Transitivity I

Question 1

What is intrasitive?

Answer 1

A verb that takes a subject but no direct object

Question 2

what are the 2 types of intransitive verbs

Answer 2

Unergatives
Unaccusatives

Question 3

What are unergatives

Answer 3

intransitive verbs
employs agent-like subjects

Question 4

What does unaccusatives employ?

Answer 4

Intransitive verbs
Employ theme-like subjects

Question 5

unergatives are verbs describing……?

Answer 5

1. willed or violitional acts
   work, play speak, talk, agree, disagree, hammer, pray, fight,smile,frown,swims, walk, shout, whistle etc.
2. certain involuntary bodily process
   cough, sneeze, hiccough, burp, vomit, defecate, urinate, sleep cry breathe etc.

Question 6

What is included in unaccuasative?

there are 6 kinds

Answer 6

1. Verbs co-occuring with adjectives to describe size, sjapes, weight, colour, smells. state of mind etc.
2. Verbs whoose subject undergoes an action or process
   fall, slip,float,sink,. freeze,evaporate etc.
3. Verbs of existing and happening
   Exist, happen, occur, take place, pop up, disappear etc.
4. Verbs describing involuntary emission of stimuli that impinge on the senses
   shine,sparkle, glitter, stink, click etc.
5. Verbs describing aspects
   begin,start,stop,sease,continue,etc.
6. Verbs describing duration
   last,remain,stay,survive,etc.

Question 7

what is split intransitivity?

Answer 7

The syntactic division of intransitive verbs into unergative and unaccusative subclasses

Question 8

Can there be variation from languague to language interms of percisely where the boundary is drawn between unergatie and unaccusative verbs?

Answer 8

Yes

Question 9

which 2 kinds of verb variation is not random?

Answer 9

• Verbs denoting change of location➡️unaccusative
• Verbs denoting controlled process➡️unergative

Question 10

describe how the graph on how likely it is to be unaccusative or unergative

Answer 10

most likely to be unaccusative
* Change of location:come
* Cahnage of state: freeze
* Continuation of preexisting state:remain
* Existence of state:exist
* Uncontrolled process:cough
* Controlled process(motional):swim
* Controlled process(non-motional): study
Most likely to be unergative

Question 11

What is a transitive?

Answer 11

A verb that takes both subject and a direct object

Question 12

transtive verbs can be recognized by their appearence with what?

Answer 12

two grmatically linked NPs
1. word order
2. inflection

Question 13

what could transitive verbs recall?

Answer 13

grammatical llinking may be manifested as positining, inflection, or a combination of both

Question 14

why is it important to distinguish between valency?

Answer 14

• A verb’s transitivity cannot in general be predicted from the number of arguments that it has

many verbs that take two arguments are not transitive and even verbs that are quite similar in meaning can differ in terms of transitivity

Question 15

why does valency have to do with?

Answer 15

it has to do with the number of arguments that a verb takes

when defining this, rememebr to explain what is an argument!!!!!

Question 16

What does transitivity has to do with?

Answer 16

whether there is a direct object