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The basicness of transitives 1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

A. Saksena
A. Saksena
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of California
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Extract

This paper raises the question whether transitive or intransitive semantics is the more basic. Recently, the transformational analysis of causatives (Lakoff, 1970; McCawley, 1968) has proposed that transitives are derived from intransitives by a causative transformation — thus implying that intransitive semantics is more basic. Because the transformational model has been so influential2 this claim has been carried over, often unquestioningly, into the grammar of many languages such as Hindi (Kachru, 1966, 1971; Kleiman, 1971). This paper shows that of significance in determining basicness is the question whether intransitive verbs of the form (O_) represent natural activity or agent-motivated activity; and using this criterion, we expect most transitives to be basic.

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Articles
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Journal of Linguistics , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , September 1982, pp. 355 - 360
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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References

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