[Lingtyp] base valency classes of verb roots

[Christian Lehmann]

Dear colleagues,

sorry for my exaggerated preoccupation with adequate terminology. I have 
to name the Cabecar (Chibchan) verb root classes, but am short of 
linguistic terms. Verbs form voice stems for conjugation in active and 
middle voice. Middle voice involves a suffix for all verbs; active voice 
involves a suffix in one root class.

The criteria of the classification are:
- Does the root have an active voice? If not, it is a medial root (a 
Classicist would call it /deponens/).
- Does the active voice stem involve a suffix (viz. the causativizer)? 
If not, I call the root preliminarily 'directed'.
- Is the root transitive or intransitive in active voice?

These are the classes:
     1. Directed roots: these directly conjugate in active voice:
         a. intransitive roots: in active voice, the verb is 
intransitive (e.g. 'laugh');
         b. transitive roots: in active voice, the verb is transitive 
(e.g. 'bend').
     2. Undirected roots: these do not directly conjugate in active voice:
         a. medial roots: these only conjugate in the middle voice, and 
the valency of this voice stem is intransitive (e.g. 'stay');
         b. ambivalent roots: these alternatively take on the middle 
voice suffix and then are intransitive, or they take on the causativizer 
and then are transitive (e.g. 'melt').

These four classes work satisfactorily. What I am unhappy with is the 
names 'directed', 'undirected' and 'ambivalent'. The idea underlying 
'directed - undirected' is that undirected verb roots have no base 
valency; this is, instead, conferred to them by the voice suffix. The 
idea behind 'ambivalent' is that these roots have either valency 
depending on the voice suffix that they are provided with.

I would prefer 'oriented - non-oriented' to 'directed - nondirected'; 
but this term pair is taken by the contrast between verbal constructions 
of the sort (English examples:) /actor/who acts/ vs. /action/that he 
acts/. And 'ambivalent' is a very ambivalent term; a more specific one 
(like 'Janus-headed') may be more mnemonic.

Have you seen appropriate term (pair)s in grammars? Or can you think of 
terms that would fit?

Many thanks in advance,
Christian
-- 

Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann
Rudolfstr. 4
99092 Erfurt
Deutschland

Tel.: 	+49/361/2113417
E-Post: 	christianw_lehmann at arcor.de
Web: 	https://www.christianlehmann.eu
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20231227/5070e53f/attachment.htm>