How is transitivity defined in CGEL?

For CGEL, transitive means specifically 'taking a object as complement'. Moreover, I recall personal discussions with Pullum and Huddleston in which they confirm that only NPs function as objects. Verbs or prepositions which take other types of complements, such as clausal complements, predicative complements, etc, are not transitive.

The CGEL introduction to transitivity of verbs begins on p 216 with:

Transitivity

The default type of internal core complement is an object (O). Whereas all canonical clauses contain an S, they may or may not contain an O, depending on the nature of the verb. This yields the important contrast referred to as transitivity - a transitive clause contains an O, an intransitive one does not.

It then goes on to give examples of transitive vs intransitive, mono- and ditransitive, and later (p 218) draw a distinction with the closely related concept of valency which depends solely on the number of complements, where transitivity depends on the kind of complement.

i He died. intransitive monovalent

ii This depends on the price. intransitive bivalent

iii Ed became angry. intransitive (complex) bivalent

iv He read the paper. monotransitive bivalent

v He blamed me for the delav. monotransitive trivalent

vi This made Ed angrv. monotransitive (complex) trivalent

vii She gave him some food. ditransitive trivalent