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Transitivity is a grammatical category in some languages ^{[1] [2]}. For example, the verb which has an object (called a transitive verb) takes on another paradigm, than the verb which has no object (called an intransitive verb). In some languages, this distinction may be more sophisticated, e.g. according to the definiteness of the object. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... A transitive verb is a verb that requires both a subject and one or more objects. ... A grammatical category is a general term. ... An object in grammar is a sentence element and part of the sentence predicate. ... A transitive verb is a verb that requires both a subject and one or more objects. ... In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification or marking of a word (or more precisely lexeme) to reflect grammatical (that is, relational) information, such as gender, tense, number or person. ... An intransitive verb is a verb that has only one argument, that is, a verb with valency equal to one. ... In grammatical theory, definiteness is a feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between entities which are specific and identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and entities which are not (indefinite noun phrases). ...

Example

A Hungarian example:

The transitive column (“látom”…) means “I can see him/her/it”, or it can be used in contexts like “Látom a kutyát” (“I see the dog”).

The intransitive column can be used in various contexts, e.g.

• “Látok” (translated as “I can see” meaning I am not blind)
• “Látok egy kutyát” (“I see a dog”)

Languages

The following languages of the below language families (or hypothetical language families) have this feature ^[3]. Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families. ...

In language families present also in Siberia

In the Uralic language family: Geographical distribution of Samoyedic, Finnic, Ugric and Yukaghir languages  Yukaghir  Samoyedic  Ugric  Finnic The Uralic languages (pronounced: ) form a language family of about 30 languages spoken by approximately 20 million people. ...

• • Mordvinic languages
  • the three Ugric languages
  • Northern Samoyedic languages

In the Paleosiberian hypothetical language family: The Mordvinic languages are a subgroup of the Finno-Volgaic languages. ... Ugric languages or Ugrian languages are generally held to be a branch of Finno-Ugric languages. ... Geographical distribution of Samoyedic, Finnic, Ugric and Yukaghir languages The Samoyedic languages are spoken on both sides of the Ural mountains, in northernmost Eurasia, by perhaps 30,000 speakers altogether. ... Paleosiberian (Palaeosiberian, Paleo-Siberian) languages or Paleoasian languages (from Greek palaios, ancient) is a term of convenience used in linguistics to classify a disparate group of languages spoken in remote regions of Siberia. ...

• Languages of both branches of the Eskimo-Aleut family; for details from the the Eskimo branch, see e.g. Sireniki, Kalaallisut
• Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages
• Yukaghir
• Ket language has a very sophisticated verbal inclination systems, referring (among others) also to the object in many ways, (see also polypersonal agreement).

Eskimo-Aleut languages Eskimo-Aleut is a language family native to Greenland, the Canadian Arctic, Alaska, and parts of Siberia. ... Distribution of Inuit language variants across the Arctic. ... Sirenik or Sirenikskiy (also Old Sirenik or Vuteen) is an extinct Eskimo-Aleut language. ... The Kalaallisut language (also called Western Greenlandic, Greenlandic Eskimo, or Greenlandic Inuktitut) is an Eskimo-Aleut language spoken in Greenland. ... The Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages (commonly also Chukchi-Kamchatkan) are a language family of northeastern Siberia. ... The Yukaghir, or Yukagirs (Russian: ; self-designation: одул (odul), деткиль (detkil)) are a people in East Siberia, living in the basin of the Kolyma River. ... The Ket language, formerly known as Yenisei Ostyak, is a Siberian language isolate, the sole surviving language of a Yeniseian language family, spoken along the middle Yenisei Basin by the Kets. ... Inclination in general is the angle between a reference plane and another plane or axis of direction. ... In linguistics, polypersonal agreement or polypersonalism is the agreement of a verb with more than one of its arguments (usually up to four). ...

Notes

1. ^ E.g. the book Studies in Grammatical Categories lists transitivity as one of the grammatical categories of Lithuanian grammar.
2. ^ Similar remarks hold for Potawatomi language, see Verbs and Verbal categories of Potawatomi Grammar.
3. ^ Pusztay, János: Nyelvek bölcsőjénél. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1990. Published in Hungarian. Translation of the title: At the cradle of languages.

Lithuanian grammar is the study of rules governing the use of the Lithuanian language. ... Potawatomi (also spelled Pottawatomie; in Potawatomi Bodéwadmimwen or Bodéwadmi Zheshmowen or Neshnabémwen) is a Central Algonquian language and is spoken around the Great Lakes in Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as in Kansas in the United States, and in southern Ontario in Canada, by fewer than 50...

See also

• Valency (linguistics)
• Ergative-absolutive language
• Verb argument

In linguistics, valency or valence refers to the capacity of a verb to take a specific number and type of arguments (noun phrase positions). ... An ergative-absolutive language (or simply ergative) is one that treats the agent of transitive verbs distinctly from the subject of intransitive verbs and the object of transitive verbs. ... A syntactic verb argument, in linguistics, is a phrase that appears in a relationship with the verb in a proposition. ...

External links

• What is transitivity?

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