PDF《Its Solution》

Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2015, 3, 170-176 Published Online October

2015 in SciRes.

http://www.scirp.org/journal/jss http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jss.2015.310023 How to cite this paper: Wang, H.T. (2015) The Problems of Transitivity Studies and Its Solution. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 3, 170-176. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jss.2015.310023 The Problems of Transitivity Studies and Its Solution Huijing Wang College of International Studies, Southwest University, Chongqing, China Email: [email protected] Received

29 September 2015;

accepted

23 October 2015;

published

27 October

2015 Copyright ?

2015 by author and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract Transitivity is an important grammatical issue and has been a hot topic in linguistic theories. It has been studied from different approaches. This paper aims to describe the main features and propositions about transitivity in the view of different theories. After pointing out the unsolved problems of traditional and typological views, the paper believes that cognitive approach to tran- sitivity is promising. Keywords Transitivity, Typological View, Cognitive Approach 1. Introduction Transitivity has been a hot topic in linguistic studies for a long time. It has been studied from different angles. It is not as straightforward as the traditional grammar'

s view. Traditionally, it is a verb distinctive feature and re- lated with the verb taking direct object. But this clear-cut dichotomy of transitivity cannot explain many linguis- tic facts. The functional view of Halliday [1] [2] regards it as an important part of ideational system and is a se- mantic notion which is quite different from what we focus on in the paper. The typological study of transitivity is a great turning point, viewing transitivity as a continuum. However, the semantic features listed lack the con- ceptual correlation. The cognitive approach uses the cognitive model to seek the semantic basis of transitivity, which has more explanatory power. The significance of this study is to find out the problems of traditional ap- proaches and have a clearer picture of the features of transitivity in the frame of cognitive linguistics. 2. Traditional Grammar'

s View of Transitivity Traditional grammar, in parallel with American Structural Grammar and Transformational-Generative Grammar, etc., refers to the traditional schoolroom grammar. It defines and classifies words into part-of-speech categories, H. J. Wang

171 one of which is the verb category. A verb is defined as a word or word group that expresses action, condition, or state of being [3]. Generally, there are three main full verb classes, namely, transitive verbs, intransitive verbs and copular (linking) verbs [4]. Of the three types of verbs, the former two are regarded as action verbs. Intran- sitive verbs refer to those which require no words to complete its meaning while transitive verbs are followed by one or more than one object or complement to complete its meaning [3]. For example: (1) John grew. (2) Rain falls often. (3) Lily enjoys music. (4) Bill washed the clothes. The verbs grew and fall in sentences (1) and (2) are intransitive because no object is required to follow the verbs. According to Lyons (1968), they are one-place verbs and the one-place, in the two examples, is filled by John and rain separately. The verbs enjoy and gave are transitive verbs, followed by one or two objects. They are two-place verbs, one of the places being filled by the subject Lily and Bill, and the other by the object music and clothes. The term transitivity, derived from the division of transitive and intransitive verbs, concerns lin- guistic phenomena which have to do with transitive clauses, including their relationship to intransitive clauses [5]. There has been a long tradition of studying transitivity , transitive clauses and intransitive clauses . Traditionally, a clause that has both a subject and a direct object is said to be transitive. Transitivity is fairly de- fined as follows [6]. Transitive clauses contain an object. An activity or action goes across from the subject to the object. It is sometimes stated additionally that the object is affected by the activity, and that transitive clauses can be turned into passive clauses. Intransitive clauses lack an object. No activity is transferred. According to this definition, examples of transitive clauses include: (5) Mr. Jones repaired cars. (6) Bill killed his Aunt. (7) I hit him. (8) He wrote a good book. (9) He grew roses in his garden. Examples of intransitive clauses include: (10) The flower grew. (11) The problem remained. (12) He sat down. (13) Jim died yesterday. A brief look at these examples may give an impression that the issue of transitivity is straightforward. The traditional definition assumes a clear-cut dichotomy between transitive and intransitive clauses. However, there are certain problems beyond traditional explanation. It is true that, in transitive clauses, the action is expressed by the verb pass over from the subject to the object. But I hear you is regarded as transitive, though in this case, the action, if any action is in fact referred to, is the other way round. Besides, the infelicity of the corres- ponding passives in some transitive clauses calls their transitivity into question. For example, (14) That little boy resembles my nephew. (15) They have many books. (16) *My nephew is resembled by that little boy. (17) *Many books are had by them. In contrast, some traditionally defined intransitive clauses have their corresponding passives, for instance, Jerry bumped into John. By traditional definition, this is an intransitive clause. However, its passive form is ac- ceptable and we have John was bumped into by Jerry. From the above further examples, we come to realize that transitivity is more subtle and complex than the traditional definition has proposed. Similar cases can also be found in Chinese. (18)

15 万就可以买一辆二手车.

150 thousand can buy a second-hand car. (19) *一辆二手车可以被

15 万买. A second-hand car can be bought by

150 thousand. (20) 死了一个孩子. H. J. Wang

172 Died a child. (21) *一个孩子被死了. A child was died. (22) 他像我弟弟. He looks like my brother. (23) 我听你唱歌. I hear you sing a song. The Chinese instances such as (18) and (20) are obviously regarded as transitive clauses, but their corres- ponding passives (19) and (21) are clearly infelicitous. Instances (22) and (23) question another property in the traditional definition―the action goes across from the subject to the object and sometimes the object is affected by the action. In both of the two instances, we cannot clearly see the going-across process of any action or activ- ity. If there is any, in sentence (23), the action passes over reversely from the object to the subject. Obviously up till now, transitivity is seen to be far more complex than the matter of the occurrence of a no- minal in direct-object position, passivizability, or the passing over of action. This traditional clear-cut definition of transitivity leaves some difficult problems unsolved and fails to provide a clear picture of transitivity itself. Thus it is necessary to renew it from other promising perspectives. 3. Halliday'

s Model of Transitivity Halliday'

s study on transitivity from the functional approach is so well-known as not to be avoided in this paper. Systemic-functional linguistics, represented by Halliday, is a theory centering round the notion of language function. It is functional in the sense that it places the function of language as central, and is designed to account for what language does and how it does. In its conceptual framework, language is interpreted as a system of meanings, accompanied by forms through which the meaning can be realized [2]. How do human ........