Transitivity (grammar)

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Animacy Aspect Case Clusivity Definiteness Degree of comparison Evidentiality Focus Gender Mirativity Modality Mood Noun class Number Person Polarity Tense Topic Transitivity Voice

v d e

In linguistics, transitivity is a property of verbs that relates to whether a verb can take direct objects and how many such objects a verb can take. It is closely related to valency, which considers other verb arguments in addition to direct objects. Traditional grammar makes a binary distinction between intransitive verbs that cannot take a direct object (such as fall or sit in English) and transitive verbs that take one direct object (such

as throw, injure, kiss in English). In practice, many languages (including English) interpret the category more flexibly, allowing: ditransitive verbs, verbs that have two objects; or even ambitransitive verbs, verbs that can be used as both a transitive verb and an intransitive verb. Further, some verbs may be idiomatically transitive, while, technically, intransitive. This may be observed in the verb walk in the idiomatic expression To walk the dog. In functional grammar, transitivity is considered to be a continuum rather than a binary category as in traditional grammar. The "continuum" view takes a more semantic approach. One way it does this is by taking into account the degree to which an action affects its object (so that the verb see is described as having "lower transitivity" than the verb kill).

Contents
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1 Formal analysis o 1.1 Languages that express transitivity through morphology 2 Form-function mappings 3 Notes 4 References 5 See also 6 External links

[edit] Formal analysis

Many languages, such as Hungarian, mark transitivity through morphology; transitive verbs and intransitive verbs behave in distinctive ways. In languages with polypersonal agreement, an intransitive verb will agree with its subject only, while a transitive verb will agree with both subject and direct object. In other languages the distinction is based on syntax. It is possible to identify an intransitive verb in English, for example, by attempting to supply it with an appropriate direct object:

He kissed her hand - transitive verb. She injured him - transitive verb. What did you throw? - transitive verb.

By contrast, an intransitive verb coupled with a direct object will result in an ungrammatical utterance:

*What did you fall? *I sat a chair.

Conversely (at least in a traditional analysis), using a transitive verb in English without a direct object will result in an incomplete sentence:

I kissed (. . .) You injured (. . .) Where is she now? *She's injuring.

English is unusually lax by Indo-European standards in its rules on transitivity; what may appear to be a transitive verb can be used as an intransitive verb, and vice versa. Eat and read and many other verbs can be used either transitively or intransitively. Often there is a semantic difference between the intransitive and transitive forms of a verb: the water is boiling versus I boiled the water; the grapes grew versus I grew the grapes. In these examples, known as ergative verbs, the role of the subject differs between intransitive and transitive verbs. Even though an intransitive verb may not take a direct object, it often may take an appropriate indirect object:

I laughed at him.

What are considered to be intransitive verbs can also take cognate objects, where the object is considered integral to the action, for example I slept an hour.

[edit] Languages that express transitivity through morphology

The following languages of the below language families (or hypothetical language families) have this feature:[1] In the Uralic language family:

Mordvinic languages The three Ugric languages Northern Samoyedic languages

In the Paleosiberian hypothetical language family:

Languages of both branches of the EskimoAleut family; for details from the Eskimo branch, see e.g. Sireniki, Kalaallisut Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages Yukaghir The Ket language has a very sophisticated verbal inclination systems, referring (among others) also to the object in many ways, (see also polypersonal agreement).

[edit] Form-function mappings

Formal transitivity is associated with a variety of semantic functions across languages. Crosslinguistically, Hopper and Thompson (1980) have proposed to decompose the notion of

transitivity into 10 formal and semantic features (some binary, some scalar); the features argued to be associated with high transitivity are summarized in the following well-known table:
1: PARTICIPANTS: 2 or more 2: KINESIS: action involved 3: ASPECT: telic 4: PUNCTUALITY:punctual 5: VOLITIONALITY: action is volitional 6: AFFIRMATION: utterance expressing action is affirmative 7: MODE: realis 8: AGENCY: A argument is high in potency 9: AFFECTEDNESS OF O argument: O totally affected 10: INDIVIDUATION OF O: O is highly individuated

Nss (2007) has argued at length for the following two points: 1. Though formally a broad category of phenomena, transitivity boils down to a way to maximally distinguish the two participants involved (pp. 22-25); 2. Major participants are describable in terms of the semantic features [Volitional] [Instigating] [Affected] which makes them distinctive from each other. Different combinations of these binary values will yield different types of participants (pg. 89), which are then compatible or incompatible with different verbs. Individual languages may, of course, make more fine-grained distinctions (chapter 5). Types of participants discussed include:

Volitional Undergoers (some Experiencer, Recipients, Beneficiaries): [+Vol], [-Inst], [+Aff]

ex. me in Spanish Me gusta. ['I like it.']

