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Transitivity (grammar)

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Grammatical categories

Animacy

Aspect

Case

Clusivity

Definiteness

Degree of comparison

Evidentiality

Focus

Gender

Mirativity

Modality

Mood

Noun class

Number

Person

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Transitivity

Voice

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e

Inlinguistics,transitivity is a property ofverbsthat relates to whether a verb can takedirect

objectsand how many such objects a verb can take. It is closely related tovalency, which

considers otherverb argumentsin addition todirect objects.

Traditional grammar makes a binary distinction betweenintransitive verbsthat cannot take a

direct object (such asfall or sitinEnglish) andtransitive verbsthat take one direct object (such
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dia.org/wiki/Definitenesshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clusivityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_casehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_aspecthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animacyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_categoryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#p-searchhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#mw-head


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as throw, injure, kiss inEnglish). In practice, many languages (includingEnglish) interpret the

category more flexibly, allowing:ditransitive verbs, verbs that have two objects; or evenambitransitive verbs, verbs that can be used as both atransitive verband anintransitive verb.

Further, some verbs may be idiomatically transitive, while, technically, intransitive. This may be

observed in the verb walkin the idiomatic expression To walk the dog.

Infunctional grammar, transitivity is considered to be a continuum rather than a binary category

as in traditional grammar. The "continuum" view takes a moresemanticapproach. One way itdoes this is by taking into account the degree to which an action affects its object (so that the

verb see is described as having "lower transitivity" than the verb kill).

Contents

[hide]

1 Formal analysis

o 1.1 Languages that express transitivity through morphology 2 Form-function mappings

3 Notes

4 References

5 See also

6 External links

[edit] Formal analysis

Many languages, such asHungarian, mark transitivity throughmorphology; transitive verbs andintransitive verbs behave in distinctive ways. In languages withpolypersonal agreement, an

intransitive verb willagreewith its subject only, while a transitive verb will agree with both

subject and direct object.

In other languages the distinction is based onsyntax. It is possible to identify an intransitive verbin English, for example, by attempting to supply it with an appropriate direct object:

He kissedher hand- transitive verb.

She injuredhim - transitive verb.

What did you throw? - transitive verb.

By contrast, an intransitive verb coupled with a direct object will result in anungrammatical

utterance:

*What did you fall?

*I sat a chair.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ditransitive_verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ditransitive_verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ditransitive_verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambitransitive_verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambitransitive_verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitive_verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitive_verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitive_verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intransitive_verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intransitive_verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intransitive_verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_grammarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_grammarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_grammarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semanticshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semanticshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semanticshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#Formal_analysishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#Formal_analysishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#Languages_that_express_transitivity_through_morphologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#Languages_that_express_transitivity_through_morphologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#Form-function_mappingshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#Form-function_mappingshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#Noteshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#Noteshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#Referenceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#Referenceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#See_alsohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#See_alsohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#External_linkshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#External_linkshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Transitivity_(grammar)&action=edit&section=1http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Transitivity_(grammar)&action=edit&section=1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphology_(linguistics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphology_(linguistics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphology_(linguistics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polypersonal_agreementhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polypersonal_agreementhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polypersonal_agreementhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agreement_(linguistics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agreement_(linguistics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agreement_(linguistics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntaxhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntaxhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntaxhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntaxhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agreement_(linguistics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polypersonal_agreementhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphology_(linguistics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Transitivity_(grammar)&action=edit&section=1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#External_linkshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#See_alsohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#Referenceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#Noteshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#Form-function_mappingshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#Languages_that_express_transitivity_through_morphologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#Formal_analysishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semanticshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_grammarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intransitive_verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitive_verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambitransitive_verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ditransitive_verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language


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Conversely (at least in a traditional analysis), using a transitive verb in English without a direct

object will result in an incomplete sentence:

I kissed(. . .)

You injured(. . .)

Where is she now? *She's injuring.

Englishis unusually lax byIndo-Europeanstandards in its rules on transitivity; what may appear

to be a transitive verb can be used as an intransitive verb, and vice versa. Eatand readand many

other verbs can be used either transitively or intransitively. Often there is asemanticdifference

between the intransitive and transitive forms of a verb: the water is boiling versusI boiled the

water; the grapes grew versusI grew the grapes. In these examples, known asergative verbs, the

role of the subject differs between intransitive and transitive verbs.

Even though an intransitive verb may not take a directobject, it often may take an appropriate

indirect object:

I laughedat him.

What are considered to be intransitive verbs can also takecognate objects, where the object is

considered integral to the action, for exampleI slept an hour.

