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Split intransitivity

Concept
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Grammatical alignment where subjects are marked differently based on verb type

Detailed Definition
A grammatical concept where languages mark subjects of intransitive verbs differently depending on whether the verb describes an active or inactive state, found in some indigenous American languages. For poets, this affects how agency is structured differently across languages, becoming important in translation and multilingual poetry where different linguistic systems structure action and being in contrasting ways.
Example
Example in poetry:
In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons” uses split intransitivity—“measured” lacks direct object, implying futility; In “Citizen,” “You are in the car” uses split intransitivity to suspend action; Contemporary poet: “She walked for hours” (where?) as split intransitivity; Student example: “He spoke but no one” as split intransitivity; Another: “I tried to” ending poem with grammatical incompleteness.
Additional Notes
Linguistic concept relevant to understanding how different languages express agency and action. Important for translation work and multilingual poetry. Some languages mark intransitive subjects differently.
Also Known As
Split-S system Active-inactive split Agent marking split Fluid-S alignment Ergative alignment
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