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Robert Forkel edited this page Jun 30, 2021 · 23 revisions

Are there verbal affixes or clitics that turn intransitive verbs into transitive ones?

Summary

This feature asks whether intransitive verbs can take a phonologically bound morpheme that signals the addition of just one role in the event denoted by the verb. This could be a causative affix or clitic, an applicative marker (benefactive, instrumental, etc.), etc. The marker has to be productive. Note that there is no logical dependency with GB155 on causative markers, as a language could have causatives that change a verb's valency from 2 to 3 but not from 1 to 2.

Procedure

  1. Code 1 if a grammar mentions a transitivizing marker that changes intransitive to transitive verbs, and it is phonologically bound to the verb.
  2. Code 0 if a grammar mentions that there are no (phonologically bound) transitivizing markers on verbs or verb phrases.
  3. Code 0 if an otherwise comprehensive grammar does not mention transitivizing markers on verbs or verb phrases. Write 'not mentioned' in the comment field.
  4. Code 0 if a grammar only discusses valency decreasing operations or valency increasing operations that increase the valency of already transitive verbs, but does not mention valency increasing operations that increase the valency of an intransitive verb.
  5. Code 0 if a grammar discusses phonologically free morphemes that change intransitive verbs to transitive ones, but no phonologically bound ones.
  6. Code ? if you think there is not enough data or analysis to establish the presence or absence of a bound transitivizing morpheme. Write this in the comment column.

Examples

Ao Naga (ISO 639-3: njo, Glottolog: aona1235)

Ao Naga (or Chungli Ao, in the source) has a causative suffix, -taktsɨ, which can transitivize intransitive sentences, as well as add an additional role to an already transitive clause. Ao Naga is coded 1 for this feature.

(Intransitive > transitive)
ni-i   la     tʃip-taktsɨ
1SG-A  3SG.F  cry-CAUS.PFV
‘I made her cry.’ (Escamilla 2012: 54–56)

(Transitive > ditransitive)
pa-i     la-nem      mapa    injak-takstsɨ
3SG.M-A  3SG.F-DAT   chore   do/work-CAUS.PFV
‘He made her do work.’ (Escamilla 2012: 54–56)

Arhuaco (ISO 639-3: arh, Glottolog: arhu1242)

Arhuaco (or Ika) has a directive applicative prefix ka- that can add an extra role to an intransitive clause. Arhuaco is coded 1 for this feature.

mi-ka-wa'ka
2SG.OBJ-APPL.DIR-look
‘It looks at you.’ (Frank 1985: 93; glosses by Haspelmath & Müller-Bardey 2004: 107)

Barain (ISO 639-3: bva, Glottolog: bare1279)

Like other Chadic languages, Barain has fossilized remains of a system of intransitive-causative vowel alternation, which is no longer productive (Lovestrand 2012: 126–127). There is no other transitivizing morphology (although there is a passive, reflexive and reciprocal). Barain is coded as 0.

Further reading

Escamilla, Ramón. M. 2012. An updated typology of causative constructions: Form-function mappings in Hupa (California Athabaskan), Chungli Ao (Tibeto-Burman) and beyond. Berkeley: University of California, Berkeley. (Doctoral dissertation.)

Haspelmath, Martin & Thomas Müller-Bardey. 2004. Valency change. In Geert E. Booij, Christian Lehmann, Joachim Mugdan & Stavros Skopeteas (eds), Morphology: An international handbook on inflection and word-formation. Vol. 2, 1130–1145. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

Peterson, David A. 2007. Applicative constructions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Zúñiga, Fernando & Seppo Kittilä. 2019. Grammatical voice. (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics, 59.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

References

Escamilla, Ramón M. 2012. An Updated Typology of Causative Constructions: Form-Function Mappings in Hupa (California Athabaskan), Chungli Ao (Tibeto-Burman) and Beyond (PhD Thesis). University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California.

Frank, Paul Stephen. 1985. A grammar of Ika (Chibchan, Colombia). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. (Doctoral dissertation.)

Haspelmath, Martin & Thomas Müller-Bardey. 2004. Valency change. In Geert E. Booij, Christian Lehmann, Joachim Mugdan & Stavros Skopeteas (eds), Morphology: An international handbook on inflection and word-formation. Vol. 2, 1130–1145. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

Lovestrand, Joseph. 2012. The linguistic structure of Baraïn (Chadic). Dallas: Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics. (MA thesis.)

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