VERBAL (IN)TRANSITIVITY IN ENGLISH AND CROATIAN

This paper represents comparative analysis of verbal transitivity in English and Croatian, which points out to syntactic-semantic characteristics that are crucial for the identification of object. It also discusses classification of verbs in English and Croatian grammar books. Transitivity is somewhat differently defined in linguistic literature and grammar books, which can cause disagreement related to verb classification. In Croatian grammar books verbal transitivity is related to direct object so this paper examines the possibility of a verb ''transiting'' action to an indirect object as well. Peripheral objects in English and Croatian are described leading up to a conclusion that transitivity is structured on the basis of a prototype. Different degrees of transitivity are related to different semantic characteristics, the impossibility of passivization, and obligatory presence or absence of object. Semantic and morphosyntactic relations between verb and other sentence elements are described within the framework of Valency theory and Role and Reference Grammar thus revealing the complexity of the relationship between syntactic and semantic levels of analysis as well as the necessity of exploring the relationship between semantic and syntactic transitivity, which has not been clearly defined.