VERBS USED TRANSITIVELY AND INTRANSITIVELY
Many verbs in English are used both transitively and intransitively with the same meaning. They include several types:
1 Verbs with an implied Object, such as smoke (cigarettes), drive (a car), park (a car), drink (alcohol), save (money), wave (one’s hand), as in Do you smoke? He doesn’t drive. Such intransitive uses can be considered as instances of valency reduction, that is, the normal valency of two of these verbs is reduced to one. As these reductions are based on cultural schemas and tend to have an implication of habituality, they are not extended to other object referents such as wave a flag, drink milk. With certain verbs such as read, write, eat and teach the deleted direct object is not specific, and is perhaps unknown, as in He teaches and she writes.
Drinking and driving don’t match.
It is impossible to park in the city centre.
They are saving to buy a house.
He waved to us from the bridge.
2 Causatives with an intransitive counterpart, constituting an ergative pair:
He opened the door. (SVOd) The door opened. (SV)
She clicked the camera. The camera clicked.
3 Verbs with a reflexive meaning:
He shaved (himself), She dressed (herself).
4 Verbs with a reciprocal meaning:
Tom and Jo met at a concert (met each other).
