Editing Transitive verb (section)

{{Short description|Verb that entails a transitive object}}
{{Refimprove|date=June 2014}}
{{Transitivity and Valency}}
A '''transitive verb''' is a [[verb]] that entails one or more [[object (grammar)|transitive objects]], for example, 'enjoys' in ''Amadeus enjoys music''. This contrasts with [[intransitive verb]]s, which do not entail transitive objects, for example, 'arose' in ''Beatrice arose''. 

[[Transitivity (grammar)|Transitivity]] is traditionally thought of as a global property of a clause, by which activity is transferred from an [[agent (grammar)|agent]] to a [[patient (grammar)|patient]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hopper|first1=Paul J|last2=Thompson|first2=Sandra A|title=Transitivity in grammar and discourse|journal=Language|date=June 1980|volume=56|issue=2|pages=251–299|url=http://latina.phil2.uni-freiburg.de/raible/Lehre/2006/Materialien/Hopper_Thompson.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070627234224/http://latina.phil2.uni-freiburg.de/raible/Lehre/2006/Materialien/Hopper_Thompson.pdf |archive-date=2007-06-27 |url-status=live|access-date=24 January 2016|doi=10.1353/lan.1980.0017|s2cid=144215256}}</ref>

Transitive verbs can be classified by the number of objects they require. Verbs that entail only two [[Argument (linguistics)|arguments]], a [[subject (grammar)|subject]] and a single [[direct object]], are monotransitive. Verbs that entail two objects, a direct object and an indirect object, are ''[[ditransitive verb|ditransitive]]'',<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kempen|first1=Gerard|last2=Harbusch|first2=Karin|editor=Thomas Pechmann |editor2=Christopher Habel|title=Multidisciplinary Approaches to Language Production|year=2004|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-017840-1|pages=173–181|chapter=A corpus study into word order variation in German subordinate clauses: Animacy affects linearization independently of grammatical function assignment|quote=We distinguish two types of transitive clauses: those including only [a subject–direct object] pair are ''monotransitive''; clauses containing [subject, direct object, and indirect object] are ''ditransitive''.}}</ref> or less commonly ''bitransitive''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Maslova|first=Elena|editor=Vladimir P. Nedjilkov|title=Reciprocal Constructions, Volume 1|year=2007|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing|isbn=978-90-272-2983-0|pages=1835–1863|chapter=Reciprocals in Yukaghir languages}}</ref> An example of a ditransitive verb in English is the verb ''to give'', which may feature a subject, an indirect object, and a direct object: ''John gave Mary the book''.

Verbs that take three objects are ''tritransitive''.<ref>{{cite journal | author =Kittila, Seppo | title=A typology of tritransitives: alignment types and motivations | journal=Linguistics | volume=45 | issue=3 | year=2007 | publisher=Walter de Gruyter| location=Germany | pages=453–508 | doi = 10.1515/LING.2007.015| hdl=10138/136282 | s2cid=53133279 | hdl-access=free }}</ref> In English a tritransitive verb features an indirect object, a direct object, and a [[prepositional phrase]] – as in ''I'll trade you this bicycle for your binoculars'' – or else a [[clause]] that behaves like an argument – as in ''I bet you a pound that he has forgotten''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mita|first=Ryohei|editor=J. Askedal |editor2=I. Roberts |editor3=T. Matsuchita |editor4=H. Hasegawa|title=Germanic Languages and Linguistic Universals|year=2009|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company|isbn=978-90-272-8768-7|pages=121–142|chapter=On tritransitive verbs}}</ref> Not all [[descriptive grammar]]s recognize tritransitive verbs.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Narasimhan |first1=Bhuvana |last2=Eisenbeiß |first2=Sonja |last3=Brown |first3=Penelope |title='Two's company, more is a crowd': the linguistic encoding of multiple-participant events |journal=Linguistics |year=2007 |volume=45 |issue=3 |doi=10.1515/LING.2007.013|s2cid=55658350 |url=http://repository.essex.ac.uk/11509/1/0c9605229ce53af0ac000000.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180720014711/http://repository.essex.ac.uk/11509/1/0c9605229ce53af0ac000000.pdf |archive-date=2018-07-20 |url-status=live }}</ref>

A [[clause]] with a prepositional phrase that expresses a meaning similar to that usually expressed by an object may be called ''pseudo-transitive''. For example, the [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]] sentences ''Dia masuk sekolah'' ("He attended school") and ''Dia masuk ke sekolah'' ("He went into the school") have the same verb (''masuk'' "enter"), but the first sentence has a direct object while the second has a prepositional phrase in its place.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Stevens |first=Alan |year=1970 |title=Pseudo-transitive verbs in Indonesian |journal=Indonesia |volume=9 |issue=9 |pages=67–72 |doi=10.2307/3350622|jstor=3350622 |hdl=1813/53485 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> A clause with a direct object plus a prepositional phrase may be called ''pseudo-ditransitive'', as in the [[Lakhota language|Lakhota]] sentence ''Haŋpíkčeka kiŋ lená wé-čage'' ("I made those moccasins for him").<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Esteban |first=Avelino Corral |year=2012 |title=A comparative analysis of three-place predicates in Lakhota within the RRG framework |journal=Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics |volume=25 |pages=9–26}}</ref> Such constructions are sometimes called ''complex transitive''. The category of complex transitives includes not only prepositional phrases but also [[dependent clause]]s, [[Apposition|appositives]], and other structures.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hampe |first=Beate |year=2011 |title=Discovering constructions by means of collostruction analysis: The English denominative construction |journal=Cognitive Linguistics |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=211–245 |doi=10.1515/cogl.2011.009|s2cid=147402733 }}</ref> There is some controversy regarding complex transitives and tritransitives; linguists disagree on the nature of the structures.

In contrast to transitive verbs, some verbs take zero objects. Verbs that do not require an object are called [[intransitive verb]]s. An example in modern English is the verb ''to arrive''.

Verbs that can be used in an intransitive or transitive way are called ''[[ambitransitive verb]]s''. In English, an example is the verb ''to eat''; the sentences ''You eat'' (with an intransitive form) and ''You eat apples'' (a transitive form that has ''apples'' as the object) are both grammatical.

The concept of [[Valency (linguistics)|valency]] is related to [[Transitivity (grammar)|transitivity]]. The valency of a verb considers all the arguments the verb takes, including both the subject and all of the objects. In contrast to valency, the transitivity of a verb only considers the objects. [[Subcategorization]] is roughly [[synonym]]ous with valency, though they come from different theoretical traditions.