Descriptive gaps: The case of transitive <i>ol-</i>

Abstract

Used in verb formation, ol- often denotes a transition in physical or mental state, as for instance in hasta ol- ‘to fall ill’, tedavi ol- ‘to get treatment’, and deli ol- ‘to go crazy’. These expressions are not some type of collocation, because the nouns and adjectives they are based on function as a superordinate category (hypernym); hasta ‘ill’ can be substituted by a noun denoting virtually any kind of disease or ailment, and instead of tedavi ‘treatment’ any of its hyponyms (words for which tedavi ‘treatment’ serves as an umbrella term) are actually being used with ol-. Such expressions are traditionally analysed as the result of combining a noun with ol-, a derivational process in which this verb functions as an auxiliary having little or no meaning of its own. However, there are arguments in favour of a different viewpoint, namely that there also exists a transitive verb ol- ‘to undergo’, taking definite objects. Such objects are noun phrases containing a demonstrative pronoun or a possessive suffix. The basis for the application of the latter suffix category is that the event referred to by the object is expected or implied.