Transitivity in Murrinh-Patha

Bibliographic Data

ID20381875
AuthorsRachel Nordlinger (0000-0003-4126-8022, The University of Melbourne, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume35
Issue3
Pages702-734
Publication date2011-11-29
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueStudies in Language (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0378-4177 • E-ISSN: 1569-9978
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/sl.35.3.08nor
OpenAlexW2026129455
LanguageEN
Citations received8

In this paper I discuss transitivity in Murrinh-Patha, a non-Pama-Nyungan polysynthetic language from northern Australia. I survey the range of bivalent clauses in Murrinh-Patha and their morphosyntactic properties, and consider their analysis in terms of definitions of transitivity in the cross-linguistic literature. I argue that syntactic definitions of transitivity, while compatible with the Murrinh-Patha data, are empirically unrevealing since they provide little account for the varying morphosyntactic properties of different bivalent constructions. Instead, I show that the morphosyntax of bivalent constructions in Murrinh-Patha is sensitive to the semantic features of the participants, supporting a prototype approach to transitivity (such as those proposed by Hopper and Thompson 1980 and Næss 2007)

Combinatorics · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Transitive relation · Chemistry · Computer Science · Language and cultural evolution · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Mathematics · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation