תקציר:

Regularities of patterning in the Hebrew verb derivation system are adduced to support a new analysis of transitivity alternations that unifies causative & middle morphology. Verbs are constructed in the syntax from lexical roots & functional heads; the root, not the simple verb, provides the basic predicate & is merged with the light verb v as defined by Kenneth Hale & Samuel Jay Keyser (1993). Although v introduces the agent, a pair of agency heads are available to specify the thematic role of the external argument as cause vs agent of action & mark the verb morphologically with a causative vs intensive template; a second pair of functional heads provide voice morphology: the passive voice head applies to the fully constructed verb, whereas the middle voice head modifies the root & derives middle verbs independently from active verbs. 36 References. J. Hitchcock