An analysis of transitivity in Cheyenne

Abstract

Verbal typology in Cheyenne has traditionally been analyzed following the terminology that Bloomfield used in 1946 in order to describe Proto-Algonquian verbal classes. That terminology mixed two syntactic concepts, namely valence and transitivity, in order to refer to the different types of verb in Algonquian languages. Although in Cheyenne the verbal paradigms are available in a number of excellent sources (Petter 1952; Meeussen 1962; Leman 1980b; Russell 1987), this article attempts to provide a more comprehensive description of the verbal system in Cheyenne by classifying Cheyenne predicates into three groups in terms of their semantic valence, that is the number of core arguments they require: (1) one-place predicates, which are accompanied by only one core argument, (2) two-place predicates, which have two core arguments, and (3) three-place predicates, which include up to three core arguments. This classification will prove more accurate than the traditional four-way division, since it captures bet...