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Transitive and causative in Gorum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Arlene R. K. Zide
Arlene R. K. Zide
Affiliation:
Munda Language Project, University of Chicago
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Abstract

This paper takes up various problems of Gorum verb morphology and, more important, of its semantic categories. These relate specifically to the interconnections found between so-called causativization and transitivity. The notion ‘intransitivity’, is shown to be inadequate to characterize the data, and can be replaced by a semantic feature – which we call affectedness – of the subject NP of a primary verb in a tree. Higher sentence construction is not adequately handled by the ambiguous – or various – notions of causativity. What happens in Gorum can be more adequately described in terms of displacement of the head NP in a sentence, and this is shown to be directly related to transitivity, causation and perhaps volition. For, an additional distinction operating in the Gorum verbal system is that of internally motivated action versus the absence of such motivation. This distinction – and its correlation with the feature affected – is also touched on.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , September 1972 , pp. 201 - 215
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

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