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Re: Question about transitivity/intransitivity

From:Rik <rik@...>
Date:Thursday, May 29, 2003, 19:33
> > Unaccusatives, however, can function both as transitives and > > intransitives: 1) I sink the ship, 2) I sink down. 3) I melted > > the ice, 4) the ice melted. > > The defining characteristic about unaccusatives is that the subject of > the intransitive is the *patient*, the affected. "I melt the ice" -> > "The ice melted"; "The bomber sank the battleship" -> "The battleship > sank", "I burned the house" -> "The house burned" > > But, "I ate the apple" -> "I ate", not *"The apple ate", "I killed the > spider" -> ?"I killed" ("kill" sounds awkward to me without an object) >
This made an interesting exercise in Gevey, in particular to show how causative and applicative subjects affect the verb in different ways. Using (for the Gevey sentences) [sc] for causative subject and [sa] for applicative subject, [v] for verb, and [o] for direct object: I melt the ice Te[sc] yuu gribohp[o] spistrase[v] The ice melts Gribohpuu[sa] suu spistranti[v] I ate the apple Te[sc] yuu cuaj[o] fosate[v] I ate Te[sc] fosate[v] The cannon sank the ship Kievzhjarhuu[sa] mojuu osemjarh[o] seduu vlakendou[v] The ship sank Osemjarhuu[sa] modo'seduu vlakendou[v] Fire in Gevey is a causative subject: Fire burned the house down Bope[sc] yuu roub[o] kezbopate[v] The fire burned Bope[sc] kezbopate[v] The house burned Roubuu[sa] seduu kezbopanti[v] Rik -- More on Gevey can be found at http://www.kalieda.org/gevey/index.html