TOPIC 2: LEXICAL PREDICATES AND LEXICAL REQUEREMENTS

This topic introduces the notion of ‘lexicon’ as a linguistic component from which grammatical
constructions are derived.

• We'll focus on lexical entries and on the kind of lexical information that is most
relevant for syntax: the lexico-syntactic features:

→Argument structure: the number and type of arguments involved in an event.

→Subcategorization frame: the number and category of the selected complements.

Lexical predicates (typically verbs) determine the content of a sentence: s-selection and c-

selection.

- S-selection: The semantic selection (requirement of the predicate) (e.g., I need a

human being to express this meaning) - Number of arguments.

- C-selection (categorial selection) (predicate will select the category of the

complemented – Noun phrase: “Someone eat pizza” – Number of complement and
its category

• We'll account for how some verbs can express their arguments in different syntactic
positions: THEMATIC ALTERNATIONS.

Give – He gave me flowers, or He gave flowers to me – Thematic alliteration.

Eat (transitive) – need one object (they don’t make distinction between direct and indirect);
But also, the category of the complement (Someone eat)

Subcategorization: “Someone eat pizza” – Noun phrase

• All sentences in English need a subject (general principal).

• We'll investigate the principles and constraints necessary to build grammatical

sentences and to filter out ill-formed sentences: Theta Criterion, Projection Principle,
Subject Requirement, and Expletive insertion.

2.1. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LEXICON ___________________________________________

The term "lexicon" is understood in several ways:

1. As another component of the grammar of a language, along with syntax, semantics,

etc., where lexical items are described: Linguistics.
2. As the native speaker’s mental lexicon: Psycholinguistics.
3. As a module for natural language processing (data sets): Computational Linguistics.
4. As a synonym of “dictionary”: Lexical Semantics.

The Lexicon is that part of the grammar of a language that includes the lexical entries for all
the words in the language:
 “We postulate that speakers of a language are equipped with an internal ‘dictionary’, which
we shall refer to as the mental lexicon, or lexicon, which contains all the information they have
internalized concerning the words of their language” [Haegeman, 1991: 29]

A lexical entry is then that portion of the lexicon detailing the irregular and memorized
properties of a single particular lexical item. Each word is going to include its properties.

• Lexical entries should include, at least, the following information:

→ Phonological information

→ Semantic information

→ Categorial information: what category a word belongs to.

→ Subcategorization information: information about the range of complements a lexical item

may have; the type and number of objects it may subcategorize for: NPs, PPs,...

→ Argument structure: information about the number of obligatory participants involved in

an event and their semantic type (semantic function): Agents (Do the action), Experiencers,
etc. theme (lo que es comido) “Someone eat pizza” (Alguien come algo)

OBJECT-DELETING VERBS – can omit their object; it doesn’t make them intransitive, implícito –
damos por echo que come comida; se puede omitir. Those verbs are still transitive.

• The last three, that is, categorial information, subcategorization information, and
argument structure, concern the lexico-syntactic components: information that has
influence/an impact on syntax. (Only look for things that make changes and are
important in the sentence.

LEXICO – SYNTACTIC COMPONENTS IN LEXICAL ENTRIES

• The most important thing in a sentence is a predicate (is not always a verb)

E.g.:

The boy put the magazine on the table.

Obligatory participants: 3 arguments (participants) – Someone put something in some place.

Complements: 2 (we forget about the subject) – Something in some place

Sleep – One argument (subject); 0 complements

• Two Types of Requirements:

- Semantic: s-selection = LEXICAL PREDICATE + ARGUMENT (requirement)
- Syntactic (or categorization): c-selection or subcategorization = V* (express
the actions) + SUBJECT AND/OR COMPLEMENT
1- S-selection: a lexical predicate imposes a particular semantic property on the argument(s) it
requires:

(2) Bill drank the juice/ !the shrimps (! – weird)

Predicate the shrimps – doesn’t make sense.

* →Is syntactically anomalous, ungrammatical ill-formed
! → Semantically anomalous ¡, semantically ill-formed.

Drink → imposes second argument to be a liquid:

COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS = BINARY FEATURES → [+LIQUID] this means that second argument
must be a liquid.

(3) Bill poured the juice/the shrimps

Predicate Not required second argument, not obligatory.

(4) The dog / !The table drank the juice

[+ someone] Predicate

Drink → Imposes someone “alive” to do the action.

(5) !The dog poured the juice

[+ human] Predicate

2- C-selection: a lexical predicate imposes the syntactic category of its complements:

(6) Bill drank *red/*in/*that he may go home

(7) Bill drank !the shrimps (grammatically correct – shrimps are noun) (Semantically bad)

(8) Colorless green ideas sleep furiously (Syntactically and grammatically perfect but
semantically make no sense)

The well-formedness of a sentence depends on whether it obeys the selectional requirements

of the lexical predicate, both syntactic (C-selection) and semantic (S-selection).
2.2. S-SELECTION_______________________________________________________________

➔ achieved by means of the predicate’s selection restrictions: the semantic/pragmatic

requirements that a predicate (mostly a verb) imposes on its arguments.