Force: [-Vol], [+Inst], [-Aff]

ex. the tornado in The tornado broke my windows.

Instrument: [-Vol], [+Inst], [+Aff]

ex. the hammer in The hammer broke the cup.

[edit] Notes
1. ^ Pusztay 1990: 8692

[edit] References

Hopper, Paul J.; Sandra A. Thompson (June 1980). "Transitivity in Grammar and Discourse". Language 56 (2): 251299. doi:10.2307/413757. Naess, Ashild (2007) (in English). Prototypical Transitivity. Typological Studies in Language 72. John Benjamins Pub Co. ISBN 99027229848.

Pusztay, Jnos (1990) (in Hungarian). Nyelvek blcsjnl. Krdjel. Budapest: Akadmiai Kiad. ISBN 963 05 5510 7.Translation of the title: At the cradle of languages.

[edit] See also

Valency (linguistics) Ergativeabsolutive language Verb argument Transitive verb Intransitive verb Ambitransitive verb Impersonal verb Unaccusative verb Differential Object Marking

[edit] External links

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Welcome Introduction Parts of speech Phrases Clauses

Transitivity Clause types Polarity

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Transitivity

Test yourself: Transitivity

Transitivity describes the clause in terms of the number of basic constituents (mostly noun phrase complements) that are required to make the clause grammatical. The verb determines the transitivity of the clause.

Contents
1. Transitivity types

2. The subject 3. The object 4. Predicative complements 5. Adjuncts

Related pages
Clauses
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Transitivity types
There are five transitivity patterns in English. These patterns reflect the number and kinds of complements and other complements required by different types of verbs.
English transitivity patterns (S = subject, V = verb, O = object, Oi = indirect object, Od = direct object, PC = predicative complement) Transitivity type Intransitive Complex intransitive Transitive Complex transitive Ditransitive
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Basic Constituents SV S V PC SVO S V O PC S V Oi Od

Example

Sarah sneezed. Sarah is a teacher. Sarah ate an apple. Sarah considers George a genius. Sarah gave Debbie a book.

The subject
The form of the subject is dependent on the verb. This is because the meaning of the verb dictates what kind of subject is possible. Consider the following sentences and note that whereas the verb depend can take a subordinate clause as its subject, the verb looks requires a noun referring to a colour or another reference to appearance (for example, stripes) as its subject.

How well you're regarded depends on your smell. Purple depends on your smell. How well you're regarded looks great with yellow. Purple looks great with yellow. Because the subject depends on the verb, we can say that subjects are complements to the verb. An important difference between subjects and other complements is that subjects are outside the verb phrase. For this reason, subjects are sometimes called external complements of the verb phrase. The following discussion identifies the main properties of English subjects.

Basic position
In a basic clause the subject always comes before the VP.

Subject-auxiliary inversion
In a couple of non-basic clause types, especially in interrogatives, the subject appears after the auxiliary. Did Sandy really do that? How do you know? Only later did I discover the true facts.

Case marking on subject pronouns

Case is the marking for grammatical role within the noun phrase. In Old English, case was marked on many elements within the noun phrase and was an important indicator of the structure of the clause. In Modern English case is no longer very central and we rely on word order to a much greater extent. Word order in Old English was much freer than it is in Modern English. The only area of the grammar of Modern English in which case is evident is the pronoun system. We can distinguish between subjects and objects by examining the form of the pronouns. The following table shows the Modern English personal pronoun paradigm.
The English personal pronoun paradigm NOMINATIVE PERSON SG 1 PL SG PL ACCUSATIVE

we

me

us

NOMINATIVE PERSON SG 2 3 Neuter 3 Masculine 3 Feminine PL

ACCUSATIVE SG PL

you it he she they it him her them

Try substituting pronouns for the subject and object noun phrases in the following sentences and note how the pronouns are distributed.
SUBJECT NP The rosy cheeked lady My cat Doug, Sandy and Jude Sarah V bumped loves ate hates PREDICATE Object NP Debbie. orchids. meat pies. modernist architecture.

Verb agreement
In the present tense, English verbs (excluding the modal auxiliaries) show agreement with third person singular subjects. This is apparent if we change the person and number of the subject in the examples below.
SUBJECT The rosy cheeked lady All my friends You (all) PREDICATE drinks coffee. drink coffee. drink coffee.

