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Transitive / Intransitive Verbs and Lexical Semantics

Jim Beale's question about J 3:30 raised a doubt in my mind that I had 
a clear understanding how the *Transitive / Intransitive* qualities of 
a verb related to the Active \ Middle \ Passive issue. 

I took a short tour of the Grammars which were within easy reach and 
discovered what appears to be some minor discrepancies in how this 
issue is treated. 

Porter (Idioms) on page 63 cites Robertson and others to the effect 
that *Transitive / Intransitive* is not connected with the issue of 
Active \ Middle \ Passive. Dana & Mantey (a footnote on p154) sort the 
issue out fairly well. If I understand what they are saying I would 
concluded that *Transitive / Intransitive* issues belong to the domain 
of lexical semantics, not syntax. When we say that a verb is 
Transitive we are talking about what the word means in a particular 
context. Dana & Mantey specifically stress the point that transitivity 
is contextually determined. 

If this is the case, then all the discussion in Turner (Syntax, p51ff) 
about transitive verbs being used as intransitive in the NT and vise 
versa seems to be to be rather beside the point. If transitivity is an 
aspect of a words semantic value in a give context, then why should it 
be particularly noteworthy that this value can change either over time 
(diachronicly) or in different contexts (synchronicly). Turner seems 
to imply that transitivity should be some sort of permanent part of a 
verbs semantic baggage and then cites examples where this is not the 
case. 

I have two questions: 

First Question. Is transitivity a part of syntax or does it belong to 
lexical semantics, or does this question show evidence of a 
misunderstanding somewhere else? Is this a forced sort of either\or 
question that shows a weakness in the underlying language model? 

Second question: Is transitivity a *permanent* part of a verbs 
semantic baggage, and if so does this not violate the model that some 
of us are using for lexical semantics which denies the existence of 
fixed semantic values for words?

This is a rather muddled series of issues but I a sure that someone on 
the b-greek list will be able to sort it all out. 



Clay Bartholomew
Three Tree Point