Impersonal

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The Impersonal (better: Impersonalis , plural: Impersonalia ) was originally a modus form in Latin grammar writing . It corresponds to the 3rd person singular passive and expresses more general, impersonal expressions, e.g. B. Latin legitur = 'one reads / it is read'.

In today's grammar are impersonal or impersonal such verbs known as the 'it' may have as a subject only for. B. ' it's raining' but not 'God is raining'. The 'it' appearing here is called the expletive 'it' . In some syntax models this 'it' is not seen as a subject (verbs of such sentences are referred to as avalent in valence grammar ), in others it is (e.g. in dependency grammar ). Impersonals are much more restricted in their formation than transitive ones.

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  • Metzler Lexicon Language (Editor: Helmut Glück ), 2005
  • DUDEN-Grammar 2005 (7th edition)