SUBJECT I
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PREDICATE drink coffee.

The object
Let's start by summarising the information about objects we've covered in passing so far:

an object, like a subject, is dependent on the verb an object (unlike the subject) is part of the verb phrase an object is often (though not always) an noun phrase pronouns functioning as objects are in the accusative case in basic clauses the object comes after the verb

Direct and indirect objects

In English there are some verbs that can take two objects (send, make, and give, for example). These verbs form ditransitive clauses. In these clauses, we can distinguish two types of object: direct (Od) and indirect (Oi). The direct object is the one most involved in the action. The indirect object is less involved it often has the semantic role of recipient or beneficiary. Consider the following examples.
SUBJECT Michael Francis Clyde PREDICATOR bakes gave tells Oi Jude Sandy everyone Od a cake every birthday. fifty cents. the most exaggerated stories about his fishing exploits.

In many (but not all) cases it is possible to refer to the indirect object using a prepositional phrase. Note that in this construction the direct object is back next to the verb. Recipients are introduced by the preposition to and beneficiaries are introduced by the preposition for.
SUBJECT PREDICATOR Od PP

SUBJECT Michael Francis Clyde

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PREDICATOR bakes gave tells

Od a cake fifty cents stories

PP for Jude every birthday. to Sandy. to everyone.

Predicative complements
Besides subjects and objects, verbs take an additional type of complement called a predicative complement (PC). The verbs which allow predicative complements in English include: be, seem, and appear among others.

Predicative complements versus objects

Predicative complements have the function of providing additional information about another entity in the clause they do not refer to a new entity. Consider the following examples using verbs that have different meanings with either objects or predicative complements:
PC She sounded I felt The essay topic proved fine. so silly. difficult. We sounded I felt The student proved Object the alarm. a stone (in my shoe). her hypothesis.

In the examples above, adjectives are used as PCs but it is also possible to use noun phrases in this function: Iris is head librarian. Lucy became treasurer. A useful test for determining whether a form is a predicative complement or not is to try and form the passive:
Complement type Object Active Passive

We sounded the alarm.

The alarm was sounded (by us).

Complement type Predicative complement

Active

Passive

Lucy became treasurer.

*The treasurer was become by Lucy.

Subjective and objective predicative complements

In the above examples, the predicative complements all refer to the subject but it is also possible for a predicative complement to refer to an object (although this may not sound particularly natural to speakers of all varieties of Modern English). Consider the examples below.
Object I find I consider
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PC quite disturbing. a great friend.

Sandy Sandy

Adjuncts
Adjuncts are not required by the verb. As a result there is a relatively large amount of freedom involved in their distribution. There is also quite a wide variety of semantic and syntactic types of structures that can be used as adjuncts.

Semantic types of adjunct

Examples of some of the different types of adjuncts found in English are listed below.
Semantic types of adjuncts in English Adjunct type Manner Place Time Durations Example

Debbie and Jude watched the movie reluctantly. Debbie and Jude watched the movie at the Nova. Debbie and Jude watched the movie yesterday. Debbie and Jude watched the movie for ten minutes.

Adjunct type Frequency Purpose Condition Concession

Example

Debbie and Jude watched the movie every week. Debbie and Jude watched the movie to find out what happened. Debbie and Jude will watch the movie if they must. Although they were reluctant, Debbie and Jude watched the movie.

Categories that act as adjuncts

The types of grammatical structures that can function as adjuncts are listed below.
Grammatical structures of adjuncts Grammatical structure AdvP PP NP Finite clause Non-finite clause Example

Debbie and Jude watched the movie reluctantly Debbie and Jude watched the movie at the Nova Debbie and Jude watched the movie every week Although they were reluctant, Debbie and Jude watched the movie. Debbie and Jude watched the movie to find out what happened.

Modifiers and supplements

One final distinction that needs to be made within the category of adjuncts is between modifiers and supplements. This distinction reflects what relationship the adjunct has to the rest of the clause. Modifiers are constituents of the clause or of one of its phrases. This is reflected in the prosody of the clause and possibly also in their position. Debbie and Doug are incredibly happy.

Sarah said she'd come even though it was raining. Jude was actually very pleased to see you. Supplements are external to the clause, occurring only at the periphery, and with a clear prosodic break; they provide commentary on the sentence as a whole. Incredibly, Debbie and Doug are happy. Even though it was raining, Sarah said she'd come. Jude was very pleased to see you, actually.

Test yourself: Transitivity

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