Re: THEORY: transitivity

> 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]

It seems to me that you are falling into teh trap of forcing English idiom
into your grammar. COnsider 'it is raining'. Here is how different languages
do this:

French: il pleut [it rains]
Maltese: ix xita [the rain]
Japanese: ame ga furu [rain falls]

Note that teh second doesn't even have a verb. Japanese follows pattern no.1
in your model.

---
Fabian
Rule One: Question the unquestionable,
ask the unaskable, eff the ineffable,
think the unthinkable, and screw the inscrutable.