Transitivity and Prototype Parameter - a cross-linguistic perspective -

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationships between transitivity and prototype constructions from a cross-linguistic perspective. The focus of this paper is to show how the degree of semantic intensity in transitivity in a given language is correlated with the parameter of various prototype constructions with respect to force-dynamic profiles. It is demonstrated that the proposed prototype parameter captures the cross-linguistic regularity regarding the semantic intensity between verbs and grammatical arguments. This principle is also shown to constrain the applicability of some rules that change grammatical relations in German, English and Korean. This comparative perspective explains why there are cross-linguistic differences of transitive constructions with respect to the force-dynamic profiles.