ebook img

Valency Grammar PDF

14 Pages·2005·0.25 MB·English
by  
Save to my drive
Quick download
Download
Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.

Preview Valency Grammar

ValencyGrammar 301 Keefe R & Smith P (eds.) (1997). Vagueness: a reader. the King’s College London Department of Philosophy. Cambridge,MA:MITPress. 251–264. MachinaKF(1976).‘Truth,belief,andvagueness.’Journal Tye M (1994). ‘Sorites paradoxes and the semantics of Philosophical Logic 5, 47–78.In KeefeR & SmithP ofvagueness.’Orig.inTomberlinJ E(ed.).Philosophical (eds.).174–203. perspectives, 8: logic and language. Atascadero, CA: RussellB(1923).‘Vagueness.’AustralasianJournalofPhi- Ridgeview.InKeefeR&SmithP(eds.)(withomissions), losophyandPsychology1,84–92.InKeefeR&SmithP 281–293. (eds.).61–68. UngerP(1979).‘Therearenoordinarythings.’Synthese41, Sainsbury R M (1990). ‘Concepts without boundaries.’ In 117–154. KeefeR&SmithP(eds.).Inaugurallecturepublishedby WilliamsonT(1994).Vagueness.London:Routledge. Valency Grammar DJ Allerton,University of Basel, Basel,Switzerland their requirements for accompanying noun phrases and/or prepositional phrases (with functions such as (cid:1)2006ElsevierLtd.Allrightsreserved. subject, object, prepositional object, etc.) that they requireand/orpermit. TheEnglishverbsstumble,jolt,andthrusttypically The Basic Idea of Valency occurindistinctiveenvironments,asinsentenceslike Valency (also known as valence, especially in the Alfred stumbled, Alfred jolted the door, and Alfred United States) is the name given in various syntactic thrustthekeyintothelock.Puttingoneoftheseverbs theories(suchasvalencygrammar,dependencygram- into the distinctive syntactic context of one of the mar, word grammar, and some kinds of functional othersgivesanungrammaticalsequencelike*Alfred grammar)toaparticularkindofdependencyproper- stumbled the door or *Alfred jolted the key into the ty exhibited by many lexical items. This kind of lock. Such restrictions mean that verbs need to be lexicosyntacticpropertyinvolvestherelationshipbe- subclassified according to their syntactic potential, tween, on the one hand, the different subclasses of a a fact recognized by traditional grammar in the (in- word-class(suchasverb)and,ontheother,thediffer- adequate) division into transitive and intransitive ent structural environments required by those sub- verbs, and in modern linguistics by concepts like classes, these environments varying both in the ‘subcategorization properties,’ ‘syntactic frame,’ or number and in the types of element. Valency is thus ‘argument structure.’ The special contribution of tobeseenasthecapacityaverb(ornoun,etc.)hasfor valency grammarians to the study of this type of combiningwithparticularpatterns ofother sentence subselection has been a thorough investigation of constituents, in a similar way to that in which the just how much is determined by the individual verb valencyofachemicalelementisitscapacityforcom- (ornoun,etc.),andofhowdifferentpotentialsofthe bining with a fixed number of atoms of another ele- same verb (e.g., Alfred pushed/ – pushed the key/ – ment (for example, one in the case of monovalent pushedthekeyintothelock)arerelated. hydrogenorsodium,twointhecaseofbivalentoxy- gen or calcium, etc.). Such information is vital for Different Conceptionsof Valency languagelearnersbutwasneveradequatelypresented intraditionalgrammarsanddictionaries. The invention of the notion of ‘valency’ (French The concept of valency is most easily illustrated valence, German Valenz, Dutch valentie) is often with reference to verbs. Most languageshave a cate- credited to Lucien Tesnie`re, whose Esquisse d’une gory that roughly corresponds to or embraces the syntaxe structurale appeared in 1953, but whose English category of verbs. Examples from English main work, E´lements de syntaxe structurale was will be given here, although, where appropriate, only published posthumously in 1959. The notion examples from French, German and other languages had, however, been clearly expounded by A. W. de willbeconsidered. GrootinhisDutchwork,Structurelesvntaxis(1949), All English verbs share syntactic and inflectional andisevenhintedatbyKarlBu¨hlerinanoft-quoted features of a very basic kind (such as their range of remark from his Sprachtheorie (1934), to the effect tensed and untensed forms, and their modification that ‘‘...words of a particular word-class open up with time adverbials), but they differ radically in around them one or several ‘empty places’, which 302 ValencyGrammar have to be filled by words of certain other word- In a typical sentence, like