[tlhIngan Hol] intransitivity

SuStel sustel at trimboli.name
Sat Feb 22 09:02:53 PST 2020


On 2/22/2020 11:48 AM, Lieven L. Litaer wrote:
> This is a poll to check your opinion or your knowledge:
>
> I'm working on a dictionary as part of the Klingon Language Wiki. Now I
> wondered: How much do people know the word "in/transitive"? Does it
> maybe sound too technical?
>
> Would it be more useable to say
> a) - "this is a transitive verb"
> or
> b) - "this verb can take an object" 

Web-based dictionaries will use either version. Merriam Webster is happy 
to tell you a verb is transitive or intransitive, while Dictionary.com 
says with object or no object. My physical Oxford American Dictionary 
says trans. or intrans.

When writing a dictionary, remember that it's not just whether a word is 
transitive or intransitive, it's whether a particular sense of a word is 
transitive or intransitive. A translating dictionary will tell you that 
*Suv* means /fight,/ but it may not tell you that it can be used 
transitively, where the object is the entity being fought against, or 
intransitively, where the subject is engaging in a general activity of 
fighting, possibly against itself. It's not enough just to say "*Suv *is 
transitive."

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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