Languages display global preferences for transitive, intransitive or underspecified roots in their verbal lexicon (Nichols et al. 2004): some languages are predominantly detransitivizing, deriving intransitive verbs from more basic transitive verbs through morpho-syntactic operations as stative passivization, reflexivization, or mediopassive voice. Other languages are predominantly transitivizing and apply operations of causativization to basic intransitive forms.

Yet other languages are characterized by underspecified roots and derive both alternants from a common base. This classification is particularly relevant when applied to psych verbs, since variable linking is a widely recognized feature of this domain.

In this talk, we will report on the results of a larger typological study, involving 26 languages from 15 language families, aimed at investigating directionality in the psych alternation. We will discuss emerging patterns in terms of areal and genealogical distribution, as well as typological correlations of argument alignment and directionality in the psych-alternation.