that of (B) in Figure 1, classes’’(1934:173). Tesnie`re saw the main verb as the ‘central node’ It is nevertheless preeminently Tesnie`re’s notion of (noeud des noeuds). The verb achieves this central valencythathasbeenstudiedanddevelopedinconti- role through its high position in the hierarchy of nental Europe, especially Germany, since the 1960s. connexions but also through its ability to determine On the one hand, valency has been integrated with the number and variety of its dependents. But the ‘dependency theory’ by such scholars as J. Ballweg, question of how many dependents a verb has is no U. Engel, B. Engelen, H-J. Heringer, J. Kunze, simple matter. In fact, Tesnie`re distinguished two H. Schumacher, and H. Vater; on the other, it has types of dependent for verbs, to which he gives the been applied to the detailed description of, most labels ‘actants’ and ‘circonstants.’ From a semantic notably,GermanbyG.HelbigandtheLeipzigschool, pointofview,the‘actants’representtheparticipants, but also of English (D. J. Allerton, R. Emons, and whilethe‘circonstants’representthesettingandinci- T. Herbst), and French (W. Busse and J.-P. Duhost). dentaldetailsoftheprocessorstateexpressedbythe (For a historical survey up to the mid-1970s, see verb, the wholesentenceportraying aminidrama. In Korhonen, 1977.) The following review of the prob- the example of (B) in Figure 1, where offered repre- lems of valency theory will take Tesnie`re’s proposals sentstheprocess,Alfred,(that)Bible,andtoCharles asastartingpoint. would be ‘actants,’ while repeatedly, in Strasbourg, andonTuesdaywouldbe‘circonstants.’ Tesnie`re’s Approach An Essential Distinction: ‘Actants’ versus Valency can be incorporated into a functional type ‘Circonstants’ of constituency grammar (involving relationships betweenthesubcategorizationofneighboringconsti- Everything so far noted about Tesnie`re’s views has tuents), but for Tesnie`re, it was one aspect of depen- been a matter of general dependency theory, but the dency grammar. His semantically based syntax was distinctionbetween‘actants’and‘circonstants’isdis- concerned with establishing the hierarchy of word tinctively the preserve of valency theory. ‘Actants’ ‘connexions’ within a sentence, which make up the belongtothevalencyofindividualverbtypes,where- what he termed the ‘structural order’ of words (as as‘circonstants’areinprinciplepotentialdependents opposed to their linear order). The structural order inanysentence,regardlessoftheverb.Thusthecon- ofeachsentenceisgivenintermsofa‘stemma,’atwo- stellationof‘actants’representedin(B)inFigure1is dimensional display, in which the top-to-bottom characteristic of one subclass of English verbs that dimensionrepresentsaseriesofrelationshipsbetween includes not only offer but also give, lend, refuse, ‘governors’ (or‘heads,’French re´gissants)above and sell,send,andacoupleofdozenothers. ‘dependents’ (French subordonne´s) below. Typically In(B),Alfred,thatBible,andtoCharleswouldbe in a ‘governor-dependent relationship,’ the governor termed by Tesnie`re first, second, and third ‘actant’ mayoccurwithoutthedependentbutnotviceversa, respectively, and these terms correspond to what in and the governor provides the central semantic Englishgrammararenormallycalledsubject,(direct) element, whereas the dependent only represents a object,andindirectobjectrespectively.Thesearethe modificationofthiselement. onlyelementsthatTesnie`rerecognizedas‘actants’in Aconsiderationofthepartialstructuralstemmaof active sentences. This choice is unfortunate, because (A) in Figure 1 enables us to appreciate a number many prepositional phrases are equally essential to of points about Tesnie`re’s approach: a first point is theverb,suchastheprepositionalobjectonBarbara thatthegovernor-dependentrelationshipcanoperate inAlicereliedonBarbara,andevenpurelyadverbial atdifferentlevels(witholdactingasdependentofthe phrasesarerequiredbycertainverbs,suchaslive(at grammarian,butasgovernorofvery);asecondpoint home, etc.), last (for two hours, etc.), or thrust, is that one governor (like the grammarian) can have which, as noted earlier, needs both an object and a more than one dependent (old and French in this specificationofplace. case), but not vice versa; finally, a ‘semantically Thesubclassofverbsthatincludesoffer,give,etc.is empty’ word like the can combine with a ‘full’ word described as ‘trivalent,’ because its members require like grammarian to form a single ‘nucleus’ (marked three‘actants’;thesamecouldbesaidofthesubclass witha‘circle’), thatis,asinglepointonthestemma. of thrust, put, etc., although Tesnie`re