Verb Types(102) vP
DP v'
Sam v VP
smiled 1 v DP V'
e a smile V
t 1
From this perspective, the only difference between a cognate object and a normal
object is the restricted semantic relationship that holds between the cognate object and
the intransitive verb. Another possible analysis suggests itself through the similarity
between intransitive verbs with cognate objects and light verbs with deverbal noun
complements:
(103) a he smiled a smile = he smiled
b he took a peep = he peeped
Perhaps then what a cognate object is, is not a virtually meaningless repetition of
the verb as is standardly assumed, but the main predicative element in the sentence and
it is the verb which has a reduced ‘light’ meaning. This analysis has possibilities, but
we will not follow it up further.
If we analyse intransitives as involving a light verb, the question arises as to why
we cannot passivise an intransitive:
(104) a it was smiled by Sam
b it was died by Richard
This is quite mysterious given our previous analysis of the passive. However, it should
be noted that the inability to passivise intransitives is a language particular fact and not
a universal truth about intransitives. German intransitive verbs, for example, can
passivise:
(105) Es wurde getanzt
it was danced
‘there was dancing’
This at least shows that in principle passivisation is not incompatible with intransitives
and that the reason why intransitives cannot passivise in English must therefore be due
to some other particular property of the language. Note that unaccusatives do not
passivise in any language:
(106) *it was arrived (by the letter)