Experiencers and Impersonal Predicates

Level 6Sounds Like dativ i akuzativ uz bezlični predikat

Serbian expresses involuntary physical sensations, emotional states, and psychological dispositions using subjectless impersonal predicates. The person feeling the sensation (the Experiencer) is marked either in the dative case or the accusative case depending strictly on the governing word.

How It Works

At an advanced level, understanding impersonal syntax requires recognizing how the case assigned to the experiencer (експеријент or логички субјекат) is governed by specific lexical items and syntactic frames. While case assignment is lexically determined by each particular predicate rather than randomly interchangeable, synonymous expressions of internal states alternate between dative and accusative impersonal constructions, or contrast with personal subject-predicate clauses (e.g., dative impersonal мука ми је vs. personal subject-verb хвата ме мука where мука is the nominative subject; dative impersonal хладно ми је vs. accusative impersonal зебе ме).

1. Dative Experiencers (Receptive / Internal Condition)
The dative signals an affected participant experiencing an internal evaluation, state, or involuntary urge:

  • Adverbial copular predicates: хладно ми је (I feel cold), жао ми је (I am sorry / I regret), криво ми је (I feel resentful/regretful), тешко ми је (it is hard for me).
  • Copular noun predicates: Fully inflected feminine nouns like мука function as the nominal part of a copular predicate (именски део копулативног предиката) to convey physical or emotional distress: мука ми је (I feel sick/nauseous). Unlike the personal construction хвата ме мука, here мука does not trigger subject agreement.
  • Involuntary/desiderative predicates with impersonal се: Adding the impersonal particle се to a verb in the invariable 3rd-person singular creates an involuntary urge or physical predisposition: спава ми се (I feel sleepy), плаче ми се (I feel like crying), ради ми се (I feel like working). Crucially, this се is not a reflexive direct object and cannot be replaced by себе.
  • Evaluative, necessitative, and modal predicates: Impersonal copular adjectives like потребно ми је да знам (it is necessary for me to know) or modal verbs like чини ми се (it seems to me). With требати, standard Serbian distinguishes two constructions: deontic objective obligation, which is impersonal and takes no dative experiencer (треба да знам; требало је да одемо), and personal/individual need (necessitative meaning), which standardly takes a dative experiencer alongside a да clause (e.g., треба ми да се одморим). When followed by an explicit noun or pronoun subject (whether concrete or abstract), требати functions as a personal verb agreeing in number and person: треба ми књига, требају ми књиге, треба ми мир, ти ми требаш.

2. Accusative Experiencers (Overcome / Direct Somatic Impact)
The accusative is required when an external, psychological, or bodily force directly affects or overcomes the person:

  • Predicative state nouns: Nouns like страх (fear), стид (shame), and срамота (embarrassment) act as invariable predicates with the copula: страх ме је (I am afraid), срамота ме је (I am ashamed). These predicates frequently take a генитив complement indicating the source or cause of the emotion: Страх ме је мрака / висине (I am afraid of darkness / heights), Стид ме је сопствене грешке (I am ashamed of my own mistake). Note the syntactic contrast: страх ме је is an impersonal predicate with an accusative experiencer, whereas хвата ме страх is a personal subject-predicate clause with a nominative subject.
  • Pure impersonal somatic verbs: Verbs referring to physical afflictions when constructed without a nominative noun: боли ме у грудима (it hurts in my chest; contrast with personal боли ме глава), гуши ме (I feel suffocated), сврби ме (it itches me), зебе ме (I feel freezing).
  • Volitional reluctance: мрзи ме (да...) (I can't be bothered / I feel too lazy to).

3. Morphosyntactic Constraints & Word Order

  • Enclitic vs. Full Pronouns: The experiencer is normally expressed via short enclitics (ми, ти, му... or ме, те, га...). Full tonic pronouns (мени, мене) are used whenever the experiencer carries emphatic or contrastive focus, regardless of where they appear in the clause (e.g., initial: Мене је страх, а њему је свеједно; or medial/final: Није било хладно њему, него мени; Страх је мене, а не тебе).
  • Clitic Position: Clitics follow second-position rules. Crucially, a dative experiencer precedes impersonal се (Спава ми се), while an accusative experiencer precedes the auxiliary copula је (Страх ме је).
  • Past Tense Agreement: In the past tense, the predicate verb or auxiliary takes the default neuter singular form: спавало ми се, било ме је страх, болело ме је у леђима, било ми је мука. Treating predicative nouns as agreeing grammatical subjects (e.g., *била ме је срамота, *био ме је стид) is non-standard in literary Serbian.

Examples (4)

  1. Жао ми је што нисам могао да дођем, али после дугог пута страшно ми се спавало.

    I am sorry that I couldn't come, but after the long trip I felt terribly sleepy.

    Word by Word: Sorry to-me is that not-was-able that I-come, but after long trip terribly to-me itself slept.

    Demonstrates two dative experiencer constructions: the adverbial copular state 'жао ми је' and the past-tense involuntary desiderative construction 'страшно ми се спавало' (frozen in neuter singular).

  2. Мене је одавно било страх да признам грешку, иако ме је уједно било и стид.

    I had long been afraid to admit the mistake, even though I was simultaneously ashamed.

    Word by Word: Me was long-ago been fear that I-admit mistake, although me was at-same-time been also shame.

    Demonstrates accusative experiencers ('мене' topicalized, 'ме' enclitic) with predicative psychological nouns ('страх', 'стид') and neuter singular past copula agreement ('било').

  3. Мрзи ме да устајем по овој хладноћи, поготово што ме још увек помало боли у грудима.

    I can't be bothered to get up in this cold, especially since my chest still hurts a bit.

    Word by Word: Hates me that I-get-up in this cold, especially that me still always a-bit hurts in chest.

    Demonstrates accusative experiencer 'ме' with the colloquial modal verb 'мрзи ме' and the pure impersonal somatic predicate 'боли ме у грудима' (with a prepositional phrase instead of a nominative subject).

  4. Ако ти је хладно, обуци јакну, а ако ти се не иде напоље, остани овде.

    If you are cold, put on a jacket, and if you don't feel like going outside, stay here.

    Word by Word: If to-you is cold, put-on jacket, and if to-you itself not goes outside, stay here.

    Contrasts the dative state of bodily sensation ('ти је хладно') with a negated desiderative verb ('ти се не иде').

Common Mistakes

  • Using the dative case with predicative nouns like strah or sramota.

    Мени је страх од висине.
    Страх ме је од висине.

    Predicative state nouns like 'страх', 'стид', and 'срамота' govern the accusative case ('ме', 'те', 'га'...), not the dative ('ми', 'ти', 'му'...).

  • Treating predicative nouns as agreeing grammatical subjects in past-tense sentences.

    Била ме је срамота што нисам знао одговор.
    Било ме је срамота што нисам знао одговор.

    The noun 'срамота' is a predicative state marker, not an active subject. Impersonal clauses require the past copula in the neuter singular ('било'), not feminine agreement ('била').

  • Reversing the word order of dative clitics and the reflexive particle 'се'.

    Данас спава се ми цео дан.
    Данас ми се спава цео дан.

    In the clitic chain, dative pronominal clitics ('ми', 'ти', 'му'...) must precede the reflexive clitic 'се'.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Experiencers and Impersonal PredicatesLevel 6

Learn This First

To contrast and properly choose between dative and accusative experiencer markers in impersonal predicates, learners need previous familiarity with impersonal dative states (e.g., хладно ми је), accusative experiencer verbs (e.g., боли ме / мучи ме), and general impersonal clause structure.