did not recog- Each governor is said to act as a ‘node’ (French nize this. Ordinary transitive verbs like jolt or like, noeud) for all of its direct and indirect dependents, kill,etc., whichmerelyrequireasubjectandadirect sothatthegrammarianactsasanodeforthewholeof object, are termed ‘bivalent’ (or ‘divalent’); and thestemmaof(A)inFigure1. the same applies to copular verbs like be, seem, or ValencyGrammar 303 Figure1 Stemmasandkindsofdependent. becomethattakeanadjectivalornominalpredicative grammar (cf. Baker, 1989: 266–267) and systemic (complement) such as beautiful or a beauty. Finally, grammar (cf. Halliday on ‘participant roles and cir- ordinaryintransitiveverbslikestumbleordeteriorate, cumstantialroles’),varioustechnicaltermshavebeen sneeze, etc. are describedas‘monovalent’. (For ‘zero- used to refer to the distinction between these two valent’(or,touseTesnie`re’sterm,‘avalent’)verbs,see kinds of dependent of a governor (or head). These thesection‘LevelsofAnalysis’). are listed in (C) in Figure 1. For clarity’s sake, the Bycontrastwith‘actants,’theadverbialsof(b)are terms‘verbelaborator’and‘freemodifier’willhence- notrelevanttovalencyclassification.Thusrepeated- forth be used for the post-Tesnie`rian equivalents of ly, an adverbial of frequency, in Strasbourg, a posi- ‘actant’ and ‘circonstant.’ (The term ‘complement’ tionaladverbialofplace,andonTuesday,apunctual has frequently been used in the sense of elaborator, adverbialoftime,couldalljustaswellhaveoccurred butithasthedisadvantagethatfortraditionalgram- with the different verb subclasses represented by mariansandmanymodernones,ithasaquitediffer- stumble, jolt, and thrust, in fact, with any verb at ent meaning and may exclude the subject, which the all. Tesnie`re (1966: 125) mistakenly insisted that terms elaborator and ‘actant’ never do. The more suchadverbialsareunlimitedinnumber(bycontrast modernterm‘argument’isunfortunateforadifferent with the fixed number of ‘actants’), but the essential reason:totheuninitiated,itsuggestsawholesentence point is their universality, their freedom to occur in or clause rather than the sentence constituent that anysentence. itis.) Through the history of valency theory and Whatever the terminology, there is a consensus grammatical theories such as transformational about the need for a distinction between elaborators 304 ValencyGrammar and free modifiers, but there are certain problems watched from what is evident in the context, in (7) associated with it. Clearly Tesnie`re oversimplified the objectless sentence leaves the thing read totally matters by insisting that, in principle, elaborators open as a matter of no immediate interest (cf. (i.e., ‘actants’) were essentially nominal in form Allerton, 1982: 68–70). Thus while the optional and semantically necessary to the verb, while free object is clearly part of the valency of watch in all modifiers(i.e.,‘circonstants’)wereadverbialinform its uses, the verb read appears to have two different (comprising adverbs and prepositional phrases) and valencies,onlyoneoftheminvolvinganobject.In(8), semantically not required by the verb. German finally, no object is possible with the unequivocally valency theorists, such as Helbig, Heringer, and intransitive verb idle; an object can therefore be no Herbst, have proposed tests for distinguishing the part of its valency. This truism suggests a useful two kinds of dependent. Helbig, for instance, sug- general test: if an element, such as an object noun gestedthatinsentenceslikethefollowing: phrase,canonlybeaddedtocertainverbsandnotto others,thenitparticipatesinverbvalency,incontrast (1) Aliceatethesandwichinthetrain. to,say,atimeadverbiallikeyesterdayortoday,which (2) Aliceputthesandwichinthefridge. canbefreely addedtoanysentence(givenanappro- priate tense form). The test of insertion, rather than the status of the adverbial phrases differs partly be- that of omission, is therefore most useful for distin- cause in the train is omissible while in the fridge is guishingelaboratorsfromfreemodifiers. not,butalsobecausethefirstphrase,thoughnotthe second, has regularly corresponding sentences of theform: The Diversity of Elaborators (3) Alicewasinthetrainwhensheatethesandwich. Further tests are required for deciding what kinds of (cid:1)ðtoÞ eat(cid:2) elaborator need to be distinguished. A substitution (4) WhatAlicedidinthetrainwas the she ate test, for instance, is useful in assessing combinations sandwich. ofverbandprepositionalphrase.Alltheprepositional These correspondences to related sentences seem to phrases in the following sentences are omissible