Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

Question

Hey all I have a question about intransitive verbs. I took this from the relevant wikipedida page.

Intransitive verbs can be made passive in some languages. In English, intransitive verbs can be used in the passive voice when a prepositional phrase is included, as in, "The houses were lived in by millions of people."

To me it seems like live here is a transitive verb. It may not be the most grammatical approach to take, but it seems to work that a verb is transitive if it sounds weird to say without a following phrase. For example, if I say "I live" my immediate response is to say "Where do you live?"

So if I say "I live in Brighton" is Brighton the object of a transitive "I live" or if we have a preposition behind a word can it therefore not be an object? Does it then become the argument of the intransitive verb live?

I guess what I'm also looking for is how do I determine what is a verbs object, and what is not.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

EBassIntransitive verbs can be made passive in some languages. In English, intransitive verbs can be used in the passive voice when a prepositional phrase is included, as in, "The houses were lived in by millions of people."

This is a side issue in English, an exception that requires a special way of looking at verbs. The main point is that intransitive verbs cannot be made passive.

EBassTo me it seems like live here is a transitive verb.

No. Rather, using that special way of looking at verbs, we can say that the prepositional verb "live in" is transitive simply because the passive "were lived in" is possible. Remember that these are exceptions. We can also have The proposal was not objected to or The committee was not relied on. "object to" and "rely on" are also prepositional verbs. There are very few verbs like this compared with ordinary verbs.

EBassSo if I say "I live in Brighton" is Brighton the object of a transitive "I live"

No. The only way to call "Brighton" the object is to reinterpret "live in" (and you must include "in") as a prepositional verb. But this is only a reinterpretation of the sentence structure for the purposes of explaining passives like Brighton is lived in by many people. It's not the preferred interpretation for most purposes of analyzing the grammar.

EBassif we have a preposition behind a word can it therefore not be an object?

A preposition phrase cannot be an object. No.

EBasshow do I determine what is a verbs object

The object has to be a noun phrase.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

When "lived in" clearly has the sense of "inhabited," then it is transitive, or at least, transitive-like, for example:

"Millions of people lived in (inhabited) the houses." (Acceptable passive construction: "The houses were inhabited/lived in by millions of people.")

But in the sentence, "I live in Brighton.", "live in" does not really have the sense of "inhabit," but rather, something more like "dwell": "I dwell in Brighton." This is an intransitive verb with no direct object. This is because you would not say something like: "I inhabit Brighton." You just don't say things like this in English. Thus, the passive form, "Brighton is inhabited/lived in by me." is unacceptable, because this kind of thing is not said in English

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

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