This is an old revision of the document!
This is article is a draft and needs a lot of examples
Expand the article add examples
Patient is the semantic concept which is related to object of action, but not always conforms with it. It has no clear scientific definition but usually easy to determine from meaning. Patient is an optional argument of verb (with main one called “agent”), the receiver, target or “undergoer” of an action expressed by predicate. In majority of Indo-European languages patient matches the object of the sentence in active voice 1). However, in passive voice patient is traditionally treated as the subject of sentence 2). The concept of patient is very useful in describing grammar of ergative languages. Archaic Nûrlâm was the ergative language where sentence “” 3) translates into “” instead of “” as in Standard and Modern Nûrlâm.