indicate that in the train in (1) is a free modifier or elaborators, and yet they do not all have the same ‘adjunct,’ whereas in the fridge in (2), though an status: adverbial, is a verb elaborator, just like the earlier (9) Alicelistenedtothebigwaves. examples of obligatory adverbials with the verbs live,last,andthrust. (10) Aliceconcentratedonthebigwaves. Allobligatoryelementsarethereforeverbelabora- (11) Aliceswamtothebigwaves. tors,butthisdoesnotmeanthatalloptionalelements (12) Alicefloatedonthebigwaves. are free modifiers. Even Tesnie`re only suggested that elaborators (‘actants’) are ‘‘often indispensable to A consideration of the first two sentences, (9) and complete the sense of the verb’’ (1966: 128). Helbig (10), shows not only that the preposition is selected therefore proposed a three-way division into obliga- by the verb, but even that no other preposition is tory elaborators, optional elaborators, and free possiblewithoutachangeinthenatureofthecombi- modifiers (obligatorische Erga¨nzungen, fakultative nation; the prepositional phrase is therefore some Erga¨nzungen, freie Angaben). The following exam- kind of prepositional object (a category not allowed plessuggesttheneedforanevenmoresubtleanalysis: for by Tesnie`re but standard in German valency grammar). The prepositional phrases in (11) and (5) Alfredwaspraisingtheplay. (12), however, are not prepositional objects, as vari- (6) Alfredwaswatching[theplay]. oustestsshow:theprepositioncanbereplacedwitha (7) Alfredwasreading(theplay). rangeofotherprepositionstogiveaseriesofregular semantic contrasts (to ! into, towards, under, etc.; (8) Alfredwasidling. on!over,near,behind,etc.);unlikethepreposition- Thefirstthreehavetheplayastheobjectoftheverb al phrases of (9) and (10), those of (11) and (12) andthereforeasapotentialpartofitsvalency,butitis demonstrate their place-adverbial nature through onlyinthefirstsentencethattheobjectisobligatory. their capacity for being preceded by particles like In both the second and the third sentences, the play right or back; finally, whereas the phrases of (9) and may be omitted, but under different conditions: (10) show their partly nominal nature through whereas in (6) the objectless version of the sentence theirelicitationwithaWhatþprepositionquestion, always requires the listener to identify the thing those of (11) and (12) are typically elicited with the ValencyGrammar 305 Where(...to)questiontypicalofplaceadverbialsof the moving of an active object to subject position in locationanddestinationrespectively. the corresponding passive clause (e.g., changing (15) Theseandsimilar criteriahavebeenreferredtoby abovetoAnathletewasinsultedbyAlfred),canplay valencygrammariansasestablishingthevariouspos- apartinevaluatingsuchfunctions.Itisworthnoting, sible elaborators of verbs. It has become clear that however, that not all the noun phrases traditionally these elaborators include not only noun phrases but classedasobjectspassthistest,andifthisistakento also prepositional phrases and adverbs. They also be the hallmark of objecthood, some will need to be include adjective phrases, as in the first two ((13a) thought of as pseudo-objects or ‘objoids.’ In a lan- and(13b))ofthefollowingsentences: guage like German, on the other hand, it might be sufficient to define elaborators with such labels as (13a) Alfredseemedratherstupid. accusativeobject,dativeobject,prepositionalobject, (13b) Alfredremainedfit. etc. and regard the predicative as a nominative kind (14a) Alfredseemedafool. of object, since passivization is not limited to sen- (14b) Alfredremainedanathlete. tenceswithanyonekindofobject(though,admitted- (15) Alfredinsultedanathlete. ly,onlythe accusativeobjectcan becomethe passive subject). Thefirsttwopairsofthesesentences,i.e.,(13a)/(13b) One final type of elaborator needs to considered. and (14a)/(14b), illustrate the pattern of a verb with As a variation of (11), we might cite (17), which what is in traditional grammar called a complement differs only in having its adverbial (elaborator) in but in most modern works is referred to as a ‘predi- theshapeofasinglewordadverbinsteadofaprepo- cative’ (following Jespersen). Most typically, this sitionalphrase.Itneedstobecontrastedwith(18),in pattern contains an adjective phrase, as in (13), but which the single word adverb has a rather different whereitisanounphrase,asin(14),thenounphrase function: may generally be replaced with an adjective phrase (hencethealternativelabel‘predicatenominal/adjec- (17) Aliceswamout. tival’). One way in which predicatives differ from (18) Aliceturnedout. objects is