Traditionally, the lexicon of Semitic languages is viewed as consisting of consonantal roots, and words are constructed from the roots by combining them with other morphemes realized as the templates. While there are many templates which derive nouns from roots, the verbal system is extremely limited. Setting aside voice variation, each verb in Semitic is derived by one of exactly three templates, traditionally known as the simple template, the intensive template, and the causative template. Though the template system is in principle the same in all the Semitic languages, the actual forms vary from language to language. The present study is based on the forms found in Hebrew, shown in (1):
(1) The active voice
a. the simple template CaCaC b. the intensive template CiC(C)eC c. the causative template hiCCiC
The choice of template is mostly arbitrary if a unique verb is derived from the root. In other words, the template does not make a semantic contribution if there is no contrast between diVerent verbs derived from the same root. But where there is alternation between equi-rooted verbs, a clear semantic contri- bution can be detected from the template. For example, three diVerent verbs are derived from the single consonantal root rqd ‘dance’. One verb is derived by combining this root with the simple template, yielding the simple verb raqad ‘dance’. A second verb is derived by combining the root with the intensive template, yielding the intensive verb riqed ‘perform dancing’. A third verb is derived by combining the root with the causative template, yielding the causative verb hirqid ‘make dance’. The simple verb raqad is the unmarked verb, and it assigns its external argument an unmarked thematic role which I call ‘agent’ (not to be confused with the marked thematic role assigned to a participant which is the active performer of the event, often called ‘agent’ in other frameworks, but which I will call ‘actor’). The simple verb does not indicate whether the dance was any more than a kind of motion undergone by the participant. The intensive verb, on the other hand, speciWes that the dance was more than just motion, that it should be considered as an action actually
performed by the participant, thereby assigning it the role of actor. What counts as ‘action’ is not easy to explicate, and I take it to be a primitive natural concept encoded by the intensive template. I also assume that if an event is characterized as an action, then it has a participant which is an actor. Nor- mally, but not always, an actor is sentient and in control of independent force, and action is forceful and deliberate; but these concepts are here left fuzzy. Lastly, the causative verb characterizes the dance by introducing an additional participant which is the cause of the event. Cause is a diVerent way of participating in an event than actor. For example, music may cause a dance, but not perform it as an actor.
The basic generalization (to be Wne-tuned as we go along) is that the intensive verb, when compared with the equi-rooted simple verb, does not involve an increase of valence relative to the simple verb, but only reclassiWes the simple verb’s external argument as an actor. The causative verb, on the other hand, involves an increase of valence, and introduces a new external argument with the thematic role of cause. Crucially, this pattern is never reversed in the language:
(2) Root Simple verb Intensive verb Causative verb (intransitive) (intransitive) (transitive)
rqd raqad dance riqed perform dancing hirqid dance (trans.) qpc qafac jump qipec jump up and down hiqpic jump (trans.) ‘p ‘af Xy ‘ofef perform Xying he‘if Xy (trans.) hlk halax walk hilex perform walking holix walk (trans.) sˇyt sˇat sail sˇiyet perform sailing hesˇit sail (trans.) xzr xazar return xizer court hexzir return (trans.) pqd paqad command piqed issue command hifqid put in charge Intensive verbs do not add an argument to the simple verb, but they add entailments to the eVect that the event denoted is an action. As already mentioned above, the relevant notion of action does not imply sentience or volition, and therefore the actor (the agent of action) is not necessarily an animate being, but can on principle be any entity which exerts its own force. I do not formulate the precise lexical entailments which characterize a predicate of action. Yet I assume the explication of the predicate DO in Ross (1972) and Dowty (1979). Causation, which is often an intensional relation, is explicated by Lewis (1973). It should be noted that, as explained by Davidson (1971),
action cannot be reduced to causation, any more than causation can be reduced to action.
All this said, it is nevertheless true that many verbs which involve action do presuppose animacy by virtue of their meaning. They do so for actors (and other arguments as well) but, crucially, not for causes. Accordingly, if a particular verb requires its subject to be animate, we know that this subject is not a cause. Animacy requirements on subjects can therefore be used to easily identify action. A simple verb, on the other hand, may describe the same event as an intensive verb, but without ascribing action. Accordingly, a simple verb—but not necessarily an intensive verb—is equally good with an animate and an inanimate subject:
(3) a. ha-yeladim/ ha-mexirim qafcu
the children/ the prices jumped -simpl ‘The children jumped.’ ‘The prices jumped.’ b. ha-yeladim/ha-mexirim qipcu
the children/ the prices jumped -intns ‘The children/the prices jumped up and down.’
c. masˇehu hiqpic et ha-yeladim/ et ha-mexirim something jumped-caus accthe children / acc the prices ‘Something made the children/the prices jump.’
The distinction in (3b) is expressible in English by using the main verb do, which only has an action meaning:
(4) a. The girls jumped up and down after the boys did it. b. The prices jumped up and down after the taxes did it.
I now introduce a correction of the generalization regarding the intensive template’s eVect on adicity. When the simple verb is unaccusative, the inten- sive template does involve a valence increase. Unlike the case of unergative and transitive simple verbs, where the intensive template assigns the actor thematic role to the external argument of the simple verb, in the case of simple unaccusative verbs there is no external argument, so the actor role is assigned by the intensive template to an additional argument. The intensive verbs in (5), which correspond to simple unaccusative verbs, are therefore just as transitive as the equi-rooted causative verbs:
(5) Root Simple verb Intensive verb Causative verb (unaccusative) (transitive) (transitive) pny pana turn pina turn out hifna turn yc’ yaca come out yice export hoci take out gdl gadal grow gidel grow higdil increase tb‘ tava‘ drown tibea‘ drown hitbia‘ drown bq‘ baqa‘ split biqea‘ split open hivqia‘ split t’m ta’am match te’em coordinate hit’im match ngd nagad contradict niged contrast hingid contrast bsˇl basˇal ripen bisˇel cook hivsˇil ripen We can verify that the additional argument of the intensive verb is not a cause, unlike the additional argument of the causative verb. In the following examples, the intensive verb can only be predicated of an animate subject. The causative verb, on the other hand, may be predicated of any kind of subject (including abstract subjects), as shown in (6)–(8):
(6) a. ba‘alat-ha-bayit/ ha-avtala hifneta et ha-dayarim le-lisˇkat- the landlady/unemployment turned-caus acc the tenants to the ha-avoda
employment agency
b. ba‘alat-ha-bayit pinta et ha-dayarim the landlady turned-out-intns accthe tenants
c. ha-avtala pinta et ha-dayarim
unemployment turned-out-intns accthe tenants (7) a. medinot aniyot / maskorot nemuxot hoci’u
poor countries / low wages brought-out-caus po‘alim le-hafganot
workers to demonstrations
b. medinot aniyot meyac’ot po‘alim poor countries export-intns workers c. maskorot nemuxot meyac’ot po‘alim
low wages export-intns workers
(8) a. ha-agronomit / eyxut-ha-qarqa higdila et ha-yevul the agronomist /the quality of the soil increased-caus acc the crop
b. ha-agronomit gidla yeraqot the agronomist grew-intns vegetables c. eyxut-ha-qarqa gidla yeraqot
the quality of the soil grew-intns vegetables