2.1.1.1. Transitive and ditransitive predicates
Transitive predicates in TİD take two arguments. These may prototypically be an agentive subject which is the controller, instigator, or performer of an event, and a theme object which is the affected participant . Below, the agentive subject of the sentence is the first person pronoun, ıx1 ‘I’. The theme object of the sentence is food, which is what is swallowed, thus affected by the event.
ıx1 food swallow can.not
‘I cannot swallow food.’
http://tidsozluk.net/tr/Yutmak?d=1677
A transitive verb may have an experiencer-subject and a causer-object. An experiencer is a participant who experiences a feeling or emotion. A causer is the source of the sensation that the experiencer undergoes. Below, the first-person pronominal subject, ıx1 ‘I’, is the experiencer participant who experiences affection while anımal kınd all, ‘all kinds of animals’, is the causer/stimulus of this affection. Like the predicate swallow above, the transitive predicate like is a plain verb, which means that it does not display manual morphological agreement [Lexicon – 3.2.2.].
ıx1 anımal kınd all lıke
‘I like all kinds of animals.’
http://tidsozluk.net/tr/Sevmek?d=0046
A transitive verb can also be an agreeing verb such as notıce. Semantically, notıce is a perception verb. The subject is a perceiver, and the object is a theme. Below, the ending locus of the agreement verb notıce is the same as the referential locus of the first-person object. See [Syntax – 2.1.2.3.1.] for manual verb agreement.
teacher ıxa notıcea not
‘The teacher does not notice me.’
http://tidsozluk.net/tr/G%C3%B6rmek?d=0026
A transitive agreement verb may also start with the referential locus of the object. Such verbs are called backwards agreement verbs [Lexicon – 3.2.2]. The index b- on choose shows agreement with the object.
two sweater there_ıs. yellow ıx3a. blue ıx3b. ıx3b bchoose1
‘There were two sweaters. A yellow one and a blue one. I chose the blue one.
A transitive clause can include a handling classifier:
gırl chıld flower CL(0):'collect'
‘A girl is collecting flowers.’
(Gökgöz in progress)
All of the examples above include a Noun Phrase (NP) object, which is overtly expressed by a noun or pronoun [Syntax - 2.1.2]. An object of a transitive verb can also be a clause. The verb want takes a clausal [Syntax – 2.1.2.5] object, illustrated in square brackets below.
past ıx1 small [teacher become] want.
‘I wanted to become a teacher when I was small.’
http://tidsozluk.net/tr/%C4%B0stemek?d=0028
A ditransitive clause is composed of three obligatory arguments. Below, the ditransitive verb, gıve, takes an agent subject, a theme direct object, and a recipient indirect object. The theme object is book CL:'thin' ; the indirect object, which is the recipient, is the second person. The agent is a third person, burcu ıx3a. The signer expresses agreement with the agent and the recipient on the verb by using two loci and with the theme by using a handling classifier hand shape.
agıve2CL(z):'give'
burcu ıx3a book CL:'thin' agıve2CL(z):'give'
‘Burcu gave you the thin book.’
(Gökgöz and Sevgi in press)
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