Re: Question about transitivity/intransitivity

I'd say that the verbs that can take or not take an object are optionally
transitive--a sort of "two-for-one" deal. Thus I'd claim that transitivity
is determined not by ability to take an object but by the presence of the
object.

~Wright

On Wed, 28 May 2003 14:29:33 -0400, Thomas Leigh <thomas@MERMAID-
PRODUCTIONS.COM> wrote:
>Okay, this is probably a stupid question and I should know the answer,
but I wanted to ask because I'm unsure.
>
>A transitive verb is one which can take a direct object, e.g. "eat". An
intransitive verb is one which cannot, e.g. "go". So what if which *can*
take a direct object is used *without* one? E.g. you can say "I am eating
an apple", which is obviously transitive, because the direct object is
there. But what about something like "What are you doing?"/ "I am
eating."  Are those verbs still transitive? Or have they become
intransitive?
>
>Thomas