Morphological Reinforcement, Meaning, and Transitivity

The theory of natural pragmatics expounded earlier (Calvo, 1994) & positing morphology as a bidirectional instrument mediating between the signifier & the signified is outlined & utilized to examine a series of Spanish prefixes capable of modifying sentence transitivity; an inventory of such prefixes is established, & their derivations are exemplified. Making a distinction between strong & weak transitivity, it is demonstrated that these prefixes carry only the latter & are limited to only certain types of diathesis. The actant variation is mostly from one to two actants & only infrequently involves a reverse transition, ie, from two to one actant. Weak transitivity is recessive because it implies an analysis from semantics toward syntax, whereas strong transitivity progresses from syntax (the diathesis is prototypically a syntactic phenomenon) to semantics. 18 References. Adapted from the source document