The transivity of action processes. Verb groups. Action processes

ACTOR            GOAL

SUBJECT  DIRECT OBJECT

(17)       My father then peeled     the taro . . .

As mentioned earlier, clauses in which the Actor maps onto the Subject in this way are known as active voice clauses. It is a characteristic of transitive action process clauses, such as number 17, that they also have passive voice versions, in which the Goal is mapped onto the Subject and the Actor either appears in an Adjunct as the Object of the preposition by or is omitted, for example:

GOAL      ACTOR

SUBJECT   ADJUNCT

(17) a. The taro was then peeled [by my father]

The change in voice is also marked by the use of a passive voice verb group (i.e., a "2 I" verb group — was peeled) instead of an active voice verb group (peeled).

Ditransitive clauses often have two possible passive voice versions, one with the Goal as Subject and the other with the Recipient or Beneficiary as Subject, for example:

        RECIPIENT

(18) You    will be given your paper. . .

         GOAL

(18) a. Your paper will be given to you . . .

    BENEFICIARY

(19) You      will be found some paper . . .

         GOAL

(19) a. Some paper will be found for your . . .

4.2.5 Action processes and tense

When referring to action processes going on now, that is, at the moment of speaking or writing, the normal tense choice is present continuous, for example:

(20) My father is making an umu    at this very moment.

As will be seen in later chapters, this is not necessarily the case for other process types.

5.2.6   Range

The following examples each have two participants, one of which is an Actor and the other of which looks at first sight like a Goal:

21. The advance party reached the summit on the third day.
22. ... a cat and a dog (who) completed a fantastic trek across Canada . . .

However, it would be very odd to ask questions about the second participant in these examples, such as What happened to the summit? or What happened to the fantastic trek across Canada? That is, because nothing is really done to the summit or to a fantastic trek across Canada, they cannot be characterized as the participants on the receiving end of an action. Rather they provide infonnation about the extent, range, or scope of the process. In this, they are semantically rather like circumstances. However, they are treated by the grammar as participants. The technical name for such participants is Range.

Ranges are similar to Goals in that they are mapped onto the Direct Object in active clauses (as in examples 21 and 22) and can be mapped onto the Subject in passive clauses, for example:

     RANGE/SUBJECT

(21) a.      The summit     was reached on the third day.

     RANGE/SUBJECT

(22) a. The fantastic trek was completed in a year or more.

A special kind of Range is exemplified in the following clause.

(23) For many years, the people of Yixing had lived peaceful and happy lives.

In this case, the head of the noun group realizing Range (lives) is related to verb group head realizing the process (lived). The Range in a sense restates the process. Other examples of this are:

24. Why don't you sing us one of your songs?
25. He slept the sleep of the innocent.

Sometimes, the nouns are not directly related to the verbs in form but are related in meaning, for example:

26. It does a lot better job than the transistors . . .
27. At thirty-seven he could still perform a backflip somersault.

An extension of such restating of the process in the Range is represented by the following examples:

28. ... in giving whatever or whoever it is upset with a thumping big kick.
29. Britain and Ireland will still make quick checks of documents.
30. . . . but I usually take a huge bite . . . (31)1 need to get an early start . . .

In such clauses, the representation of the process has shifted entirely to the Range, and the verb has almost no experiential meaning. Such verbs are sometimes called delexical verbs, because their lexical meaning has been in some sense removed. According to the Cobuild English Grammar (Collins 1990), the most commonly used delexical verbs are give, have, make, and take. Part of the motivation for using such structures may be that by representing the process as a noun, the potential for using the noun group to modify the process is much greater than it is with verb groups. Try, for example, rewriting the clause he gave his usual brisk military salute with the process represented by a full lexical verb instead of delexical gave and with no Range (Ihe saluted as usual, briskly and militarily).

Delexical structures are very common, particularly in informal language. They can be a problem for learners because there is no rule governing which delexical verbs go with which nouns. They are idiomatic, and must be learned simply as fixed expressions. The difficulty is compounded by the fact that new delexical structures tend to come into usage, rather often, for example:

(32) Let's do lunch sometime.

However, learners who avoid delexical structures altogether run the risk of sometimes sounding stilted, for example:

(33) I would like to bathe,    (instead of take a bath)

Task 5a

1. Label the constituents of the verb groups in the following clauses according to Figure 4.1. The first one has already been done.
2. Which verb groups are finite and which nonfinite?

a. . . . which are affected by the MONSOON RAINS . . .

b. . . . densities can reach as high as 100 per km.

c. Monsoon Asia is going through a DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION . . .

d. For many years the people of Yixing had lived peaceful and happy lives.

e. Having committed themselves in this way, they could hardly turn back.

f. The gorge is widened . . .

g. We wouldn't have made it without them.

h. The students have been given plenty of time. i.   Having been bitten once, they may not be willing to try again. j.   Could David still have been living in New Jersey at that time? k. We would have liked him to have been properly rewarded.

Task 5b

The following are some typical mistakes involving the forms of modal auxiliaries. In each case, state which of the formal characteristics of modals is being ignored.

1. "He might damaged it himself for the insurance.
2. 'She mays be from the mainland.
3. 'I musted finish the work yesterday.
4. *He should not really goes there so often.
5. 'The students may not can do it.
6. 'Such people do not really ought to come here.

Task 5c

Identify Actors, Goals, and circumstances in the other two-participant action process clauses in text 5a.

Task 5d

In the following examples, identify (1) intransitive action process clauses, (2) implicitly transitive action process clauses, and (3) transitive action process clauses with expressed Goals. Note that there may be more than one clause in some of the examples.

a. ... he was flying through the air with one leg up in the air . . .

b. . . . color these little birds beautifully . . .

c. . . . who were you working with?

d. Every Saturday morning in the winter term I bike into town . . .

e. Later in the week the purchaser of our house phoned to ask whether we had lost a cat. (Note that ask is not an action process)

f. . . . I'm going to write it on the special plastic stuff.

g. Where the ball goes I go. I tackle, handle, kick, run, everything.

Task 4e

Identify the Recipients and Beneficiaries in the following clauses.

1. Dad got me a few books.
2. The patron himself cooked us a meal.
3. This should give HAAL members a greater opportunity to . . .
4. Rena mixed us some really strong martinis.
5. The waiter brought us the wrong dish.
6. I've left you some food on the table.
7. I wrote him a letter last week.
8. She wrote me a beautiful poem.

Task 4f

Which of the following verbs can occur in:

a. Intransitive (Actor-only) clauses

b. Transitive (Actor and Goal) clauses

c. Ditransitive (Actor, Goal, and Recipient or Beneficiary) clauses

buy catch sleep hand

cut exercise disappear design

drop evaporate fly write

descend