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<blockquote cite="mid006d01c6f905$eefe8c50$0200a8c0@johnroberts"
type="cite">
<div><font face="Arial Unicode MS">It says in English it is often
used as an intensifier or as a marker of transitivity. But from the
words I have seen that have this prefix it seems to me it means 'to
make'.</font></div>
</blockquote>
I would say that the additional semantic component "to make" is not an
effect of the _em-_/_en-_, but of the change of the word class -- of
the part-of-speech (noun or adjective to verb) and the target verbal
subclass (transitivity). As the earlier cited examples of _widen_ etc.
show, the "make" component (and the transitivity component) is added
even without the _em-_-prefix.<br>
<br>
Now, it seems possible to me that _em-_, besides the original
intensifying semantic effect in these environment, turns gradually into
an derivational prefix that marks exaclty this change of word class,
possibly on order to awoid homonomy as it would result in the cases
where the _-en_ suffix can not be (or simply is not) added, as in
_embitter_.<br>
<br>
Are there cases (in English or elswhere) where there is conversion or
derivation by other means such as _-en_, of an adjective (or noun) X
into an *intransitive* verb (with the meaning "to become X"? <br>
In English, in this case, if there is a contrasting pair of derivations
(_Xen_ -- "to become X" vs. _emXen_ "to make sth. X"), _em-_ could
arguably be said to carry the transitivizing meaning component.<br>
<br>
Sebastian<br>
<br>
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