Intransitive verb

In grammar, an intransitive verb is an action verb that takes no object. Although there is some dispute over whether or not a linking verb is intransitive, many do not consider it an intransitive verb. Examples of intransitive verbs include:

• I slept.
• He died.
• She runs.

See also transitive verb and ditransitive verb.

There are languages that mark verbs for their transitivity, such that the verb in "I ate" and "I ate a fish" would have different affixes. In addition, ergative verbs generally take complementizers, while normal intransitive verbs can take prepositional phrases. Thus:

• He thought that you were ill.
• She runs through the woods.

But not

• He thought through the woods.
• She runs that you were ill.

Alternating v.s. non-alternating intransitive verbs

Intransitive verbs can be either alternating or non-alternating. Alternating intransitive verbs have a transitive counterpart, whereas non-alternating intransitive verbs do not, examples include the following:

Alternating verbs:

• The cup broke. I broke the cup.
• The seasons changed. I changed the channel.
• I ate. I ate the cake.
• The ship sank. The collision sank the ship.

Non-alternating verbs:

• The box appeared.
• The car vanished.
• The man died.

Although logical inference may imply that a direct object is involved with the alternating intransitives, it is not part of the syntactic representation of the sentence; it is part of either the discourse context, the nature of the verb, or both. Compare the following:

• The ship sank.
• The ship was sunk.

The first sentence is inherently without an agent; its deep structure does not and can not contain one. The second sentence, on the other hand, is a passive sentence, in which the subject is merely omitted and can be added using a by-phrase. As illustrated below, this operation yields an ungrammatical sentence for the intransitive version of the verb, while it is perfectly acceptable for the transitive version.

• The ship sank by the opposition.
• The ship was sunk by the opposition.