Intransitivizing morphology

This paper provides a functional–typological discussion of the various processes which result in intransitive predicates. In addition to covering canonical cases of intransitivization such as passives, antipassives, middles, and noun incorporation, attention is also drawn to cases which complicate these categorizations, expanding our thinking about ways in which languages use discrete categories such as “transitive” and “intransitive” to represent what is more rightly a continuum of transitivity values with diverse structural representations. The paper begins with an introduction to key concepts, proceeds to a discussion of the most widely attested processes which result in intransitive predicates, and then presents some of the issues surrounding intransitivizing morphology.