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Subcategorization

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In linguistics, subcategorization refers to the types of arguments required or allowed by lexical items (usually verbs).[1] The properties of a word that are crucial to their linguistic analysis are included in its lexical entry.[2] Violating the requirements of subcategorization and selection will produce an ill-formed sentence.

"They put the papers {under the desk/*to the desk/*the desk/*tidy}." (from Grimshaw, 2003)

Keeping in mind that an asterisk (*) is used to indicate ungrammaticality, this example shows that out of the options given, only "under the desk" leads to the production of a well-formed sentence. The term selection is commonly used alongside subcategorization, but the two encode two different types of information.[2] Selection is used to represent the semantic requirements placed on arguments and subcategorization is used to represent the syntactic requirements placed on complements.

"They tried to kill the {president/person/weeds/*box}.

They tried to murder the {president/person/*weeds/*box}.

They tried to assassinate the {president/*person/*weeds/*box}." (from Grimshaw, 2003)

Here we see that the object of the verb "kill" can be any living thing, that of "murder" must be human, and that of "assassinate" must be a famous human.

Lexical Entries

A lexical entry indicates crucial syntactic information about the heard of a phrase, such as what it selects and where it must be positioned. The term lexical entries come from the idea of the "mental lexicon", which specifies what speakers know about individual lexical items (Kroger, 2005). We can think of a lexical entry analogously to a dictionary entry. Each lexical item (LI) is associated with a lexical entry, minimally a triplet of features: Phonological, Formal, and Semantic, if not also other grammatical information such as irregular forms or patterns associated with that specific word (Kroger, 2005). Phonological features indicate pronunciation information and whether the LI is free or bound. Formal features indicate syntactic category labels, otherwise known as parts of speech. Finally, semantic features indicate meaning. In accordance with X-Bar Theory and the Projection Principle, all of these features must be satisfied by each head in order to create a well formed sentence. For example, a lexical entry for the English noun dog has been illustrated below.


dog /dôg/ 'a domesticated carnivorous mammal, typically found with four legs" CAT: N [+count] PLURAL: dogs

Argument Structure

Argument structure is a representation of the number and types of arguments selected by the predicate (Kroger, 2005). When every predicate, otherwise known as a verb, is used, it selects a specific set of arguments that need to be fulfilled to create a well-formed sentence. These arguments are AGENT, PATIENT, EXPERIENCER, THEME, RECIPIENT, and STIMULUS. To illustrate this, the sentence The adults asked if the cats would pee on the sofa, has been broken down into its semantic roles and argument selections below.


Category (Head) Selection Restriction: Argument Selection
ask V {DPAGENT, CPTHEME}
pee V {DPAGENT, CPTHEME}
adults N
cats N
sofa N {(PPTHEME)}


It is necessary to understand the fundamentals of argument structure to understand the idea of subcategorization because subcategorization, as noted above, refers to the sub-categories a verb (or other semantic role) requires (Kroger, 2005). For example, the verb ask from above subcategorizes for a DPAGENT and CPTHEME, otherwise known as a subject and direct object, respectively. In this way, subcategorization is an important piece of information to include in any lexical entry.

Verbs

While subcategorization is a concept that can apply to almost any type of lexical item, it is usually discussed with respect to verbs. Verbs that take just one argument are classified as intransitive, while verbs with two and three arguments are classified as transitive and ditransitive, respectively.[3] The following sentences are employed to illustrate the concept of subcategorization:

Luke worked.
Indiana Jones ate chilled monkey brain.
Tom waited for us.

The verb worked/work is intransitive and thus subcategorizes for a single argument (here Luke), which is the subject; therefore its subcategorization frame contains just a subject argument. The verb ate/eat is transitive, so it subcategorizes for two arguments (here Indiana Jones and chilled monkey brain), a subject and an optional object, which means that its subcategorization frame contains two arguments. And the verb waited/wait subcategorizes for two arguments as well, although the second of these is an optional prepositional argument associated with the preposition for. In this regard, we see that the subcategorization frame of verbs can contain specific words. Subcategorization frames are sometimes schematized in the following manner:

work [NP __ ]
eat [NP __ (NP)]
wait [NP __ (for NP)]

These examples demonstrate that subcategorization frames are specifications of the number and types of arguments of a word (usually a verb), and they are believed to be listed as lexical information (that is, they are thought of as part of a speaker's knowledge of the word in the vocabulary of the language). Dozens of distinct subcategorization frames are needed to accommodate the full combinatory potential of the verbs of any given language. Finally, subcategorization frames are associated most closely with verbs, although the concept can also be applied to other word categories.

