Re: Settle a Bet

Jim Grossmann <steven@...> wrote:
>>>
Help!
I need to know if "eat" as in "She's eating." is transitive or intransitive.
<<<
certainly Padraic gave you the best possible answer as eurolinguistics go. now,
may i
suggest that you read Rick Morneau's looooong essay?
it's a good introduction to why so many langs in the world work beyond
"transitive" and "intransitive" verbs. IMHO Morneau's only mistake is that he
doesn't understand why telicity is so important. French semanticians don't care
about (in)transitivity and rather classify verbs as "endotropic" and
"exotropic". for instance: "to eat" is endotropic while "to eat at" is
exotropic. thanks to this distinction i could easily guess an learn japanese and
indonesian verbal voices. Tunu verbal system is based on it.
Mathias
www.geocities.com/kalatunu/index.htm