Transitive verbs with non-accusative alternation in ... - Pluto Huji Ac Il

68
Rivka Halevy
‘The demonstrators called on the Minister of Treasury to
immediately begin negotiations with the students’
Like many other properties of the event, the intention to realize the action is
discourse-determined, it is not just a property of one of the elements of the
clause. In (10), e.g., the intention is to realize the dream that the A had
always had, and in (11), it is to negotiate immediately with the students.
The English paraphrase of hitxil be- would then be ‘actually start with’ or
‘start with a clear intention to fulfill the mission’.
2.2. Participant role: O
2.2.1. Individuation of the O entity
According to Hopper and Thompson’s (1980: 286) definition, individuation
is “the degree to which the entity referred to by the NP is discrete, bounded
and separated from its environment”. The properties of individuated
objects, according to their parameterized theory of transitivity are: proper,
human/animate, concrete, singular, count, and referential/definite (Hopper
and Thompson 1980: 253).
In the accusative construal of the scene, the distinctness of O from A and
its distinctness from its background environment are unmarked, not only in
terms of its individuality as a particular and discrete entity, but also in terms
of assigning prominence to it as a figure in the scene. Thus, the O is
susceptible of being a non-individuated entity, as expressed, e.g. by an
indefinite noun, as in (12), or a generic noun, as in (13) and in (14), where
it has a metaphorical reading.
(12) kulam lehaxziq {Ø/??be-} yadayim (class 8)
everybody to-hold {Ø/??in-} hands
‘Everybody hold hands’
(13) ‘axbarim mexarsemim {0/??be-} bad (class 6)
mice gnaw {Ø/??in-} cloth
‘Mice gnaw cloth’
(14) mi še-mider ‘et ha-sarim ve-qitsets lahem
he-who compartmentalized OM the-ministers and-cut-off to-them
{Ø/??be-} knafayim ba-šana va-xetsi ha-'axrona
(Haaretz 21.2.01) (class 4)