Transitivity

In linguistics, transitivity basically talks about how many nouns are connected to a verb. For example, in the sentence "the dog bit the man", there are two nouns (the dog, the man) connected to the verb (bit). This makes it a transitive sentence.

In the sentence "he slept", there is only one noun (he) connected to the verb (slept). This makes the sentence intransitive.

Some verbs are naturally intransitive and transitive. For example, a transitive verb like "make" needs two nouns connected to it. You can't just say "I made". It sounds wrong. You have to say something like "I made lunch". Similarly, an intransitive verb like "fall", can only take one noun. You can't say "I fell the boy". It doesn't make sense.

Here are some examples of intransitive verbs in Gudjal:

Yani-	To go
Nyina-	To sit
Dhanda-	To fall
Wanba-	To walk
Wuni-	To die

Here are some examples of transitive verbs in Gudjal:

Yangga-	To look for
Miranga-	To make
Gandji-	To carry
Muga-	To get
Guni-	To kill

Why are we telling you this? Well, in Gudjal, we have to be aware of whether a sentence is transitive or not because we have to use a special word ending.

In transitive sentences, we have to attach the -nggu ending on the end of the person or thing doing the action (the doer). So, in a sentence like "the dog bit the man", the -nggu ending would go on "the dog", because it is doing the action (the biting).

We only have to worry about this in transitive sentences. In intransitive sentences (only one noun attached to the verb), you can just use the noun normally (as it appears in the dictionary), even if it technically is doing the action. So, for example:

Pronouns and transitivity

Everything that we mentioned above applied to common nouns (all nouns that aren't pronouns). Pronouns in Gudjal work a bit differently. Whether the sentence is transitive or intransitive, you choose the pronoun based on whether someone is a doer or a receiver. So, for example, "I got the kangaroo" is transitive, and "I went" is intransitive, but for both, we use the same 'doer' pronoun.

As you can see in the sentences above, you don't have to worry about whether the sentence is transitive or not. If "I" am the one doing the action, I always use ngaya, the doer pronoun.