Re: monovalence

Paul wrote:
<<
You can dig without a tool, for instance, but you have to dig
*something*, a hole, a grave or a fortification, or whatever.
 >>

Would you allow for participles?  So, you could do:

(a) boy.dig hole.appear

Or you could do:

(b) shovel.make hole.appear digging (OBL boy)

Or:

(c) boy.cause shovel.make hole.appear

Unaccusative verbs can really help you with object arguments.
According to some theories, their arguments *are* objects, and
they move up to subject position for ad hoc, nonsensical reasons
(read EPP).  So with a verb like "appear", the thing appearing is
the thing that gets appeared, essentially.  So in (c), no noun is
affecting any other noun.  However, you might argue that the
"cause" is affecting "make" which affects "appear".  Would that
be cheating...?  Would you count those as transitive?

-David
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"A male love inevivi i'ala'i oku i ue pokulu'ume o heki a."
"No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."

-Jim Morrison

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