Linguist Forum

Specializations => Semantics and Pragmatics => Topic started by: mango on November 08, 2016, 08:45:02 PM

Title: Transitive verbs with or without effect on the patient
Post by: mango on November 08, 2016, 08:45:02 PM

Hello,

I'm in the middle of the nightmarish task of editing a paper on Vietnamese linguistics. Apparently they distinguish between transitive verbs that have an effect on the patient (e.g. kick) and those that don't (e.g. see). Is there any formal terminology for this?

Thanks.

Title: Re: Transitive verbs with or without effect on the patient
Post by: Daniel on November 09, 2016, 02:59:53 AM

I'm not sure of terminology for the verb itself, but for the direct object there are different thematic roles:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thematic_relation

So a patient is usually in some way affected by the action (touched, changed, etc.), while a stimulus is usually not. The details vary a little depending on exactly which theory (e.g., which set of thematic roles) you're using and how you identify them, but something like this may apply in the case you're describing.

I have certainly seen in passing quite a few linguists talk about whether or not an object is in some way affected by the action, or in what way.

There are some interesting cases like "bake a cake" (sometimes called creation verbs, I believe), others involving moving the object (often called a "theme" then), and so forth.