Patient (grammar)

Patientive (from the Latin pati, " to suffer " ) refers to the semantic role that is not active, but suffers a bit in linguistics. A patientive has no control over the relation expressed by the verb of the sentence act. The undergoer is thus the opposite of the agent.

Grammatical Function - semantic role

It must in principle to distinguish between the semantic role patientive and the syntactic function of direct object, even if a phrase that functions as a direct object, typically holds a patientive function.

However, this applies only to sentences in the active; in passive sentences are direct objects into subjects and keep their patientive function.

Subjects of verbs such as " die ", " sneeze " and " scare " but can also be interpreted as undergoer, even if they are marked in English with the nominative.

Examples

In the following examples, Peter takes on the role of undergoer:

The first example is the father agent and subject of the sentence, Peter is undergoer and direct object of the sentence. The second example is Peter subject, but still patientive.