Prototypical transitivity / Ashild Nss.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nss, Ashild.

Series:

Typological studies in language ; v. 72.

Typological studies in language, 0167-7373 ; v. 72

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Grammar, Comparative and general--Transitivity.

Grammar, Comparative and general.

Protoype (Linguistics).

Semantics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (253 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : J. Benjamins Pub., c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book presents a functional analysis of a notion which has gained considerable importance in cognitive and functional linguistics over the last couple of decades, namely 'prototypical transitivity'. It discusses what prototypical transitivity is, why it should exist, and how it should be defined, as well as how this definition can be employed in the analysis of a number of phenomena of language, such as case-marking, experiencer constructions, and so-called ambitransitives. Also discussed is how a prototype analysis relates to other approaches to transitivity, such as that based on markedness. The basic claim is that transitivity is iconic: a construction with two distinct, independent arguments is prototypically used to refer to an event with two distinct, independent participants. From this principle, a unified account of the properties typically associated with transitivity can be derived, and an explanation for why these properties tend to correlate across languages can be given.

Contents:

Prototypical Transitivity

Editorial page

Title page

LCC data

Table of contents

Preface

I. Introduction

1.1 Why transitivity?

1.2 Theoretical preliminaries

1.2.1 Functional typology and prototype theory

1.2.2 Definitions and terminology

1.3 Structure of the book

II. Why a transitive prototype?

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Prototype models

2.2.1 Characteristics of a prototype model

2.2.2 Transitivity as a prototype concept

2.2.3 Descriptive and explanatory issues

2.3 Markedness vs. prototypicality

2.3.1 Comrie's generalisation

2.3.2 Transitives vs. intransitives

2.3.3 Transitivity and the maximal distinction of categories

2.3.4 The markedness of prototypically transitive clauses

2.4 Conclusion

III. Defining the transitive prototype

3.1 Introduction

3.2 The maximally distinguished arguments hypothesis

3.2.1 Transitivity and the distinguishability of participants

3.2.2 Inherent vs. relational properties

3.2.3 The trouble with agents

3.2.4 Participant roles vs. thematic relations

3.2.5 The properties of agents and patients

3.2.6 Agent and patient as maximally distinct categories

3.3 Maximal distinction and functional explanations

IV. The affected agent

4.1 Introduction

4.2 "Ingestive verbs" and affected agents

4.3 Crosslinguistic data

4.3.1 Indefinite object deletion and suppletive verb pairs

4.3.2 Labile verbs

4.3.3 Cross-referencing properties

4.3.4 Causativisation

4.3.5 Case-marking properties

4.4 'Eat' and markers of agent affectedness

4.4.1 Affected Agents and the meaning of 'eat'

4.4.2 'Eat' and reflexive constructions

4.4.3 'Eat' grammaticalised as marker of agent affectedness

4.5 Alternative analyses

4.6 Other affected-agent constructions

4.7 Concluding remarks

V. Transitivity in verbs and clauses.

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Previous feature-decompositional accounts

5.3 Semantic specifications of participant types

5.3.1 [+VOL, -INST, +AFF]: Volitional Undergoers

5.3.2 [-VOL, +INST, -AFF]: Force

5.3.3 [-VOL, +INST, +AFF]: Instrument

5.3.4 [+VOL, -INST, -AFF]: Frustrative

5.3.5 [-VOL, -INST, -AFF]: Neutral

5.4 Semantic features in verb subcategorisation

5.5 Properties of argument NPs

5.6 Clause-level properties

5.6.1 Clausal operators as "feature-switchers"

5.6.2 Negation and mood

5.6.3 Aspect

5.7 Formal correlates

5.8 Conclusion

VI. Ambitransitivity and indefinite object deletion

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Indefinite object deletion

6.2.1 Defining the term

6.2.2 Typical IOD verbs

6.2.3 Clausal-level IOD

6.2.4 Previous approaches

6.3 Transitivity and indefinite object deletion

6.3.1 IOD as a detransitivising mechanism

6.3.2 Additional factors

6.3.3 Semantic specialisation: The case of 'eat' and 'drink'

6.4 IOD and S/O ambitransitives

VII. Maximal semantic distinction in core case-marking

7.1 Introduction

7.2 The discriminatory analysis

7.3 The indexing analysis

7.4 Case and the maximal semantic distinction of arguments

7.4.1 Patient/object marking

7.4.2 Agent/subject marking

7.5 Case and semantic transitivity - unifying discrimination and indexing

7.6 Semantic extensions

7.7 Discriminatory extensions

7.8 Split ergativity

7.9 A note on case-marking labels

VIII. Experiencers and the dative

8.1 Introduction

8.2 The semantic diversity of experience events

8.3 Experience clauses and the transitive prototype

8.4 The dative case

8.4.1 Dative as a marker of Volitional Undergoers

8.4.2 From recipients to possessors

8.4.3 Causee case-marking

8.4.4 The relevance of animacy

8.4.5 Less affected objects.

8.4.6 Uncontrolled intransitives

IX. Beyond prototypical transitivity

9.1 From Agent and Patient to subject and object

9.2 Structural vs. semantic case

9.3 Other prototypes

9.4 Concluding remarks

Appendix: Nonstandard abbreviations in glosses

References

Author index

Language index

Subject index

The series Typological Studies in Language.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612152863

9786611043018

9781281043016

128104301X

9781282152861

1282152866

9789027292216

9027292213

OCLC:

632691748