Agent-patient verbs describe actions where some generally animate entity, the agent, brings about a direct (usually physical) effect on or a change in the location of another entity, the patient. One of the widely noted linking regularities is that agent-patient verbs are transitive verbs, with the agent argument realized as the subject and the patient argument typically realized as the object, but never vice versa.
- Levin (2004), Pag. 307