Intransitive clause Clause types

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3.3.3 Clause types

The three main types of clauses are intransitive, transitive, and nonverbal.

3.3.3.1 Intransitive clause

Intransitive clauses do not have object complements. There are three types of intransitive clauses: general, reciprocal, and stative attributive. Examples of general intransitive clauses are below. 54 old.uncle PN sit only Uncle Krak just sat. [ER5] 55 PPPP . rabbit sleep at meadow grass The rabbit slept in the meadow. [ER7] The reciprocal intransitive clause is marked by the preverbal reciprocal marker illustrated in example 47 above. Finally, stative verbs are another example of intransitive clauses. Examples are given below. Other examples of stative intransitive verbs are given in §3.3.3.3.2. 56 old.uncle PN not happy Uncle Krak is not happy. [ER5] 3.3.3.2 Transitive clause In transitive clauses, the unmarked word order is for the subject to precede the verb and the direct object follow the verb. 57 + + + 4QRS RECP hurt PN chase.away PN from year 1975 ‘In the fighting, Lon Nol chased away King Sihanouk in 1975.’ [LS01.009] 46 Some verbs appear to be intransitive because they rarely occur with an explicit object. Careful analysis is needed to ensure that the object is not left implicit. The verb ‘eat rice’ can have only one object, namely, ‘rice’. Therefore, it is not surprising that this verb often occurs without an explicit object. Another verb, , is used for eating anything other than rice. The object of this verb is often left implicit as it is either ‘food’ or something recognizable from the immediate context. The combination often occurs together and means ‘eat a meal,’ or literally ‘eat rice and eat food’. When used together as a combination, the object is rarely explicit since it is already understood. 58 bachelor fish smelt DEM3 eat.rice eat Bachelor Smelt-fish ate a meal. [Fish 176] A locative transitive clause, as Alves defines it 2006:97, is a clause whose verb requires a subject, an object, and a locational goal. Phillips 1973b classifies these verbs as deposit verbs. In the following examples, the locational goals are encoded as prepositional phrases. 59 + + + + + + + after that pick.up pot from DEM1 put fish at inside pot DEM3 Then she picked up a pot from here and put the fish inside that pot. [Fish 60-1] It is common for one or more arguments to be zero. 60 K K drop at water pool LOC1 ‘She dropped the fish into the pool of water below.’ [Fish 78] 47 Speech verbs have two arguments, the speaker and the speech. The addressee often occurs in a prepositional phrase. 61 + DET sis.old 3S.POSS DEM3 tell to uncle PN DEM3 ‘Her older sister told Uncle Nhot, “quote.” ’ [Fish 205]

3.3.3.3 Nonverbal clause types