[Grammar] intransitive/transitive - The chair was sat on by her?

[HeartShape]

Hi,

Is the following sentence intransitive/transitive, and why? Please explain.

The following sentence:

1. The chair was sat on by her.

 

[jutfrank]

No, because sentences cannot be transitive/intransitive.

 

[GoesStation]

The sentence is terribly unnatural. I suggest you forget about it.

 

[HeartShape]

No, because sentences cannot be transitive/intransitive.

The sentence is terribly unnatural. I suggest you forget about it.

I am re-evaluating; I think I may have made a mistake somewhere but the sentence is fantastic for learning.

 

[Rover_KE]

What have you learnt from it?

 

[HeartShape]

What have you learnt from it?

You shall see.

 

[HeartShape]

No, because sentences cannot be transitive/intransitive.

I did not mean is the sentence transitive and intransitive. I thought it was understood when I wrote “intransitive/transitive" to mean "Is the sentence intransitive or transitive” not both.

 

[Rover_KE]

Verbs are transitive or intransitive – not sentences.

Your sentence is an unnatural, passive sentence.

 

[HeartShape]

Verbs are transitive or intransitive – not sentences.

Your sentence is an unnatural, passive sentence.

Thank-you for the correction.

 

[HeartShape]

Verbs are transitive or intransitive – not sentences.

Your sentence is an unnatural, passive sentence.

If that is passive what is its active form?

 

[jutfrank]

I did not mean is the sentence transitive and intransitive. I thought it was understood when I wrote “intransitive/transitive" to mean "Is the sentence intransitive or transitive” not both.

I didn't mean the sentence is both transitive and intransitive. I meant that it is neither transitive nor intransitive. Transitivity is about verbs, not sentences.

Where are you going with this? We're already on post #11.

 

[HeartShape]

I think I may have made some mistakes with the original post but I will finish up.

If I wrote this, would anyone disagree the following verb is transitive active?

She sat on the chair.

 

[jutfrank]

Yes, we would all disagree.

A transitive verb is one which takes an object. The verb in your sentence has no object.

 

[HeartShape]

Yes, we would all disagree.

A transitive verb is one which takes an object. The verb in your sentence has no object.

Well, if there is a transitive passive there must always be a transitive active. Isn't that right?

And if the sentence given with transitive active isn't the correct one which is?

 

[GoesStation]

Well, if there is a transitive passive there must always be a transitive active. Isn't that right? No.

And if the sentence given with transitive active isn't the correct one which is?

Here's a sentence in the active voice with a transitive verb: She broke the chair. I can't think of an intransitive verb that means anything like sit.

 

[HeartShape]

Here's a sentence in the active voice with a transitive verb: She broke the chair. I can't think of an intransitive verb that means anything like sit.

Ignoring your new sentence for a minute but it's true that we can turn an intransitive verb into a transitive. That's right, isn't it?

 

[GoesStation]

Ignoring your new sentence for a minute but it's true that we can turn an intransitive verb into a transitive. That's right, isn't it?

No. Transitivity is a property of the verb. You can't change it.

 

[Skrej]

Ignoring your new sentence for a minute but it's true that we can turn an intransitive verb into a transitive. That's right, isn't it?

I think perhaps what you are asking is whether some verbs may be both transitive and intransitive. If that's what you're asking, then yes.

However if a verb is strictly transitive or intransitive, then no it can't be changed.

 

[Phaedrus]

If that is passive what is its active form?

active voice: She sat on the chair.
passive voice: The chair was sat on by her.

That kind of passive is called (by many linguists) the prepositional passive. In the active-voice sentence, you have the intransitive verb "sit" (in the past tense) modified by a prepositional phrase ("on the chair"). In the passive-voice sentence, the object of "on" is subject.

Alternatively, we could say that the object of "sat on" is subject in the passive-voice sentence. And if we said that, we might also say that "sat on" (two words: a verb and a preposition) is behaving as if it were one transitive verb in the sentence "The chair was sat on by her."

I have a book on the prepositional passive. I haven't read the whole thing, but I just consulted it, and "sit on" is one of the verb-plus-preposition collocations that work in the prepositional passive, provided the meaning is literal (not metaphorical) and that the location specified by "on" is affected.

Here are some sentences with "sit on" from the book. The red example with an asterisk and a line through it is ungrammatical. I am adding "active" and "passive" labels for clarity. Where two labels appear next to a sentence, the first applies to the first clause and the second to the second.

The hen sat on the egg until it hatched. (active - active)
The egg was sat on until it hatched. (passive - active)

The egg was sat on for three weeks. (passive)

John sat on my hat. (active)
My hat was sat on. (passive)

This bench shouldn't be sat on -- it's just been painted. (passive - passive)

Don't let yourself be sat on. (passive)

*[strike]Three committees were sat on by John.[/strike] (passive)

-----------------------------------------------------------
Couper-Kuhlen, E. (1979). The prepositional passive in English: A semantic-syntactic analysis, with a lexicon of prepositional verbs. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.

 

[HeartShape]

I think perhaps what you are asking is whether some verbs may be both transitive and intransitive. If that's what you're asking, then yes.

That is exactly the context I was thinking.