On Transitivity

Randy J. LaPolla | La Trobe University

František Kratochvíl | Nanyang Technological University

Alexander R. Coupe | Nanyang Technological University

This paper critically discusses and contrasts some of the different conceptualisations of transitivity that have been presented in the literature, and argues that transitivity as a morphosyntactic phenomenon and effectiveness of an event as a semantic concept should be separated in discussions of transitivity, and also, like many other aspects of grammar, transitivity should be seen as a constructional phenomenon, and so each construction in a language needs to be examined separately, in natural contexts. An Appendix presents some general questions one can consider when analysing language data.

Keywords: Radical Construction Grammar, Transitivity, verbal valence, linguistic typology

Published online: 29 November 2011
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.35.3.00int

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