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I have noticed that Chinese characters are labelled as “exoactive”, “endoactive”, “exopassive” and “endopassive” on Wiktionary.
For example, it says that 娶 (marry) is the exoactive version of 取. I am unable to find other websites which utilize this term, and its usage seems to be rather obscure.
Now, I do understand that 娶 is a phono-semantic compound, where the character’s sound is indicated by 取, and its meaning indicated by 女. Could the aforementioned terms be related to this concept?
These terms were devised in the late 20th century analysis of Classical Japanese, originally, for the difference between -(さ)す (glossed as externally instigated) and -(ら)る (glossed as internally instigated). This exoactive vs endoactive reflects 18th century Japanese use of 他動詞 vs 自動詞 (tadoushi vs jidoushi).
In more traditional Western-orientated linguistic parlance, this is equivalent to transitive vs intransitive; in Modern Japanese, this is how it is presented to students. E.g. 散る (ちる) chiru vs 散らす (ちらす) chirasu. However, there are pairs even in Modern Japanese which definitely do not fit this description, e.g.
部屋を出る (へやをでる)
heya (w)o deru
to go out of / leave the room
... where there is an explicit object, but the verb is endoactive (with る), yet transitive. Contrast this with:
結果を出す (けっかをだす)
kekka (w)o dasu
to yield / come out with results
... where there is an explicit object, the verb is still transitive, but exoactive (with す). There is also a school that calls them causative vs inchoative pairs.
However, on application to Chinese, endoactive vs exoactive was used for directional transitive verbs, e.g.:
"buy" 買 mǎi vs "sell" 賣 mài
"buy grain" 糴 dí vs "sell grain" 糶 tì
"hear/smell" 聞 wén vs "ask" 問 wèn
... and a wide range of pairs that fit a similar semantic alternation. This regular(ish) association of exoactive = Middle Chinese 去聲 (departing tone) implies some sort of regular morphology in Old Chinese, which is believed to be a final *-s suffix, which later (in the Han?) became *-h and ended up in departing tone.
Schuessler expands on this endoactive/exoactive distinction with the endopassive/exopassive one, as well as providing a simplex (neither -active nor -passive) version, and associates them with different proposed derivational phonology by their outcomes in Middle Chinese. Some of the above examples were reallocated.
This tonal difference is what accounts for 取 vs 娶, which in Middle Chinese have rising and departing tones. This distinction is preserved in (colloquial) Min but lost in Mandarin and (most of) Cantonese. However, if "take" is the endoactive (internally motivated) direction, then how is "to take as a wife" an exoactive (externally motivated) one? That's the semantic leap that Schuessler has to make, and provides an explanation for:
However, the key was apparently the person as indir. object.
On p. 43 of ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese By Axel Schuessler we have the following introduction:
which is later expound on:
On p. 44 we find the exact example that you are asking about:
It also comes with an explanation:
There is a little explanation also here:
[...] endoactive (introvert) verbs also can be tr. like mai 'to buy (something)', Exoactive verbs are the extrovert, transitive / cauastive ounterparts (mài 'sell something to someone')
and
We could have used the familiar labels 'middle' for 'endoactive', 'active' or 'causative' for 'exoactive', 'passive' for 'exopassive'.
Understanding exoactive as causative variant might be an easier connection to make.