in their nonacceptance of ‘clefting,’ with the result that, comparing (14) with (15), we find Whereasthenormaladverbial elaborator outin(17) that *It was an athlete that he remained is not a participates in normal semantic contrasts like swam possible sentence, while It was an athlete that he out versus swam in versus swam across, and can be insultedisperfectlynatural. compared with the fuller form swam out of the Noun phrases and adjective phrases are the two lagoon, the out of (18) has a quite different status. universally described kinds of predicative, but there Thecontrastbetweenturnout(‘appearonduty’)and isathirdkind,intheformofaprepositionalphrase, turnin(‘gotobed’)isnotthenormalonebetweenin asin(16): andout,andthecombinationturnacrossisvirtually nonoccurrent.Combinationsliketurnout(orturnin) (16a) Alfredseemedinafunnymood. are not normal sequences of verb and adverbial (16b) Alfredremainedingoodhealth. elaborator but tight collocations of the type usually referred to as ‘phrasal verbs,’ and in these colloca- The prepositional phrases in a funny mood and in tions, the adverb has a strong limiting effect on the goodhealthinthesesentenceshaveasimilarfunction meaningoftheverb,sothatturn,forinstance,hasto totheadjectivalphrasesratherstupidandfitin(13a)/ be understood in a special new sense. Such adverbs (13b); it seems only reasonable then to recognize (anditisonlyaquestionofsingle-wordadverbs)can themasprepositionalpredicatives,alongsidenominal bedescribedaslimiteradverbs. and adjectival ones. In such prepositional phrases, One view of the total range of English verb ela- the preposition has a weak semantic contribution to borators other than the subject is given for bivalent makeandisselected bythenoun (cf.underamisap- verbs in Figure 2. After each elaborator, a suggested prehension,ontopform). abbreviatorysymbolisgiveninparenthesis. Returningtonounphrasepredicatives,weseethat theycanbeformallyidenticaltonounphraseobjects. The Special Status of Subjects Clearly predicatives and objects are noun phrases with rather different functions, and it can be argued The range of English verb elaborators displayed in that function is a vital ingredient in the specification Figure2expresslyexcludesthesubject.But,asnoted ofelaborators,particularlyinanoncaselanguagelike above, valencygrammarians differ fromother gram- English. In addition to the ‘clefting’ test just men- marians in seeing the subject not as standing apart tioned, ‘passivization’ of a sentence, in particular, from the predicate or verb phrase but rather as 306 ValencyGrammar Figure2 NonclauseelaboratorsofEnglishbivalentverbs,excludingthesubject(S). standing alongside the object as an elaborator. As Russian).Asfortheverb’sowninflections,thesecom- Tesnie`reputit(1966:109),‘‘...dupointdevuestruc- monlyagreewiththenumber,person,etc.ofthesub- tural...lesujetestuncomple´mentcommelesautres’’; ject but not the object, whereas the reverse never butthisstatementissomethingofanoversimplification. obtains. Languages with an ergative/absolutive case Thesubjecthasaspecialplaceasregardsinflection- system,likeBasque,areslightlydifferentinthesetwo al morphology. In languages that have grammatical respects. case,thereisfrequentlyacasesuchasthenominative In terms of syntactic form, subjects have greater that is selected for active subjects regardless of the positional prominence in the sense that, in the lexical verb used, whereas verbs may govern objects absence of a specially marked theme, the subject in at least two different cases (as in German or occurs typically as the first noun phrase in the ValencyGrammar 307 sentence – a feature shared by SOV, SVO, and VSO matter of the semantic valency requirements of languages,thatis,wellover90percentoftheworld’s individual verbs, asexemplified bythe similar corre- languages. As regards syntactic dependence for oc- spondencesobservableinthefollowingsentences: currence, the subject normally has a higher priority (21) AlicelikedBarbara. than the object, in the sense that with all verbs, or (depending on the language) the vast majority of (22) BarbarawaslikedbyAlice. them, a subject is obligatory, while an object is only (23) AlicepleasedBarbara. required by a proportion of verbs (i.e., by transitive (24) BarbarawaspleasedbyAlice. ones). It is of course true that many languages – so-calledpro-droplanguageslikeSpanish,Italian,or Thus,while inthe first two sentences, (21) and (22), Japanese–allowthesubjecttobeomittedwhenitis with liked, the active object and the passive subject, identifiable from the linguistic or situational context Barbara, agree in