Introversion

The term introversion is sometimes used (especially by Christian Lehmann) for a valency-changing derivation which turns a transitive verb into an intransitive verb whose S argument has the same role as the transitive A argument.

Example

In Russian, suffication with -sja has this effect with some verbs, e.g. sobaka kusaet ljudej 'the dog bites people', sobaka kusaet-sja 'the dog bites'.

Synonym

• indefinite object deletion

Reference

Lehmann, Christian. 2002. Latin valency in typological perspective. In: Bolkestein, A.M. (ed.) et al. (eds.) Theory and description in Latin linguistics. Amsterdam: J.C. Gieben, 183-203.

Other languages

German Introversion (de)