[edit] Languages that express transitivity through morphology

The following languages of the belowlanguage families(or hypothetical language families) have

this feature:[1]

In theUraliclanguage family:

Mordvinic languages

The threeUgric languages

NorthernSamoyedic languages

In thePaleosiberianhypothetical language family:

Languages of both branches of theEskimoAleut family; for details from theEskimo

branch, see e.g.Sireniki,Kalaallisut

Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages

Yukaghir TheKet languagehas a very sophisticated verbal inclination systems, referring (among

others) also to the object in many ways, (see alsopolypersonal agreement).

[edit] Form-function mappings

Formal transitivity is associated with a variety of semantic functions across languages.

Crosslinguistically, Hopper and Thompson (1980) have proposed to decompose the notion of
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semanticshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semanticshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semanticshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergative_verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergative_verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergative_verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indirect_objecthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indirect_objecthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognate_objecthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognate_objecthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognate_objecthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Transitivity_(grammar)&action=edit&section=2http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Transitivity_(grammar)&action=edit&section=2http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Transitivity_(grammar)&action=edit&section=2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#cite_note-0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#cite_note-0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#cite_note-0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uralic_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uralic_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uralic_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordvinic_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordvinic_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugric_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugric_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugric_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoyedic_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoyedic_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoyedic_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleosiberian_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleosiberian_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleosiberian_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo%E2%80%93Aleut_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo%E2%80%93Aleut_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo%E2%80%93Aleut_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo%E2%80%93Aleut_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo%E2%80%93Aleut_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sireniki_Eskimo_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sireniki_Eskimo_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sireniki_Eskimo_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalaallisut_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalaallisut_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalaallisut_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chukotko-Kamchatkan_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chukotko-Kamchatkan_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukaghirhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukaghirhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ket_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ket_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ket_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polypersonal_agreementhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polypersonal_agreementhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polypersonal_agreementhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Transitivity_(grammar)&action=edit&section=3http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Transitivity_(grammar)&action=edit&section=3http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Transitivity_(grammar)&action=edit&section=3http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polypersonal_agreementhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ket_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukaghirhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chukotko-Kamchatkan_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalaallisut_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sireniki_Eskimo_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo%E2%80%93Aleut_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleosiberian_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoyedic_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugric_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordvinic_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uralic_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#cite_note-0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_familyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Transitivity_(grammar)&action=edit&section=2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognate_objecthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indirect_objecthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergative_verbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semanticshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_languageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language


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transitivity into 10 formal and semantic features (some binary, some scalar); the features argued

to be associated with high transitivity are summarized in the following well-known table:

1: PARTICIPANTS: 2 or more

2: KINESIS: action involved

3: ASPECT: telic

4: PUNCTUALITY:punctual5: VOLITIONALITY: action is volitional

6: AFFIRMATION: utterance expressing action is affirmative

7: MODE: realis

8: AGENCY: A argument is high in potency

9: AFFECTEDNESS OF O argument: O totally affected

10: INDIVIDUATION OF O: O is highly individuated

Nss (2007) has argued at length for the following two points:

1. Though formally a broad category of phenomena, transitivity boils down to a way tomaximally distinguish the two participants involved (pp. 22-25);

2. Major participants are describable in terms of the semantic features [Volitional][Instigating] [Affected] which makes them distinctive from each other. Differentcombinations of these binary values will yield different types of participants (pg. 89),

which are then compatible or incompatible with different verbs. Individual languages

may, of course, make more fine-grained distinctions (chapter 5).

Types of participants discussed include:

Volitional Undergoers (some Experiencer, Recipients, Beneficiaries): [+Vol], [-Inst], [+Aff]

ex. me in Spanish Me gusta. ['I like it.']

Force: [-Vol], [+Inst], [-Aff]

ex. the tornado in The tornado broke my windows.

Instrument: [-Vol], [+Inst], [+Aff]

ex. the hammerin The hammer broke the cup.

[edit] Notes

1. ^Pusztay 1990: 8692

[edit] References

Hopper, Paul J.;Sandra A. Thompson(June 1980). "Transitivity in Grammar and

Discourse".Language56 (2): 251299.doi:10.2307/413757.

