What is transitivity?

Definition
	Transitivity is the number of objects a verb requires or takes in a given instance.

Discussion
	Transitivity is sometimes expressed as a grammatical category by means of verb morphology.

Kinds
	Here are some kinds of transitivity:
	What is ditransitivity? What is intransitivity? What is a transitive verb?

Generic
	Transitivity is a kind of
	What is a grammatical category?

See also
	What is valency?

Sources
	Crystal 1985 316
	Mish 1991 1254
	Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985 53

Context for this page:

Concept module: transitivity
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): T
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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