Home Forums The Japanese Language Auxiliary verbs and Transitivity (That's actually a word? Really?)

This topic contains 4 replies, has 2 voices, and was last updated by  Astralfox 11 years, 10 months ago.

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  • #38326

    Astralfox
    Member

    I was just wondering, for no particular reason; if one has a sentence ending in a verb modified by an auxiliary verb, where one is transitive and the other intransitive, in what configuration can the sentence have a direct object? Is it the primary verb or the auxiliary that decides?

    #38333

    Joel
    Member

    It’s quite possible there’s something I’m not thinking of, but I’m fairly sure that intransitive verbs can’t modify or be modified, so it’ll never be an issue. Got any specific examples in mind?

    #38343

    Astralfox
    Member

    Not really, it was a random thought while procrastinating.

    Do you remember where you learnt that about intransitive verbs? I haven’t given them much thought until now.

    EDIT: looking at this list, there are some intransitive auxiliaries; あがる, 過ぎる, 抜ける. But most are transitive. Still, I’ll have to look into whether or not they can be used to modify intransitives.

    • This reply was modified 11 years, 10 months ago by  Astralfox.
    #38347

    Joel
    Member

    Geh, I forgot about V(intrans)-て+いる meaning a resultant state. Guess I was wrong from the start. =P

    It’s not that I specifically learnt that, it’s more extrapolation from something else I was taught. Having a potential form for intransitive verbs is meaningless – for example, 開く-> 開ける = able to be open??

    It’s kinda hard to think about it, because of the almost complete lack of clearly defined transitive and intransitive verbs in English. My grammar dictionary notes that あげる is never used for intransitive verbs – you need to use のために instead. It doesn’t say anything about 過ぎる, but since that can modify adjectives as well, it’s likely that it’s a different story – I’d say in that situation that the entire assemblage is an intransitive verb. Actually, one of the examples given is 森さんは太りすぎている – Mori-San is too fat. 抜ける doesn’t seem to be in it.

    #38362

    Astralfox
    Member

    Thanks for the insight. I think I’ll just leave that question aside and hope it works itself in due course XD

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