Syntactic properties of ambitransitive verbs

Alexander Letuchiy alexander_letuchiy at HOTMAIL.COM
Tue May 29 13:31:27 UTC 2007


Dear colleagues,

I am working on typology of labile (ambitransitive) verbs. Currently I am 
interested in one particular issue:

Usually each ambitransitive verb is a usual transitive verb in its 
transitive use and, on the other hand, a usual intransitive verb in its 
intransitive use. E.g. the English verb "break" in (1) behaves like a usual 
transitive verb and in (2) it behaves like a usual intransitive verb:

(1) I broke the vase.
(2) The vase broke.

I am looking for cases when at least one of uses of a labile verb is not 
similar to non-labile transitive/non-labile intransitive verbs, i.e., when 
labile verbs are a special morphosyntactic class. One example:

In Adyghe, all intransitive verbs can be causativized by means of the prefix 
"Re-". This is not the case only for a subclass of intransitive uses of 
labile verbs.

I would be grateful for further examples and discussions.

Yours sincerely,

Alexander Letuchiy, Moscow

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