Re: [ceqli] Re: transitive/intransitive

Rex May <rmay@hidden.email> wrote:

--- In ceqli@yahoogroups.com, Jim Henry <jimhenry1973@g...> wrote:
> On 6/16/05, Rex May <rmay@m...> wrote:

>
of a ceqli verb that can't have an object.  Anyhow, this all comes
from my musing about the "The food cooks" and "I cook the food" thing
in English, which I've decided is too ideosyncratic to import into
ceqli.  So it's "go tunu komxo" and "komxo betunu". After all, the be-
particle is (in my opinion) one of the neatest features of ceqli.  It
is, of course, inspired by Loglan nu-.

Technically, this involves the active-passive-middle voice distinction clearly marked in some languages, not so clearly in others. For example:

 

John cooks the food  -- Johano kuiras la mangxajxon (active)

 

The food is cooked by John -- La magxajxo estas kuirata (fare) de Johano (passive)

 

The food cooks -- La magxajxo kuirigxas (middle)

 

In fact, Eo -igx- usually represents the middle voice. Someone has pursued this matter in greater detail--I think it was Waringhien, but I may be wrong. The middle voice presents an action as occurring "by itself" with the logical object/patient presented as the subject. In many languages it tends to merge with the reflexive, as in Sp "Se habla espa~nol" (=Spanish speaks itself). In Eng we simply use the active form with the object as subject: The door opens/closes, the glass breaks, etc.

 

Steve