Subcategorization

In linguistics, subcategorization refers to the types of arguments required or allowed by lexical items (usually verbs). The properties of a word that are crucial to their linguistic analysis are included in its lexical entry. Categorical selection (commonly referred to as c-selection), is an equivalent term to subcategorization. The term selection is commonly used alongside subcategorization, but the two encode two different types of information. Selection is used to represent the semantic requirements placed on arguments and subcategorization is used to represent the syntactic requirements placed on complements. Violating the requirements of subcategorization and selection will produce an ill-formed sentence. The following examples are provided in order to distinguish subcategorization from selection accordingly. Example (1) shows the influence of subcategorization while (2), (3), and (4) exemplify that of selection. Keep in mind that an asterisk (*) is used to indicate ungrammaticality.

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

This example shows that out of the options given, only "under the desk" leads to the production of a well-formed sentence. "They put the papers" cannot stand alone even though there is an object, "papers", that the verb "put" is acting on.

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

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

(4) "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 and theta roles. 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 partial lexical entry for the English noun dog has been illustrated below (Kroger, 2005).

dog /dôg/

'a domesticated carnivorous mammal, typically found with four legs"

_CAT: N

[+count]

_PLURAL: dogs

Argument Structure

Argument structure is the list of selected arguments associated with a lexical category, such as a verb (SKS, 2015). 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 (Kroger, 2005). These are arguments such as 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.

Thematic Roles and S-Selection

Theta roles identify the meaning relation between the constituent and the selected predicate (SKS, 2015). There are eight theta roles: AGENT, THEME, CAUSE, POSSESSOR, LOCATION,GOAL, EXPERIENCER, and BENEFICIARY. Each term indicates the relationship between the verb, predicate, and one of its arguments. This is what is called s-selection, a shortening of semantic selection. S-Selection is an important addition to any lexical entry in order to make them easier to interpret (SKS, 2015). It is important to understand that, according to the Theta Criterion, every argument bears one and only one theta role (Chomsky, 1965). Below is an example for each theta role (SKS, 2015):

CAUSE: a cause; The dog bit the child. This made him cry

AGENT: a person on entity which intentionally is causing or doing something; Joshua intentionally hit him

EXPERIENCER: a sentient being inside of, or acquiring, a psychological state; Sam hates cats/Josh noticed Alice

LOCATION: a location; Marianne leaped through the field

GOAL: a location/being that is the endpoint; Moses gave Josh a toothbrush

BENEFICIARY: a beneficiary; Susie made cookies for Sarah

POSSESSOR: a possessor; Shelly owns cats

POSSESSEE/POSSESSED: what is possessed; Shelly's cats

• POSSESSEE/POSSESSED is a subset of POSSESSOR which is why it has been included but not given its own role

THEME: something that undergoes a change, such as location change, or any kind of progression;Josie sent Riven cookies/

• THEME is also commonly used for things that do not fit any other theta role, such as Josie is short or Sarah said that it is foggy

Projection Principle

The Projection Principle states that properties of lexical items must be satisfied in order to create well-formed sentences (SKS, 2015).

Locality of Selection

Locality of Selection states that if α selects β, then β appears as a complement, subject, or adjunct of α (SKS, 2015).

Verbs

While subcategorization is a concept 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. The following sentences are employed to illustrate the concept of subcategorization:

Luke worked.

Indiana Jones ate chilled monkey brain.

Tom waited for us.

Subcategorization Frames

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.

Non-Verbs

Subcategorization is mostly applied to verbs, as explained above. However, verbs are not the only semantic role which can be subcategorized.

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, whereas valency originates with Lucien Tesnière of the dependency grammar tradition. 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. Many modern theories now include the subject in the subcategorization frame, however. Valency, in contrast, included the subject from the start. 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

• Argument
• Complement
• Dependency grammar
• Lexical item
• Lucien Tesnière
• Phrase structure grammar
• Transitivity
• Valency

References

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• Tesnière, L. 1959. Éleménts de syntaxe structurale. Paris: Klincksieck.
• Tesnière, L. 1969. Éleménts de syntaxe structurale, 2nd edition. Paris: Klincksieck.