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