1- university of Isfahan
2- University of Isfahan , vali.rezai@fgn.ui.ac.ir
Abstract: (1551 Views)
An alternation is a pair of sentences with identical structures and meaning. Transitivity alternation, on the other hand, is a type of grammatical alternations in which the verb is used with a different number of arguments without a significant change in meaning. Participating in specific alternations is considered as a criterion for categorizing verbs in semantic classes. For investigating this hypothesis, and in order to obtain more accurate information about the syntactic behavior and semantic properties of the verbs which can omit their objects, 435 cases of context independent object omission extracted from different sources such as books, magazines, movies, series, and everyday conversations were studied. The findings show that the verbs which participate in specific alternations, have identical semantic properties and can be categorized in one semantic class. Accordingly, the semantic behavior of the verb can be predictable based on its syntactic behavior. An interesting fact about the verbs which participate in same alternations and are belong to same semantic class is that, the kind of objects these verbs take, have common features as well. The syntactic behavior and semantic characteristics of the investigated verbs and their objects reveal that, a verb can omit its object, when the object is general, indefinite, unspecific, and its meaning is predictable for the hearer.