Re: Question about transitivity/intransitivity

----- Original Message -----
From: "Nik Taylor" <yonjuuni@...>

> Sally Caves wrote:
> > 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"
Well exactly.  Well-put.  You hear that, Thomas? :)

> 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)
How about "I murdered."


Sally Caves
scaves@frontiernet.net
Eskkoat ol ai sendran, rohsan nuehra celyil takrem bomai nakuo.
"My shadow follows me, putting strange, new roses into the world."

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