Subcategorization frames are essential parts of a number of phrase structure grammars, e.g. Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Lexical Functional Grammar, and Minimalism.

Occurrences

Subcategorization can be observed in any language, including but not limited to: French German Mandarin

Valency

The subcategorization notion is similar to the notion of valency, although subcategorization originates with phrase structure grammars in the Chomskyan tradition,[4] whereas valency originates with Lucien Tesnière of the dependency grammar tradition.[5] The primary difference between the two concepts concerns the status of the subject. As it was originally conceived of, subcategorization did not include the subject, that is, a verb subcategorized for its complement(s) (=object and oblique arguments) but not for its subject.[6] Many modern theories now include the subject in the subcategorization frame, however.[7] Valency, in contrast, included the subject from the start.[8] In this regard, subcategorization is moving in the direction of valency, since many phrase structure grammars now see verbs subcategorizing for their subject as well as for their object(s).

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Chomsky (1965) is a prominent early source on the concept of subcategorization.
  2. ^ a b Grimshaw, J. (2003). Subcategorization and Selection. In International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. : Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2 Apr. 2020
  3. ^ See Tallerman (2011:39-41) for a discussion of subcategorization in terms of intransitive, transitive, and ditransitive verbs.
  4. ^ See Chomsky (1965).
  5. ^ See Tesnière (1959).
  6. ^ For examples of theories that exclude the subject from subcategorization frames, see Burton-Roberts (1886:73ff.), Horrocks (1986:34f.), Haegeman (1994:40-42, 45 note 10), Bennet (1995:43ff.), Green and Morgan (1996:68 note 6), Fromkin et al. (2000:230).
  7. ^ For examples of theories that include the subject in the subcategorization frame, see Kaplan and Bresnan (1982:210-212), Cattell (198428ff.), Pollard and Sag (1994:23), Culicover (1997:17), Carnie (2007:50ff.).
  8. ^ Tesnière (1959/69:109, chapter 51, paragraph 13) emphasized that from a syntactic point of view, the subject is a complement just like the object.

References

  • Bennet, P. 1995. A course in Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar. London: UCL Press Limited.
  • Burton-Robers, 1986. Analysing sentences: An introduction to English grammar. London: Longman.
  • Cattell, R. 1984. Composite predicates in English. Syntax and Semantics 17. Sydney: Academic Press.
  • Chomsky, N. 1965. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Fromkin, V. et al. 2000. Linguistics: An introduction to linguistic theory. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
  • Green, G. and J. Morgan. 1996. Practical guide to syntactic analysis. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.
  • Haegeman, L. 1994. Introduction to government and binding theory, 2nd edition. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
  • Horrocks, G. 1986. Generative Grammar. Longman:London.
  • Kaplan, R. and J. Bresnan. 1982. Lexical Functional Grammar: A formal system of grammatical representation. In J. Bresnan (ed.), The mental representation of grammatical relations, 173-281. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Kroger, P. 2005. Analyzing Grammar: An Introduction. Cambridge, UK; New York;:Cambridge University Press.
  • Pollard, C. and I. Sag. 1994. Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar. Chicago: The University Press of Chicago.
  • Sportiche, D. et al. 2014. An Introduction to Syntactic Analysis and Theory. Malden, MA: Wiley/Blackwell.
  • Tallerman, M. 2011. Understanding Syntax. Oxford: Hodder Education.
  • Tesnière, L. 1959. Éleménts de syntaxe structurale. Paris: Klincksieck.
  • Tesnière, L. 1969. Éleménts de syntaxe structurale, 2nd edition. Paris: Klincksieck.
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