Quiet Words

Hi, Quiet Words. (1.) I like all of your "VOS Actant Morphology" entry so far. (2.) I appreciate that you recognized a distinction may be necessary between "divalent" and "monotransitive", and between "trivalent" and "ditransitive". (3.) What do the S, the P, the N, the A, the I, the H, the D, the U, and the Rfx stand for in your table? My guesses; S stands for Singular. P stands for Plural. N stands for iNclusive. A stands for Animate? (maybe Agent?) I stands for Inanimate? (maybe Indefinite?) H stands for Human. D --- can't tell. Definite? Dative? what? U --- even less idea. Rfx stands for Reflexive. (4.) Do you feel no need to specifically describe how you handle those notions which are expressed in some languages as "semi-transitive" -- that is, not quite transitive and not quite intransitive, according to "Hopper and Thompson's (1980) transitivity parameters"? (You can look up "semitransitive" on Google.) (5.) In particular what about the "bivalent intransitive" clauses in some languages? (In effect, these are "intransitive" because they have no _direct_ object, but "bivalent" (you'd say "divalent) because they have a second core participant other than the subject. You might call it an "indirect object". (Which referents are "core terms" is apparently language-specific; and the same has been claimed for "indirect objects".) In English the glosses of some of these "bivalent intransitives" would have a basically reflexive subject and something that might be called an "indirect object"; example, "Don't concern yourself with that".) (You can look up "bivalent intransitive" on Google.)