| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Valency Patterns Leipzig |
| Editors | I Hartmann, M Haspelmath, B Taylor |
| Place of Publication | Leipzig Germany |
| Publisher | Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology |
| Pages | Online Database |
| Publication status | Published - 2013 |
Abstract
Verb indexes up to two arguments, undergoer by prefix and actor by suffix. Only around 25 verbs are morphologically intransitive: all but 4 of them belonging to a special 'positional' class, the rest being 'be', 'come' (lit. hither-be), 'go' (lit. 'thither-be') and 'walk'. Other syntactically monovalent verbs use a morphologically middle construction with a person/number-invariant prefix plus a person/number sensitive suffix. The 'undergoer' verb prefixes are used for both direct and indirect objects, though these are flagged by different cases (absolutive and dative) on the corresponding free NPs.