[Vocabulary] It is raining/snowing

[assasalym]

In sentences about wheater like: It's snowing. It's raining.

Does rain/snow do some action ?
Is subject (snow/rain) active in that sentence ?

 

[emsr2d2]

Re: It is raiining/snowing

In sentences about the [STRIKE]wheater[/STRIKE] weather, like (no colon here) "It's snowing" and "It's raining", [STRIKE]does[/STRIKE] are the rain/snow doing [STRIKE]some[/STRIKE] an action?

Is the subject (snow/rain) active in [STRIKE]that sentence[/STRIKE] those sentences?

Welcome to the forum. :hi:

The subject of the sentences is "It" in both cases. It's sort of a dummy "it" but you can think of it as meaning "The weather". However, bear in mind that we never actually say "The weather is snowing" or "The weather is raining". We use "The weather is + adjective".

The snow and rain are falling from the sky. That's the action they're doing.

 

[Tdol]

Re: It is raiining/snowing

I've fixed the title.

 

[assasalym]

Re: It is raiining/snowing

Thanks for explanation and for your welcome message

I only have only doubts to your last two sentences.
In my opinion subject is not performing the action for verb fall, it is more passive than active, right ?
So is this correct to say that subject is doing the action ?

 

[emsr2d2]

Re: It is raiining/snowing

How can something fall in the passive?

 

[assasalym]

Re: It is raiining/snowing

Yes, sorry for misunderstanding, I was not refereeing to the voice of the verb, of course fall in sentence is only in active mood.
I was referring to theta roles and type of noun phrase used with this verb, there are roles which are more active (like agent) or
passive (like patient), please check this article from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unaccusative_verb.
So in this case subject is "going through the state or process" as Piscean notice that.

 

[Tdol]

Re: It is raiining/snowing

You have to be careful when using these verbs. In the context of verbs, 'active' and 'passive' are normally used of the moods of the verb - I bite vs I am bitten.

Mood?

 

[Tdol]

Re: It is raiining/snowing

In my opinion subject is not performing the action for verb fall, it is more passive than active, right ?

I don't see how as the rain is literally falling- we are not talking about it being dropped.

 

[assasalym]

Re: It is raiining/snowing

I don't see how as the rain is literally falling- we are not talking about it being dropped.

i am refering to semantic roles and this article which I posted earlier: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unaccusative_verb.
There are two kinds of intransitive verbs, one in which subject is an agent - performer of action (like sing), and
another in which subject is like a patient (like melt, fall, die).

 

[jutfrank]

Re: It is raiining/snowing

There may be different ways of understanding the sentence It's snowing.

The way I understand it, the grammatical subject It refers to the present state of affairs (or the 'situation') so that the sentence can be understood as The situation is such that it is snowing. In this case, snowing means something like producing falling snow, so snowing is not an unaccusative verb.

It's tempting to think of It's snowing as meaning Snow is falling. Although the sentence Snow is falling expresses a similar thought, it is not semantically identical to It's snowing. In Snow is falling, falling is an unaccusative verb.