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

Cited by

Cited by 9 other publications

Cheonhak Kim

2014. The Study on the Telicity in Korean Verbs. Language & Information Society 21:null ► pp. 23 ff.

García-Miguel, José María

2015. In Verb Classes and Aspect [IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature, 9], ► pp. 288 ff.

Halevy, Rivka

2020. In Usage-Based Studies in Modern Hebrew [Studies in Language Companion Series, 210], ► pp. 465 ff.

Heaton, Raina

2018. Intransitivizing morphology. Language and Linguistics Compass 12:12 ► pp. e12305 ff.

LaPolla, Randy J.

2016. Once again on methodology and argumentation in linguistics. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 39:2 ► pp. 282 ff.

LaPolla, Randy J.

2017. In Noun-Modifying Clause Constructions in Languages of Eurasia [Typological Studies in Language, 116], ► pp. 91 ff.

Legallois, Dominique

2017. Pour une conception constructionnelle de la transitivité. Langue française N° 194:2 ► pp. 15 ff.

Vartiainen, Turo & Mikko Höglund

2020. In Corpora and the Changing Society [Studies in Corpus Linguistics, 96], ► pp. 277 ff.

Ye, Zhengdao

2019. The Emergence of Expressible Agency and Irony in Today’s China: A Semantic Explanation of the New Bèi-construction. Australian Journal of Linguistics 39:1 ► pp. 57 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 january 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.