Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T00:45:49.429Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Transitive and causative in Gorum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Arlene R. K. Zide
Arlene R. K. Zide
Affiliation:
Munda Language Project, University of Chicago
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper takes up various problems of Gorum verb morphology and, more important, of its semantic categories. These relate specifically to the interconnections found between so-called causativization and transitivity. The notion ‘intransitivity’, is shown to be inadequate to characterize the data, and can be replaced by a semantic feature – which we call affectedness – of the subject NP of a primary verb in a tree. Higher sentence construction is not adequately handled by the ambiguous – or various – notions of causativity. What happens in Gorum can be more adequately described in terms of displacement of the head NP in a sentence, and this is shown to be directly related to transitivity, causation and perhaps volition. For, an additional distinction operating in the Gorum verbal system is that of internally motivated action versus the absence of such motivation. This distinction – and its correlation with the feature affected – is also touched on.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , September 1972 , pp. 201 - 215
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anderson, John (1969). The case for cause: a preliminary enquiry. JL 6. 99–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aronson, Howard I. (1970). Towards a semantic analysis of case and subject in Georgian. Lingua 35. 291–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bahl, Kali Charan (1967). The causal verbs in Hindi. In Studies presented to G. V. Bobrinskoy. Chicago: University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Daswani, C. J., Daswani, T. C. & Kapoor, K. (1970). Semantics of causative constructions. Mimeo. (Paper read at the First All-India Conference of Linguists, Poona.)Google Scholar
Fillmore, C. J. (1968). The case for case. In Bach, E. and Harms, R. (eds.), Universals in linguistic theory, 1–88. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Fodor, J. A. (1970). Three reasons for not deriving ‘kill’ from ‘cause to die’. Linguistic Inquiry 1. 429–438.Google Scholar
Gołab, Zb. (1969). Subject as a linguistic category. General Linguistics 9. 1–12.Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. (1967). Notes on transitivity and theme. JL 3. 33–81, 199–244. 4. 179–216.Google Scholar
Hill, Jane (1969). Volitional and non-volitional verbs in Cupeño. In Papers from the fifth regional meeting Chicago Linguistic Society. Chicago: Department of Linguistics, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Jakobson, Roman (1957). Shifters, verbal categories and the Russian verb. Cambridge: Harvard University.Google Scholar
Kandiah, T. (1968). Transformational grammar and the layering of structure in Tamil. JL 4. 217–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krishnamurti, Bh. (1970). Causative constructions in Indian languages: some semantic and syntactic aspects. Mimeo. (Paper read at the first All-India Conference of Linguists, Poona.)Google Scholar
McCawley, J. D. (1968). The role of semantics in a grammar. In Bach, E. & Harms, R. T. (eds.), Universals in linguistic theory. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Srivastava, R. N. (1970). How empty is abstract [verb+cause]: a case-grammar of Hindi causalverb morphology. Mimeo. (Paper read at the First All-India Conference of Linguists, Poona.)Google Scholar