2.1 Selection restrictions [examples and definition from Radford, 1988: 370]

(9) a. You have convinced [my mother] [___ NP] (C. category)

b. You have convinced [my cat]

c. !You have convinced [my goldfish]

d. ! You have convinced [my computer]

e. !! You have convinced [my frying pan]

f. !!!You have convinced [my theory]

g. !!! You have convinced [my birth]

Selection restrictions: semantic/pragmatic restrictions on the choice of expressions within a

given category which can occupy a sentence position.

(10) a. My mother fainted (desmayarse)

b. My giraffe fainted

c. !My frying-pan fainted

d. !My theory fainted

Predicates impose selection restrictions on all their argument.

BASIC CONCEPTS

LEXICAL PREDICATE

➔ Word denoting an event or state which must combine with specified participant roles
or arguments to make up the sentence.
➔ It is the lexical item in a sentence that decides which constitutes are semantically
obligatory (arguments) and the one that imposes the specific semantic nature of those
argument (s-selcetion) and their category (c-selection).
➔ Every sentence is formed by a lexical predicate. Predicates ascribe a property or a role
in a relation, action, event, etc. to what is represented by their argument or arguments.
ARGUMENT

➔ The constituent thatplays a fundamental semantic role as participant involved in a event

or state denoted by the predicate as necessary for the complete understanding of its
sense.
➔ And also required for the grammatical well-formedness of the linguistic unit in which
the predicate appears. It bears a Thetarole, one that is indispensable.
➔ According to Huddleston (1984:182), arguments represent people, anmals or inaminate
entities of all sorts.

_____________________________________________________________________________

E.g. (11)

a. Chris gave the present to Pat at the party yesterday

agent theme goal adjunct*

Agent: Do the action

Theme: objeto afectado

Goal: Dictatory

*Adjunct: No obligatory requirement, I can be omitted

*You can omit an argument in syntax when you omit the “goal” that information in their present.
The adjunct es semantically and syntactically optional. That information is not implicit.

b. Chris gave the present to Pat at the party

c. Chris gave the present to Pat

d. Chris gave the present

e. *Chris gave to Pat

2.3. PREDICATE ________________________________________________________________

1. Linking verb: contentless copula be:

a. The meat is raw. a’. *The meat is a’’. *The meat raw

It is something like “atributo” in Spanish: The meat is raw – La carne está podrida. Sentences
need to tense agreement (porozumienie czasowe) express and have lexical predicate.

2. Semi-linking verbs: contentful copulas (i.e., turn, go, get, etc.)

b. He became irritable. b'. *He became b’’. *He irritable

This is aspectual content not semantic. The predicate is an adjective not a verb because we need
a inflection (that attached to verbs).

3. Semantically - defective verbs (A. Ardid):

a. The soup tasted delicious a'. *The soup tasted a’. *The soup delicious

b. feel, sound, smell

Is needed another complement to express and explain the verb. “The soup taste* → taste what?
Need to be complemented. The predicate is both, predicate and the complement. ADVERBS
never can be a lexical predicate.

*go – in the meaning of “became” e.g.: “He went crazy”.

4. Secondary predicates (two ideas in same sentence)

a. Peter ate his steak (alone)

Paraphrase: Peter was alone while he was eating his steak

There are 2 propositions; there must be 2 lexical predicates with their arguments.

b. Peter ate his steak (raw) → The stake was raw when Peter ate it.

The verb eat determines that the constituent in subject position must bear the Theta-role Agent:
Peter performs the action of eating. However, alone, the adjectival subject oriented predicate,
characterizes Peter, too; so, with respect to the secondary predicate, Peter does not represent
an Agent, but an entity described: ‘subject matter of description’ or “theme”.

In the case of raw in (14.2), we have again a predicate that is semantically optional (therefore
syntactically optional too and between parentheses). But in this case, it is object oriented: its
predicand is the object of the verb: his steak.

Secondary predicate is subject or indeed. It also can de object oriented. Depends of how many
ideas are expressed.

→ DEPICTIVE secondary predicate gives a property of the predicand argument at the time of the
situation under consideration, without any factor of change:

15) a. He died young. (He died when he was young)

b. They departed contented.

→ RESULTATIVE secondary predicate typically occurs with verbs that denote a change of state.
The secondary predicate denotes the state of the predicand argument at the end of the process

c. The pond froze solid. (El lago se congeló) The pond became solid because of freezing.

d. He painted the fence blue.

Theta-roles make explicit the semantic relation that holds between the lexicalpredicate and a
given argument. We say that a predicate assigns θ-roles to its arguments, that is, predicates
have a thematic structure.

