Transitivity: Form, Meaning, Acquisition, and Processing

321 Pages·2010·1.91 MB·English

by  Patrick Brandt

Transitivity
Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today (LA)
Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today (LA) provides a platform for original monograph
studies into synchronic and diachronic linguistics. Studies in LA confront empirical
and theoretical problems as these are currently discussed in syntax, semantics,
morphology, phonology, and systematic pragmatics with the aim to establish robust
empirical generalizations within a universalistic perspective.
General Editors
Werner Abraham Elly van Gelderen
University of Vienna / Arizona State University
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Advisory Editorial Board
Josef Bayer Christer Platzack
University of Konstanz University of Lund
Cedric Boeckx Ian Roberts
ICREA/Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Cambridge University
Guglielmo Cinque Lisa deMena Travis
University of Venice McGill University
Liliane Haegeman Sten Vikner
University of Ghent University of Aarhus
Hubert Haider C. Jan-Wouter Zwart
University of Salzburg University of Groningen
Terje Lohndal
University of Maryland
Volume 166
Transitivity. Form, Meaning, Acquisition, and Processing
Edited by Patrick Brandt and Marco García García
Transitivity
Form, Meaning, Acquisition, and Processing
Edited by
Patrick Brandt
University of Cologne
Marco García García
University of Freiburg
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Transitivity : form, meaning, acquisition, and processing / edited by Patrick Brandt, Marco
Garcia García.
p. cm. (Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, issn 0166-0829 ; v. 166)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Grammar, Comparative and general--Transitivity. 2. Dependency grammar. 3. Seman-
tics. I. Brandt, Patrick. II. García, Marco Garcia.
P291.T73 2010
415--dc22 2010022886
isbn 978 90 272 5549 5 (Hb ; alk. paper)
isbn 978 90 272 8781 6 (Eb)
© 2010 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa
Table of contents
Acknowledgments vii
Trans-duction 1
Patrick Brandt & Marco García García
part i. Form and meaning
Types of transitivity, intransitive objects,
and untransitivity – and the logic of their structural designs:
Ways to keep apart derivation in syntax and in the lexicon 15
Werner Abraham
The interaction of transitivity features in the Sinhala involitive 69
John Beavers & Cala Zubair
Transitivity in Chinese experiencer object verbs 95
Elisabeth Verhoeven
Non-zero/non-zero alternations in differential object marking 119
Stefan Keine & Gereon Müller
part ii. Acquisition and processing
Children and transitivity: The subject-object asymmetry
in a natural setting 143
Lotte Hogeweg & Helen de Hoop
Grammatical transitivity vs. interpretive distinctness: The case
for a separation of two levels of representation that are often conflated 161
Matthias Schlesewsky, Kamal Kumar Choudhary &
Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky
part iii. Transitivity and diathesis
The space between one and two: Transitives, intransitives
and the middle voice 191
Kees de Schepper
Event-structure and individuation in impersonal passives 209
Beatrice Primus
vi Transitivity: Form, Meaning, Acquisition, and Processing
part iv. Crosslinguistic and crosscategorical considerations
Lability and spontaneity 237
Alexander Letuchiy
Transitivity of deverbal nominals and aspectual modifiers
of the verbal stem (evidence from Russian) 257
Anna Pazelskaya
Individuation and semantic role interpretation
in the adpositional domain 279
Sander Lestrade & Peter de Swart
Language index 301
Subject index 303
Acknowledgments
The papers in this volume were first presented at a workshop on Transitivity at
the University of Cologne in November 2008. Individual people and institutions
helped bring about the event and book in important ways.
Beatrice Primus and Daniel Jacob provided constant support at all levels, from
the inception to the conceptualization and concretion. The Centre for Language
Diversity and Multilingualism (ZSM) at the University of Cologne was a backbone
in the organization of the workshop, and many helpers brought in their minds
and arms and feet to make it succeed. For their assistance, concrete or ideal, we
would like to thank in particular Karin Barber, Christiane M. Bongartz, Susanne
Couturier, Martin Evertz, Riccarda Fasanella, Nele Franz, Thomas Grandrath,
Linda Kronenberg, Helge Kuhnert, Jürgen Lenerz, Claudia Riehl, Astrid Rothe,
Timo Röttger, Imke Scheib, Frank Slotta, and Nico Spindler. Special thanks go to
the Fritz Thyssen Foundation for financial support that enabled getting everybody
to Cologne and accommodating them.
From the abstracts offered to the workshop, less than half could be selected
for oral or poster presentation. Unfortunately, the talks by Leila Behrens, by Daniel
Jacob and by John Peterson, as well as the talks by Eva Kardos and Gergely Pethö
and by Roland Pfau and Markus Steinbach could not be written up and included
as papers here. Those that were have benefitted from the critique and advice of
our team of reviewers: Sebastian Bank, Olga Borik, Leston Buell, Berit Gehrke,
Kleanthes Grohmann, Ingo Feldhausen, Klaus von Heusinger, Joost Kremers,
Silvia Kutscher, Helen Leuninger, Marijana Marelij, John Peterson, Wolfgang Raible,
György Rákosi, Mara van Schaik-Radulescu, Rachel Szekely, and Dirk Vetter.
Martine van Marsbergen and Kees Vaes at Benjamins were excellently patient
and helpful in the production of the book. Thanks, finally, to Werner Abraham as
author, advisor, and institution at the all-connecting interface.

Trans-duction
Patrick Brandt & Marco García García
University of Cologne/University of Freiburg
1. Transitive ideals
The adjective transitive is used by linguists in different ways that are related to one
another in different ways. In logic, transitive means for a relation R to have the
property in (1), where “∧” is logical conjunction and “⊃” material implication in
standard propositional calculus:
(1) xRy ∧ yRz ⊃ xRz transitive
(1) means that if the relation holds between x and y and y and z, it also holds
between x and z. Apart from the logical and (the editors believe) un-challenged
definition, much is to be said about the meaning of the term in a theory of grammar
that subscribes to basic principles of empirical science. Morphologically, transitive
is less complex than intransitive (and ditransitive). This is remarkable, since, at first
blush, one would think that from the point of view of semantics, intransitive, that
is, one-place predications, should be simpler than two-place predications, which
is what transitive constructions, whatever their definition will turn out to be, are
commonly taken to code.
1.1 One and two place predications and functions
Keeping aside ditransitive predications and keeping to “ordinary individuals” for
the moment, let us look at the one vs. two place distinction respecting properties
and functions. Following standard Fregean practice, one place predicates can be
modelled as one place functions that take you from individuals to truth values.
(2) Peter sleeps |= Peter ∈ SLP
The meaning of an ordinary one place predication thus corresponds to a subset of
the domain of ordinary individuals (like persons or things), namely those that are
in the extension of the one place property denoted by the predicative expression.
Analogously, two place predications are standardly taken to correspond to functions
that take you from pairs of individuals to truth values.
(3) Peter loves Mary |= 〈Peter, Mary〉 ∈ LOV