Re: THEORY: transitivity

On 26 May 99, at 13:17, Pasasgen/Mensa wrote:

> Hello all.
>
> I've been thinking about making a lang which distinguishes
> between zero-transitive, intransitive, transitive and
> ditransitive (is that the English term?) verbs in that
> the conjugation would be different in each form.
> (And possibly also distinguish between verbs that
> don't have an agent, eg. "I sleep" and verbs that do.)
>
> 0. (It) rains   [no S or O]
> 1. I sleep    [only S]
> 2. I eat (food)    [S and O]
> 3. I give (it to you)    [1 S and 2 Os]
My project gzb doesn't go into quite that much detail, though the
system is a little similar.

bly-van I'm falling.  (state, intransitive)

bly-zox pwiq-bly-cxa hxy-i.   I throw the ball (lit. game-throw-tool).
{-zox} shows an active, agentive verb but it isn't always transitive.

bly-ca.  I jump (reflexive).


Jim Henry III
Jim.Henry@pobox.com
http://www.pobox.com/~jim.henry/
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