Definition of "agentive" [agentive]

• Of or relating to a linguistic form or construction that indicates an agent or agency, as the suffix -er in singer. (adjective)
• An agentive form or construction. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Later von Wright was to draw attention to what may be called the agentive modes: ˜the agent brings it about that™, ˜the agent makes it true that™, and the like (von Wright 1963)."
• "I suspect that if one wanted to say "A gift was given by Aranth to Uni," it would simply be translated as Fler turce Arnθ Unial where the "agentive" function is taken up by a combination of the nomino-accusative case and marked word order."
• "Further, the use of this case with human beings to mark the "agentive" or "by" seems more in line with an ablative function."