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Transitivity
- Linguistic Inquiry
- The MIT Press
- Volume 33, Number 2, Spring 2002
- pp. 183-224
- Article
- Additional Information
It is argued in this article that there is a functional category Tr (= transitivity) located between v/Pr and V, which is universally present in all transitive sentences, regardless of whether they are active, passive, middle, or impersonal in form. Tr may contain a probe with (object) f-features and assign accusative Case. In contrast to v/Pr, Tr does not assign a q-role in its specifier position. Hence, the functions of the traditional light verb category "v" are split between v/Pr and Tr. Empirical evidence from English, Russian, Scottish Gaelic, Icelandic, Ukrainian, and German supports this claim.