Re: Triggeriness ...

Quoting Roger Mills <romilly@...>:

> Andreas Johansson wrote:
> > If there's
> > some bizarre language where all verbs are transitive, I can't see how you
> > could classify it as acc or erg.
>
> What a fascinating idea.  Completely counter-Real- World-as-We-Know-It.  How
> would it express such concepts as:
> --He died. (?[unknown S] killed him)
> --That glass is broken. (?[unknown S] broke it)
> --I'm cold. (?cold [affects] me)
> --The soup is cold. (???)
> Seems to me you'd have very frequent [unknown subject].......:-)
> Would it class "be" and "become" as transitive? After all, they do take
> "objects" (and lots of Americans don't see any difference between "I saw a
> doctor" and "I became a doctor"  :-(((  )
>
> Have you tried to devise such a language?
Nope. I don't think the concept had ever entered my head before I wrote the
above reply. It's been added to the mental bits box, however.

(In case the concept of a 'bits box' is not familiar, it refers to a box
containing bits left over from model-building projects et sim that one are
keeping because they might turn out to be useful in future projects.)

                                                       Andreas