Grammar I

LV/UB

Graciela Palacio
2012 (revised 2015)

LESSON 12
SYNTACTIC CLASSIFICATION OF VERBS:
MONO TRANSITIVE VS BITRANSITIVE VERBS
We will now turn to a very traditional syntactic characterization of verbs. We will start with
those verbs whose syntactic structure can be viewed as a more or less direct reflection of
predicate/argument structure, namely mono-transitive and bi-transitive verbs.
MONO-TRANSITIVE VERBS
Consider the following sentence:
The man killed the bear.
Verbs like kill take two determiner phrase arguments (The man and the bear in this case).
One argument functions as the complement to the verb and the other as the subject. These
verbs are called Mono-transitive1 Verbs (MonoTV). In Traditional Grammar, the determiner
phrase argument that functions as complement is called Direct Object (DO).
Other examples of Mono TVs are see, cut, need, break, enjoy, etc. Consider the following
examples:
I saw John (yesterday).
Tom cut his finger (this morning).
I need a pen (because I have lost mine).
She broke a glass (to attract the waiters attention).
My mother (usually) enjoys parties (very much).
The DP complement that follows a mono-transitive verb is in the accusative case. For
example:
I saw him yesterday.
*I saw he yesterday.
I love them.
*I love they.
As was said in the previous lesson, case has to do with the way the DP is pronounced.
Unluckily, this is only evident if the complement is a pronoun, since English does not mark
accusative case overtly if the determiner phrase is not a pronoun. However, other languages
do. So even if we do not see it explicitly, we will still say that the complement of a transitive
verb is in the accusative case.
As can be seen in the sentences given above, the complement of a transitive verb may be
followed by adverbial adjuncts of time (yesterday, this morning), reason (because I have
lost mine), purpose (to attract the waiters attention), degree (very much), etc., but these are
optional in the sense that they are not required by the meaning of the verb and they can never
1

The prefix mono means one. A monolingual dictionary, for example, is one using only one language.

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be placed between the verb and its complement (*I saw yesterday John). Usually in My
mother usually enjoys parties very much is an adverbial adjunct of frequency. Notice that it is
placed between the subject and the verb.
Transitive verbs can occur in the passive voice, in which case the determiner phrase
complement (the traditionally called direct object) moves to subject position leaving behind a
silent copy of itself, which used to be called a trace (cf. in Spanish: una huella), i.e. an
indication of its original place. We will call this movement Argument Movement. Consider
the following examples:
John was seen John at a disco last night.
The cake had been cut the cake.
A new assistant is needed a new assistant.
The window had been broken the window by some naughty boys.
Apparently the passive participle form of the verb loses the ability to value the complement
as having accusative case and the determiner phrase receives nominative case from the tense
element. It then moves to subject position.
Active sentence:
Complementiser

Subject

Somebody

Tense
element

Auxiliary for
the perfect
had2

Lexical
verb
cut

Complement
the cake

Passive Sentence:
Complementiser

Subject

Tense

The cake

Perfect Passive
Lexical
aux
aux
verb
had
been
cut
Argument-movement

Complement
the cake.

What was the subject of the active sentence may appear at the end of a passive sentence
introduced by the preposition by, e.g.:
The window had been broken by some naughty boys.
The teacher is feared by all the students.
The by-phrase apparently functions as an adjunct. Semantically, it may be the agent (the
doer of the action) as in the first example, or an experiencer as in the second example.
INTERNAL VS. EXTERNAL ARGUMENTS
The argument that functions as complement to the transitive verb is called an internal
argument. It has a very close relationship with the verb and gets accusative case from it as
well as a thematic or semantic role. The argument that functions as the subject is called an
external argument. Its relationship with the lexical verb is less close. The distinction
between internal and external arguments will become clearer as we proceed.
2

The auxiliary is initially have, a non-finite form, when it moves to tense it becomes finite (i.e. had in this
case). For pedagogical reasons it has been spelled out as had.