Naess, Ashild (2007) (in English). Prototypical Transitivity. Typological Studies inLanguage 72. John Benjamins Pub Co.ISBN99027229848.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Transitivity_(grammar)&action=edit&section=4http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Transitivity_(grammar)&action=edit&section=4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#cite_ref-0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#Pusz90http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#Pusz90http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#Pusz90http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Transitivity_(grammar)&action=edit&section=5http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Transitivity_(grammar)&action=edit&section=5http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hopperhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hopperhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Thompson_(linguist)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Thompson_(linguist)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Thompson_(linguist)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifierhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifierhttp://dx.doi.org/10.2307%2F413757http://dx.doi.org/10.2307%2F413757http://dx.doi.org/10.2307%2F413757http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/99027229848http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/99027229848http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/99027229848http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/99027229848http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttp://dx.doi.org/10.2307%2F413757http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifierhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Thompson_(linguist)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hopperhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Transitivity_(grammar)&action=edit&section=5http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#Pusz90http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)#cite_ref-0http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Transitivity_(grammar)&action=edit&section=4


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Pusztay, Jnos (1990) (in Hungarian).Nyelvek blcsjnl. Krdjel. Budapest: Akadmiai

Kiad.ISBN963 05 5510 7.Translation of the title:At the cradle of languages.

[edit] See also

Valency (linguistics) Ergativeabsolutive language

Verb argument

Transitive verb

Intransitive verb

Ambitransitive verb

Impersonal verb

Unaccusative verb

Differential Object Marking

[edit] External links What is transitivity?

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Welcome

Introduction

Parts of speech

Phrases

Clauses

Transitivity

Clause types

Polarity

Clause combining

Information structure

Morphology

Resources

Glossary

HelpPrinter friendly version

Transitivity

Test yourself:Transitivity

Transitivity describes the clause in terms of the number of basic constituents (mostly noun

phrase complements) that are required to make the clause grammatical. The verb determines

the transitivity of the clause.

Contents

1.Transitivity types
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2.The subject

3.The object

4.Predicative complements

5.Adjuncts

Related pages

Clauses

[Return to top]

Transitivity types

There are five transitivity patterns in English. These patterns reflect the number and kinds ofcomplements and other complements required by different types of verbs.

English transitivity patterns

(S = subject, V = verb, O = object, Oi = indirect object, Od = direct object, PC = predicative

complement)

Transitivity type Basic Constituents Example

Intransitive S V Sarah sneezed.

Complex intransitive S V PC Sarah is a teacher.

Transitive S V O Sarah ate an apple.

Complex transitive S V O PC Sarah considers George a genius.

Ditransitive S V Oi Od Sarah gave Debbie a book.

[Return to top]

The subject

The form of the subject is dependent on the verb. This is because the meaning of the verbdictates what kind of subject is possible. Consider the following sentences and note that whereas

the verb dependcan take a subordinate clause as its subject, the verb looks requires a noun

referring to a colour or another reference to appearance (for example, stripes) as its subject.
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How well you're regardeddepends on your smell.

Purple depends on your smell.

How well you're regardedlooks great with yellow.

Purple looks great with yellow.

Because the subject depends on the verb, we can say that subjects are complements to the verb.An important difference between subjects and other complements is that subjects are outside the

verb phrase. For this reason, subjects are sometimes called external complements of the verb

phrase. The following discussion identifies the main properties of English subjects.

Basic position

In a basic clause the subject always comes before the VP.

Subject-auxiliary inversion

In a couple of non-basic clause types, especially ininterrogatives, the subject appears after the

auxiliary.

DidSandy really do that?

How doyou know?

Only later didIdiscover the true facts.

Case marking on subject pronouns

Caseis the marking for grammatical role within the noun phrase. In Old English, case wasmarked on many elements within the noun phrase and was an important indicator of the structure

of the clause. In Modern English case is no longer very central and we rely on word order to a

much greater extent. Word order in Old English was much freer than it is in Modern English.

The only area of the grammar of Modern English in which case is evident is the pronoun system.We can distinguish between subjects and objects by examining the form of the pronouns. The

following table shows the Modern English personal pronoun paradigm.

The English personal pronoun paradigm

PERSONNOMINATIVE ACCUSATIVE

SG PL SG PL

1 I we me us
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PERSON

NOMINATIVE ACCUSATIVE

SG PL SG PL

2 you

3 Neuter it

they

it

them3 Masculine he him

3 Feminine she her

Try substituting pronouns for the subject and object noun phrases in the following sentences andnote how the pronouns are distributed.

SUBJECT PREDICATE

NP V Object NP

The rosy cheeked lady bumped Debbie.

My cat loves orchids.

Doug, Sandy and Jude ate meat pies.

Sarah hates modernist architecture.

Verb agreement

In the present tense, English verbs (excluding the modal auxiliaries) show agreement with third

person singular subjects. This is apparent if we change the person and number of the subject in

the examples below.

SUBJECT PREDICATE

The rosy cheeked lady drinks coffee.

All my friends drink coffee.

You (all) drink coffee.


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SUBJECT PREDICATE

I drink coffee.