The θ-theory, however, is very sketchy; there is no agreement about how many θ-roles there
are and what their labels are.

Theme: constituent that represents the subject matter1 of the action/state described by the
predicate [elaborated by A. Ardid]. (TEMA; OBJETO DIRECTO)

➔ Affected theme (Patient): an entity which undergoes the effect of some action
(a change is involved).
➔ Unaffected theme:

• an entity described by the predicate.

• an entity that simply represents the subject matter of

what is denoted by the predicate.

Cause: causing factor [non-volitional]. Direct or immediate causation of an action or event.

(CAUSA)

1. The avalanche destroyed several houses.

2. John broke the window (unintentionally)

Agent: causing factor [volitional]. The prototypical agent is animate and acts consciously.
(AGENTE)

1. The IRA killed three spectators.

2. John broke the window (on purpose).

3. Peter gave Mary a puppy.

Goal: the participant that represents the destination towards which something (a theme) moves
(literally or figuratively). (DESTINATARIO)

1. He passed the book to Mary → Introduces by the preposition to

2. John went home at 6:00 p.m.

3. John received a prize.

Benefactive: the participant benefiting from some action. (BENEFICIARIO)

1. Susan made her son a picture.

2. John sang a song for Helen.

Source: the participant that represents the origin from which something (a theme) moves
(Literally or figuratively). (ORIGEN/LOCATIVO)

1. John returned from Paris.

2. Bill bought a book from a funny old man.

3. John left the room.

Locative: place in which something (a theme) is situated or takes place. (LOCATIVO)

1. John hid the letter under the bed.

2. The book stands on the shelf.

3. This hotel holds 500 people.

Experiencer: the participant that experiences some psychological state or perceptual or

intellectual process. (EXPERIMENTANTE)

1. The destruction of forests worries him. (Sujeto omitido: He)

2. That doctor thinks/knows he is very intelligent.

3. Thunderstorms frighten Bill.

4. John saw the scene.

Instrument: participant that represents how an agent performs an action. (INSTRUMENTO)

1. They broke the window with a hammer.

2. A hammer broke the window.

Time: participant that represents a time reference related to the action/state described by the
predicate. (TIEMPO)

1. The conference lasted three hours.

2. We spent three weeks in Paris.

3. We haven't seen each other since October.

Manner: constituent that represents the way the action described by the predicate comes
about. (MODO)

1. He dusted the furniture in a good mood.

2. His father dressed the baby with a lot of care.

Reason: constituent that represents the reason for which the event/state described by the
predicate comes about. (CAUSA)

1. He was suffering due to his sensitiveness.

2. He didn't get the job because of his shyness.

The Theta Criterion (CRITERIO TEMATICO)

a) Each argument is assigned one and only one theta role

b) Each theta role is assigned to one and only one argument.

28)

a. Sarah bought a new book for Anna

buy → lexical predicate (3 arguments); Sara → argument (Agent); a new book → argument

(Theme); for Anna → argument (Benefactive)

b. *Sarah bought

buy lexical predicate (3 arguments); Sara argument (Agent); ∅ ? (Theme); ∅ ?

(Benefactive)

c. *Sarah bought a new book an old DVD for Anna

buy lexical predicate (3 arguments); Sara argument (Agent); a new book (Theme);

an old DVD ∅ ?; for Anna (Benefactive

AMBIGUITY

I met Mary drunk.

2 predicates – One is the main and other is the secondary, impose arguments.

1- I met Mary when I was drunk.

2- Mary was drunk when I met her.

I met Mary drunk

Agent Main predicate Theme Secondary Predicate

Explication:

This sentence is ambiguity because secondary Predicate “drunk” can be subject or object
oriented. It can take Mary (object) as reference Mary was drunk when I met her.

In the second interpretation drunk take the reference of subject “I” meaning I met Mary when I
was drunk.

The Key is the selective restriction, “drunk” imposes that the argument has to me human
[+human] or [+animate]

Exercises Arguments vs. Adjuncts.

1a. Identify the arguments and adjuncts in the following sentences. You may first want to
identify the lexical predicate of each sentence.

(1) Chris died yesterday

(2)

a. Sandy ate the sandwich in the kitchen

b. Sandy devoured the sandwich in the kitchen.

c. The sandwich was eaten by Sandy in the kitchen.

(3) Leslie placed the book on the table this morning

1b. Identify arguments and adjuncts in the following sentences. Sometimes you may not find
the distinction easy to draw. Discuss problematic examples. You should first start by
identifying the lexical predicate(s) of each sentence.

(1)

a. John has abandoned his family.

b. John and Mary have abandoned their family.

(2)

a. Mary suddenly left the house.

b. After dinner, Mary left.

(3)

a. Soon after her departure, Mary found a job.

b. Mary found the job very interesting.

c. Mary found her son another job.

(4) a. John called a taxi.

b. They called him a taxi.

c. John called him a thief.