Concept: labile verb pair

Definition

A labile verb pair is a °verb pair occurring in a °valency alternation where the °P-argument of the transitive alternant corresponds to the °S-argument of the intransitive alternant.

Comments

Labile verb pairs are often called simply "labile verbs", treating both verbs as belonging to the same lexeme. For example, one might says that English break can be used transitively (I broke it) and intransitively (it broke), and English eat can be used transitively (I ate it) and intransitively (I ate). ❡

In an alternative usage (e.g. Letuchiy 2009), "labile" has a broader sense, referring to verb pairs occurring in all kinds of transitivity alternations.

Croft's comparative concept

labile (STR):

labile (a.k.a. ambitransitive, lexical causative) (STR) = a strategy in which the verb expressing a noncausal event and the verb expressing its counterpart causal event are identical. Example: in English, the same verb break is used for the causal event I broke the vase and the noncausal event The vase broke. (Section 6.3.4)

Wikipedia

labile verb

Quotation

"In this discussion, I consider the traditional definition of a labile verb, adopted in Chikobava (1942), Kibrik et al. (1977) and many other typological and descriptive works: a labile verb is a verb which can be used transitively or intransitively without any formal change. In many other works, such as Haspelmath (1993a) and Ljutikova (2002), the definition is more restrictive: “in labile alternations, the same verb is used both in the inchoative and in the causative sense” (Haspelmath 1993a: 92); thus, a labile verb must have one monovalent (inchoative) and one bivalent (causative) use." (Letuchiy 2009: 223)

Sources

Letuchiy 2009