Victor_amelkin Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
Verb's reflexiveness – how to know?
Hello,
Could you please suggest, is there a kind of magic rule that can
help detect whether a verb may be used as reflexive/non-reflexive?
I tried to figure out such a rule but with no success. The two verbs
below are quite similar (at least they seem so to me), but the first
may be non-reflexive while the second cannot.
* oscillate – may be used as both reflexive and non-reflexive
"Somebody oscillated the pendulum."
"The pendulum oscillated. (= was oscillated by somebody)"
* vacillate – may be used only as reflexive
"The woman vacillated for several minutes whether to buy
a new pair of shoes." (By the by, I'm not sure that the verb
"vacillate" is used here appropriately.)
So, again, is it possible to know only by looking at a verb whether
it may be used as reflexive/non-reflexive or the only way to know is
to look it up in the dictionary?
Thanks in advance.
--
Victor
Could you please suggest, is there a kind of magic rule that can
help detect whether a verb may be used as reflexive/non-reflexive?
I tried to figure out such a rule but with no success. The two verbs
below are quite similar (at least they seem so to me), but the first
may be non-reflexive while the second cannot.
* oscillate – may be used as both reflexive and non-reflexive
"Somebody oscillated the pendulum."
"The pendulum oscillated. (= was oscillated by somebody)"
* vacillate – may be used only as reflexive
"The woman vacillated for several minutes whether to buy
a new pair of shoes." (By the by, I'm not sure that the verb
"vacillate" is used here appropriately.)
So, again, is it possible to know only by looking at a verb whether
it may be used as reflexive/non-reflexive or the only way to know is
to look it up in the dictionary?
Thanks in advance.
--
Victor
Top answer
A reflexive verb use is one in which the verb's subject and object are the same, as in "I cut myself". It seems that you are asking about transitive and intransitive use. If so, there is no way to tell whether a verb can be transitive, intransitive or both, except through experience of the language or by consulting a dictionary.
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A reflexive verb use is one in which the verb's subject and object are the same, as in "I cut myself". It seems that you are asking about transitive and intransitive use. If so, there is no way to tell whether a verb can be transitive, intransitive or both, except through experience of the language or by consulting a dictionary.
victor_amelkin "The wom
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