative vs the brains of ergative-absolutive.

[dwaynecunningham]

A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.

[chris]

This is fascinating. My daughter has strange speech because of the brain lesions caused by her tuberous sclerosis. Some of the ways she talks sound exactly like key parts of these pathways are missing

[MooImABunny]

7:25 small correction that is not crucial for the point of the video - in Hebrew, door דלת is feminine, so it's הדלת נסגרה

[alexgospodinov]

Can you please make a video about stress timed and syllable timed languages. I stumbled upon this phenomena and can wrap my head around it.

[justsomeguy]

Oh my God, this is so close to Ergativity (is it actually just ergativity?)
Ergativity is used in some particularly remote languages like Basque, Pashto, and Georgian but also some very prolific languages like Hindi/Urdu.
The basic concept as I learned it (for Pashto) is that for a transitive verb in the past the verb actually conjugates to the Patient rather than the Agent. The agent actually gets its very own oblique case to denote Ergativity in these circumstances.
The chart on Ergativity on Wikipedia is incredibly simple and blew my mind because it simplified the entire concept for me and really helped me understand Pashto grammar.

[recurse]

Your videos often broaden my horizons for my conlanging, and this is one of those times. I put these kind of patterns into my two active projects where I made certain verbs sensitive to whether the subject is an agent, but this concept gives me a clear way to think about why I'm doing that and what kind of behaviors to expect to cluster.

[zzzaphod]

6:11 Would be nice to have these lists presented visually as well

[txikitofandango]

Also reminds me of "this soda drinks easily", the book reads quickly, the book is a quick read

[txikitofandango]

Reminds me of mediopassive verbs in Greek. "She's sleeping" gets a passive verb in Modern Greek because it was mediopassive anciently and they merged with passive or something

[undekagon]

This is one of the most useful language learning videos I have ever seen, explains a lot

[Bluehawk]

Wow, that really cracks the whole thing open, this will definitely come in handy
*immediately forgets everything you just said*

[Gandoff]

I am glad I drank my black tea before this video. The meaning of the teaching appeared to be trying to escape me. 😁

[Pinkosaurus]

Having learned this the “just deal with it” way in French (and using the same structure in Italian) this is useful!