INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ISSN: 2692-5206, Impact Factor: 12,23
American Academic publishers, volume 05, issue 05,2025
Journal:
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page 1486
STRUCTURAL PROPERTIES OF TRANSITIVE AND INTRANSITIVE VERBS
Scientific adviser:
Shakhlo Khalilova
Student:
Rushana Kadirova
Abstract:
The two types of nominalizations differ in various ways. One important distinction
can be made by noting the type of verb found m the two nominalizations. The verb in a subject
nominalization is intransitive while object nominalizations generally take transitive verbs.
Key words:
nominalizations, transitive verbs, intransitive verbs, requirement, information,
object
Polzella and Rohrman (1970) and Rohrman (1970) have shown that transitive verbs are
more difficult to recall than intransitive verbs. Rohrman (1970) suggests that the recall of
nominalizations is influenced by verb transitivity. Specifically, he hypothesizes that the
underlying structure of transitive verbs requires that the verb take an object. When transitive
verbs are stored m memory, Ss may make covert object responses to meet this structural
requirement. Intransitive verbs do not take an object. Therefore, intransitive verbs are seen as
psychologically simpler units than transitive verbs since less information needs to be retained
when intransitive verbs are stored in memory.
An interesting feature of this hypothesis is that recall differences which are solely a
function of verb transitivity should be eliminated when the verbs are paired with object words.
If intransitive verbs are psychologically simpler than transitive verbs because the underlying
structural properties of the latter require an object response, then forcing Ss to make object
responses to both types of verbs should eliminate the intransitive verb recall advantage. Pairing
these verbs with words that do not function as objects should have no effect on the intransitive
verb recall advantage since the underlying properties of the two verb types do not restrict their
relationship to other grammatical classes of words. Notice that these predictions are based on an
analysis of the underlying structural properties of transitive and intransitive verbs.
When these verbs are used in nominalizations, the effects of the underlying structural
properties may interact with surface structure cues and semantic features of the nominalizations
(Rohrman, 1970). However, it should be possible to demonstrate the effects of the underlying
structure m the absence of these other factors. Polzella and Rohrman (1970) have already
shown that effects of transitive and intransitive verbs in isolation do not depend on the syntactic
cues provided by the "ing" endings of the verbs in their gerundive form. The present experiment
was designed to investigate the effects of the underlying structural properties of transitive and
intransitive verbs, in the absence of semantic and surface structure cues, on recall of structurally
organized units. If Rohrman's hypothesis is correct, verb transitivity should interact with the
structure of the units to be recalled. The Ss in the present experiment were asked to memorize
pairs of items consisting of either a transitive or an intransitive verb paired with a CVC trigram.
The trigram either preceded or followed the verb. In order to eliminate surface structure cues,
the verbs were in the Infinitive form and the trigrams were not marked plural. To reduce or
eliminate semantic features of the pairs of items, CVC trigrams were used in place of real
words. It was hypothesized that trigram position would interact with verb transitivity. To the
extent that the pairs of items are processed as linguistic units, trigram placement should create
different linguistic structures. When trigrams follow the verbs, the objective organization
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ISSN: 2692-5206, Impact Factor: 12,23
American Academic publishers, volume 05, issue 05,2025
Journal:
https://www.academicpublishers.org/journals/index.php/ijai
page 1487
resembles the underlying structural organization of subject and object nominalizations. When
the trigrams precede the verbs, the objective structure resembles a number of different
underlying structures, none of which is restricted by verb transitivity. I f trigram placement does
affect linguistic processing of the items, then recall of intransitive verb items should be superior
to recall of transitive verb items when the trigrams precede the verbs. When the trigrams follow
the verbs, recall differences between transitive and intransitive verb items should be eliminated.
Trigram meaningfulness was orthogonally varied along with the other factors in this experiment.
I t was hypothesized that the high
meaningful trigrams might be more likely to serve as grammatical terms than low meaningful
trigrams. I f there is an interaction between verb type or trigram placement and meaningfulness,
it would suggest that linguistic structure is not independent of semantic features of the items.
METHOD. Ninety-four general psychology subjects fulfilling a course requirement
served as Ss They were tested eight groups with 11 to 13 Ss each. One S was discarded for
failure to follow instructions. Five Ss were selected at random and discarded to achieve an
equal number of Ss in each group The remaining 88 Ss were distributed equally among the four
between-group treatment conditions. The mean length and mean frequency of the two lists of
verbs were closely matched. The mean association values for the verbs in the two lists did not
differ significantly from each other (Polzella & Rohrman, 1970). The 14 trigrams were obtained
from Archer (1960) Half of the tngrams were high association value CVCs and half were low
association value CVCs The trlgram-verb pairs were typed on 2 × 2 in slides. On half of the
slides, the trlgrams preceded the verbs (Pre condition). Trlgrams followed the verbs on the
remaining slides (Post condition) The stimulus pairs were presented on a screen with a Kodak
Carousel slide projector.
Design and Procedure. There were four between-group treatment conditions
in th~s experiment. Subjects saw either transitive or intransitive verbs paired with trigrams
which either preceded or followed the verbs The same trigrams were used m both positions and
with both verb types. Meaningfulness of the trigrams was a withln-Ss factor. The Ss were given
five study-test trials with written free recall on each trial. There was a 4-sec presentation
duration and a .45-sec rater-item interval There was a 2-rain recall period The Ss wrote their
responses in a five-page answer booklet. The instructions read to the Ss emphasized that they
were to learn the trigrams -verb paxrs.
In order to evaluate the possible relationship of response term integration to the
treatment conditions, partial responses were examined. A partial response was defined as recall
of an incomplete pair or a pair in which one of the members was incorrect. When a verb
response was made without the appropriate trigram, meaningfulness was scored with reference
to the correct trigram. Table 1 shows mean partial response scores for Verb Type, Trigrams
Position, Meaningfulness, and Trials. Partial responding was apparently unrelated to
performance on this task. Inspection of Figure 1 shows that over trials transitive verbs were
more difficult to recall than intransitive verbs when the verbs were paired with trigrams in the
Pre position.
DISCUSSION. The results of the present experiment clearly support the hypothesis that
the underlying structure of transitive and intransitive verbs affects recall. The results of
previous research designed to investigate the nature of verb transitivity provided only indirect
support What was missing in the earher research was a convincing demonstration of the effects
of the structural features of transitive and intransitive verbs (Rohrman, 1970; Polzella &
Rohrman, 1970). These effects have been demonstrated in the present experiment. Rohrman
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ISSN: 2692-5206, Impact Factor: 12,23
American Academic publishers, volume 05, issue 05,2025
Journal:
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page 1488
(1970) and Polzella and Rohrman (1970) have hypothesized that certain lexical features of the
base structure of transitive and intransitive verbs have psychological implications. These
implications are related to differences in the lexical entries for the two verb types. The lexical
entry for transitive verbs generally includes specification of a noun phrase following the verb.
The lexical entry for intransitive verbs does not include specification of a noun phrase. This
distinction is thought to be psychologically compelling. When Ss see transitive verbs presented
in isolation, the Ss make implicit noun responses to satisfy the lexical requirements of the verbs.
Since the lexical entry for intransitive verbs does not include a noun phrase, implicit noun
responses to these verbs are not required.
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