adjective
- of, relating to, or functioning as an agent or agency; expressing agency or the role of an agent in an action
Usage: linguistics; grammar
Examples
- In the sentence 'The cat knocked over the vase,' the subject 'cat' has an agentival role.
- Linguists analyze agentival constructions to understand how languages mark who performs an action.
- The agentival case in some languages indicates the entity responsible for the action.
- The suffix '-er' in 'teacher' creates an agentival noun from the verb 'teach'.
- Agentival semantics help explain the difference between active and passive voice.