Diskussion:svälla

A general question about this sort of verbs in Swedish. I mean verbs that describe a process that happens more less autonomously (no one is at fault). In Dutch they can be called ergative: they have no passive forms at all and in the perfect they take to be

De ballon zwelt

De ballon is gezwollen.

Does Swedish have anything similar? I am a little surprised to see the passive forms here.

nl:Gebruiker:Jcwf

Jcwf 27 augusti 2009 kl. 05.00 (CEST)

I don't think that the term "ergative" is usually used when talking about Swedish, but it is not given that every Swedish verb has a passive. The matter is, however, complicated by the fact that the "s-form" (which Swedish Wiktionary has chosen, after discussion, to continue calling "passiv", primarily I think because this is the traditional and most well-known term) has other uses besides expressing passive tense. Specifically for "svälla", a quick google search finds examples of genuine passive use (of a transitive "svälla", "to make something swell", perhaps a lacking definition in this entry). Ever wonder 1 september 2009 kl. 12.22 (CEST)

Thank you Ever wonder, there are many verbs in Dutch that can be used both as transitives and as ergatives, so that makes sense. That is true for English even:

I melt the ice (transitive)

The ice melts (ergative)

English however has 'has melted' in both cases. Dutch has 'hebben' for the trans., but 'zijn' for the ergative usage. jf