The
World Reference for
linguistic affines, when it comes to cross-linguistic pairs, may change drastically or lightly, and drawing the line is a really complicated task.
Studying transitivity of the verb is complex enough in Brazil, what they call Regency if it is applied to Discourse, but if we have to cross the so meagre bridges that connect languages, then it becomes total chaos.
To give an idea to the linguist who keeps the status of peasant in the World of the Ts & Is, we examine the verb
to communicate.
In Portuguese, things are really rigid, so that there is only one possible answer: teachers teach their pupils everywhere all the time how not to commit a
horrible mistake.
We like
something or
somebody, not
of something or
of somebody.
We look at something or at somebody, not something or somebody...
In Portuguese, it is exactly the opposite: we
like of something,
we like of somebody, but we do not
like something or
somebody instead (
gosto de ti,
gosto de algo, not
gosto ti,
gosto algo)...
Communicate: we communicate something to somebody, but things
DO NOT communicate (
that is a horrible mistake!).
For committing mistakes like that, my poor grandma - may God keep her spirit Saint, and helping us forever - could be kneeling on raw grains of corn with bare knees for hours in a row in front of her class.
She could also be subjected to palming via wooden hand...
In English, we can say that
a paper communicates something, so that a paper, despite its nature, which is totally non-human, can communicate something to somebody.
That is in some of the
most reliable sources:
, but also Syntax, and allowing for as many variations as possible.