What is a transitive verb in ESI?
A transitive verb is a Verb or Verbal Phrase which can take a direct object. A typical example of a transitive verb is “give”. One usually gives “something”. “Something” is the direct object. In ESI, this same principle is carried further and used in phrasal verbs too. If the verbal phrase can take a direct object, then the entry has to be classified as transitive. Example: “Give a hand”. As such, “give a hand” is an incomplete action. It must take a direct object. In this particular case: Give him a hand, or Give Mary and her younger sister a hand, where “him” and the noun phrase “Mary and her younger sister” are the direct objects. This is because the verb phrase “give a hand” is taken as a whole, and thus the otherwise indirect objects become direct objects. Another example of a transitive verb would be “Give a hand to”, because you have to place a direct object after the preposition “to”, as in : Give a hand to your friend. Again, the verb phrase is taken as a whole and what follow
