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During the orientation programme conducted for the resource persons in English in Hyderabad,one of the professors wrote a sentence on the board and it is given below

The board writes well.

She asked us to say whether the verb write is transitive or intransitive. We could not satisfactorily answer the question.because It did not look like either transitive. or intransitive she explained something which I forgot so I need explanation from the scholars

Another example is

He walks the dog everyday

I found the sentence in a text for Tenth class students

The sentences are indifferent from the sentences like he writes well and the dog walks.

  • I would like to know the function of the verb and the subject in the sentences above, I know that the two verbs are different

I would like to know whether the topic comes under semantics.

EDIT
This is not a duplicate of the question "The ticket is printing" vs "...is being printed" because I am not asking whether the sentences mentioned above are grammatically correct, my question is focused on their syntax and semantics.

John Lawler
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Jvlnarasimharao
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    It’s borderline ungrammatical is what it is. Some verbs can be used unaccusatively (“the book reads well”), but write is not such a verb in my English. Syntactically, it is of course intransitive here since it has no object argument. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Aug 05 '19 at 09:35
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    This is the middle construction. See the linked question for details. As Janus says, whether this particular middle construction is grammatical or idiomatic, is debatable. Maybe it is in Indian English, I do not know. – RegDwigнt Aug 05 '19 at 09:42
  • i will edit or ask a new question – Jvlnarasimharao Aug 05 '19 at 09:51
  • Please read the help center adding another example will not help to reopen your question. You need to explain why the answer(s) in the original question, of which yours is said to be a duplicate, do not answer your question – Mari-Lou A Aug 05 '19 at 10:16
  • @Mari-LouA, thank you very much for your suggestions – Jvlnarasimharao Aug 05 '19 at 10:27
  • Keep in mind next time someone suggests your question is a duplicate, check the the actual question and any answer(s) posted. If you find the answer in the older post, that is a great result and you can actually cast the decisive vote to close your own question as a duplicate. RegDwight is a moderator on this site and moderators can close questions with a single vote. I realize this sounds all a bit too much but bear with it, over time you'll learn the "culture" and welcome the guidelines. – Mari-Lou A Aug 05 '19 at 10:31
  • Feel free to edit and expand on the reason why you think your question is different. I just wanted to show you how it's done, before too much time lapsed by. – Mari-Lou A Aug 05 '19 at 10:34
  • @Mari-Lou A.thank you very much fot your help – Jvlnarasimharao Aug 05 '19 at 10:45
  • I have voted to reopen this question. The duplicate contains a good answer about the middle construction. The middle construction is a superordinate of ergatives and mediopassives. The board writes well is an example of the mediopassive which is not mentioned in the other answer. Nevertheless, the addition of the dog example muddies the issue and should probably be retracted. (Did the professor write the dog sentence on the board too?) – Shoe Aug 05 '19 at 11:02
  • 'She asked us to say whether the verb write is transitive or intransitive.' Can you supply the actual quote (which is important)? Did she mean 'Is the verb write in this usage transitive or intransitive?'? / In an example that is incontestably acceptable (which I'd say the one on the board isn't), 'Her novels always sell well', 'sell' displays the middle usage/voice. There is no overt object, so this can't be labelled a transitive usage. But note that 'Is V a transitive verb?' is ill-formed; it's usages that are transitive or intransitive. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 05 '19 at 11:19
  • @Shoe The confusion in terminology (focusing on the episodic interpretation [the glass broke] vs the typical middle usage having to do with permanent properties of entities [this glass breaks easily]; your statement is one view) is mentioned in This wine is drinking nicely ... does anything else 'drink nicely'?. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 05 '19 at 11:25
  • @Edwin Ashworth. Thanks for the link. I agree about the terminological confusion: ergative, mediopassive, middle construction, middle voice, middle verb, middle intransitive, unaccusative, activo-passive, passival, and Uncle Tom Cobley et al. – Shoe Aug 05 '19 at 11:40
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    He may have meant "bard", instead of "board". – Greg Lee Aug 05 '19 at 11:46
  • @Greg Lee Best joke on ELU for ages. Sorry about the poor company: But she probably didn't commence: "Now watch the board while I go through it." An editorial panel, perhaps. The board write well. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 05 '19 at 11:54
  • @Edwin.she meant the whiteboard and she did write: "the board writes well" – Jvlnarasimharao Aug 05 '19 at 12:02
  • Have you read the question I linked? It talks about syntax and semantics. Also, the second example you added has nothing to do with the first. It has a completely different syntax and semantics. – RegDwigнt Aug 05 '19 at 12:06
  • @RegDWight. you are right. I need explanation – Jvlnarasimharao Aug 05 '19 at 12:14
  • my question should not have been down voted after so many comments – Jvlnarasimharao Aug 05 '19 at 12:58
  • Consider “This tent sleeps six. This bed sleeps two. This bed sleeps well.”. Perhaps the answer should address the issues here. – Xanne Aug 05 '19 at 23:27

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