[Return to top]

The object

Let's start by summarising the information about objects we've covered in passing so far:

an object, like a subject, is dependent on the verb

an object (unlike the subject) is part of the verb phrase

an object is often (though not always) an noun phrase

pronouns functioning as objects are in the accusative case

in basic clauses the object comes after the verb

Direct and indirect objects

In English there are some verbs that can take two objects (send, make, and give, for example).

These verbs form ditransitive clauses. In these clauses, we can distinguish two types of object:

direct (Od) and indirect (Oi). The direct object is the one most involved in the action. The indirectobject is less involvedit often has the semantic role of recipient or beneficiary. Consider the

following examples.

SUBJECT PREDICATOR Oi Od

Michael bakes Jude a cake every birthday.

Francis gave Sandy fifty cents.

Clyde tells everyonethe most exaggerated stories about his fishing

exploits.

In many (but not all) cases it is possible to refer to the indirect object using a prepositionalphrase. Note that in this construction the direct object is back next to the verb. Recipients areintroduced by the preposition to and beneficiaries are introduced by the prepositionfor.

SUBJECT PREDICATOR Od PP
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SUBJECT PREDICATOR Od PP

Michael bakes a cake for Jude every birthday.

Francis gave fifty cents to Sandy.

Clyde tells stories to everyone.

[Return to top]

Predicative complements

Besides subjects and objects, verbs take an additional type of complement called a predicative

complement (PC). The verbs which allow predicative complements in English include: be, seem,

and appearamong others.

Predicative complements versus objects

Predicative complements have the function of providing additional information about anotherentity in the clausethey do not refer to a new entity. Consider the following examples using

verbs that have different meanings with either objects or predicative complements:

PC Object

She sounded fine. We sounded the alarm.

I felt so silly. I felt a stone (in my shoe).

The essay topic proved difficult. The student proved her hypothesis.

In the examples above, adjectives are used as PCs but it is also possible to use noun phrases inthis function:

Iris is head librarian.

Lucy became treasurer.

A useful test for determining whether a form is a predicative complement or not is to try andform thepassive:

Complement type Active Passive

Object We sounded the alarm. The alarm was sounded (by us).
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Complement type Active Passive

Predicative complement Lucy became treasurer. *The treasurer was become by Lucy.

Subjective and objective predicative complements

In the above examples, the predicative complements all refer to the subject but it is also possiblefor a predicative complement to refer to an object (although this may not sound particularly

natural to speakers of all varieties of Modern English). Consider the examples below.

Object PC

I find Sandy quite disturbing.

I consider Sandy a great friend.

[Return to top]

Adjuncts

Adjuncts are not required by the verb. As a result there is a relatively large amount of freedom

involved in their distribution. There is also quite a wide variety of semantic and syntactic types

of structures that can be used as adjuncts.

Semantic types of adjunct

Examples of some of the different types of adjuncts found in English are listed below.

Semantic types of adjuncts in English

Adjunct type Example

Manner Debbie and Jude watched the moviereluctantly.

Place Debbie and Jude watched the movieat the Nova.

Time Debbie and Jude watched the movieyesterday.

Durations Debbie and Jude watched the moviefor ten minutes.
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Adjunct type Example

Frequency Debbie and Jude watched the movieevery week.

Purpose Debbie and Jude watched the movieto find out what happened.

Condition Debbie and Jude will watch the movieif they must.

Concession Although they were reluctant, Debbie and Jude watched the movie.

Categories that act as adjuncts

The types of grammatical structures that can function as adjuncts are listed below.

Grammatical structures of adjuncts

Grammatical structure Example

AdvP Debbie and Jude watched the moviereluctantly

PP Debbie and Jude watched the movieat the Nova

NP

Debbie and Jude watched the movieevery week

Finite clause Although they were reluctant, Debbie and Jude watched the movie.

Non-finite clause Debbie and Jude watched the movieto find out what happened.

Modifiers and supplements

One final distinction that needs to be made within the category of adjuncts is between modifiers

and supplements. This distinction reflects what relationship the adjunct has to the rest of theclause.

Modifiers are constituents of the clause or of one of its phrases. This is reflected in the prosodyof the clause and possibly also in their position.

Debbie and Doug are incredibly happy.


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Sarah said she'd come even though it was raining.

Jude wasactually very pleased to see you.

Supplements are external to the clause, occurring only at the periphery, and with a clear prosodic

break; they provide commentary on the sentence as a whole.

Incredibly, Debbie and Doug are happy.

Even though it was raining, Sarah said she'd come.

Jude was very pleased to see you,actually.

Test yourself:Transitivity

[Return to top]

Grammarpedia English Grammar Resource | Copyright 2008-11 Dr. Tonya Stebbins | Web Development:Mark

Planigale| Updated: 2011-02-15 |Provide feedback or report an error
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