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BI-TRANSITIVE VERBS
Consider the following sentences:
John gave Bill the book.
John told Bill the truth.
Verbs of giving such as give, send, show, lend, hand, pass, grant, etc, and verbs of
communication such as tell, remind, warn, inform are three-place verbs. They take three
arguments and two complements. In traditional grammar these verbs are called Bi-transitive3
verbs. Their complements are called Indirect Object and Direct Object.
With verbs of giving, the indirect object is like a place towards which the object moves. It is
the person who receives something, that something being the direct object. The person has
also been called the actual recipient, the target, goal or destination but these are semantic
labels.
With verbs of communication, we have a sender of a message (the subject), the message
itself (the direct object) and the receiver of the message (the indirect object). There is also
movement, metaphorical movement.
There is a syntactic test that helps us identify the indirect object and the direct object. Their
order can be reversed but then the indirect object will be introduced by the preposition to,
e.g.:
John gave Bill the book. (double object construction)
John gave the book to Bill.
John told Bill the truth. (double object construction)
John told the truth to Bill.
These two structures constitute what is known as the dative alternation, i.e. the same verb
alternates between two different structures. The first variant (John gave Bill the book/ John
told Bill the truth) is known as the double object construction.
We said before that these verbs have two subcategorization frames:
Give: V [ ------ DP DP] or [----- DP PP]
It is often possible to make either object the subject of a passive sentence. Of the two objects
one will move and the other is kept or retained in the predicate. The object that doesnt move
is called Retained object. We can speak of a Retained Direct Object (RDO) or of a
Retained Indirect Object (RIO). For example:
We sent Jack a copy of the letter. (active sentence)

The prefix bi- means two. A bilingual person is a person who is able to speak two languages equally well; a
bilateral treaty is one affecting or involving two parties or countries. These verbs can also be called
ditransitive.

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Jack was sent Jack a copy of the letter. (passive sentence/ a copy of the letter is the
retained direct object)
A copy of the letter was sent a copy of the letter to Jack. (passive sentence/ to Jack is
the retained indirect object)
INTERNAL VS. EXTERNAL ARGUMENTS
Bi-transitive verbs are said to have two internal arguments and one external argument. Notice
that a sentence such as:
John gave Bill the book.
can be paraphrased as:
John caused Bill to get the book.
The same happens with:
John told Mary the truth.
John caused Mary to know the truth.
Generative grammarians postulate that the meaning cause is expressed by a silent verb
called light verb. But you will read more about this in Linguistics.
TO SUM UP:
Subject
1.

Verb
Mono TV

+ C/DO

2.

Bi TV

+ C/IO

+ C/DO

(Adjunct)

3.

Bi TV

+ C/DO

+ Preposition to +C/IO

(Adjunct)

(Adjunct)

Examples which correspond to the patterns presented above:

1. The man painted a picture.
2. The man gave Mary the book.
3. The man gave the book to Mary.
Lesson 12 Activity 1: (to be discussed in class)
1. Look for examples of other mono-transitive verbs.
2. Which are the two groups of bi-transitive verbs?
3. Provide more examples of causative verbs.
Lesson 12 Activity 2: (to be handed in as Assignment 12)
Analyse the following sentences fully. Follow the model answer given below:
1. I know your name.
2. He freed himself with a knife.
3. You should send him an e-mail.
MODEL ANSWER FOR THE ANALYSIS OF A SIMPLE DECLARATIVE SENTENCE:
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The woman gave the children some sandwiches.

Steps to follow:
1. Look for coordinating conjunctions (and, or, but) linking main clauses. In this
particular case there are none. So you can expect only one main clause.
2. Underline all the verbs you find. This will allow you to decide if there are any other
subordinate clauses. In this particular case, the conjugated (or finite) verb is gave.
3. Do the semantic analysis of the main predicator. Provide some justification for saying
that the proposition is stative or dynamic.
Semantic Analysis of the predicator:
Predicator: give (three-place verb)
Arguments: the woman, the children, some sandwiches
Argument structure of give : <1, 2, 3>
Theta-grid: <agent, recipient or goal, theme>
Type of proposition: dynamic. Give is a causative verb.
Syntactic representation of the sentence as a CP:
The main clause is a CP (complementiser phrase) introduced by a null complementiser, which
is the head of the phrase. The null complementiser marks the clause as declarative and it tells
us that the clause will be finite.

H (Comp)

The woman gave the children some sandwiches.

C (TP)

We now forget about the complementiser and concentrate on the analysis of the TP:
Syntactic Analysis of the TP (Tense Phrase):
Subject (DP)
The woman

Predicate (T)
gave the children some sandwiches.

Syntactic analysis of the Predicate:

[]
H (T)

gave the children some sandwiches.

C (VP)

Syntactic Analysis of the VP:

gave
H (V)

the children
C/IO (DP)

some sandwiches.
C/DO (DP)

Syntactic Analysis of the Determiner Phrase functioning as Subject:

The
H (D)

woman
C (N)

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