being the causer or stimulus of the (e.g., Spanish vino ‘he/she/it came’). But these lan- emotion described by the verb, in the last two sen- guages further allow the objects of many verbs to be tences, (23) and (24), with pleased, it is the active omitted with no requirement of contextual subjectandpassive‘counter-subject’(termed‘perject’ recoverability(justlikeEnglishread,discussedabove, in Allerton, 1982), (by) Alice, that have this kind of cf. Spanish leyo´ ‘he/she/it read (something)’); and of role. There is a similar exchange of syntactic func- course purely intransitive verbs (like Spanish venir tions between the liked sentences and the pleased ‘come’)rejectobjectsaltogether. sentences for the other semantic role of ‘mental Finally,thesubject(butnottheobject)hasatextual experiencer.’ So while precise semantic roles are role in being the typical sentential theme, one often determined by the meaning of individual verbs carried forward from previous sentences, and is (cf.alsodefeatandlose(to)),thereis,givensentences often phonologically marked as such (in English, for containing any particular verb, a crucial correspon- instance, often through a separate intonation unit). dence between the syntactic functions of the active On the whole, then, subjects stand apart from other andthepassiveformatofrelatedsentences,andthere- verb elaborators and need to be accorded a special fore a need to recognize a level of analysis indepen- status vis-a`-vis the verb; but they are elaborators dentofandintermediatebetweensuperficialsubjects nonetheless. andobjectsontheonehandandpurelysemanticroles ontheother.Thisrecognitionisofthevalencylevelof Levels of Analysis deeporunderlyingsubjectsandobjects. A further reason for recognizing this underlying The above discussion of subjects and objects partly valencylevelofdescriptionisthebehaviorofcertain presupposesacleardefinitionofthesecategories.But meteorological verbs, as exemplified by English It thisissueisacomplexone,inwhichmuchhingeson was raining, French Il pleuvait, and Spanish Llovı´a. the relationship between transitive active sentences In Spanish (and other pro-drop languages), it is im- andpassivesentencesaswellassentenceswithother possible to have a subject with such verbs in their formats.Considerapairofsentenceslike: normal use, and the verb llover can be said to be zero-valent (or ‘avalent,’ to use Tesnie`re’s term). In (19) AliceattackedBarbara. English and French, the words it and il respectively (20) BarbarawasattackedbyAlice. fulfill the requirements discussed above to qualify as Accordingtomostcriteria(position,agreement,obli- superficial subjects; but such a subject has no clear gatoriness, for instance), Alice is the subject of (19), semanticroleandisnotreplaceable(bysuchaphrase whereas Barbara is the subject of (20) despite astheweather),anditseemsthatitmaysimplybepart the virtual synonymy of the two sentences. Tesnie`re of the required surface structure for English and acceptedsuchananalysisbutnotedthatthesubjectof French sentences without corresponding to a true the passive, Barbara, has the same semantic role valencysubject.ForthecorrespondingGermanform (‘patient’ or ‘sufferer’ of the verbal action) as the Esregnet,thesituationappearstobeslightlydifferent, object of the active sentence; whereas the subject of because sentences without a (nominative) subject do theactivesentence,Alice,hasthesamesemanticrole occur,e.g.,Michfriert‘Meisfreezing¼Iamfreezing,’ (‘agent’) as the passive agentive phrase, by Alice, Mir ist kalt ‘To-me is cold¼I am cold,’ Mir wurde which he termed ‘counter-subject’ (French contre- geholfen ‘To-me was helped¼I was helped’). (N.B. sujet). What Tesnie`re failed to note is that these Theinitialpronouninthesesentencesisthethemebut semanticrolesarenotvalidforallactiveandpassive not the subject.) It could therefore be argued that, subjects, objects, and counter-subjects; rather, it is a since this empty German es is not required by any 308 ValencyGrammar Figure3 CorrelationofEnglishvalencyandsurfacefunctions. generalruleofsentencestructurebutisdemandedby with the subject again having the role of agent. such meteorological verbs, it is a required (though But in both cases, the reflexive pronoun fulfills the empty)elaborator. valency function of object, a (prepositionless) noun A summary of the relationships between valency phraseimmediatelyfollowingthelexicalverb,sothat functionsandsurfaceforminEnglishmeteorological bothverbscanberegardedasbivalent. sentences, ordinary intransitive, and transitive This view of the valency of reflexive verbs differs sentences.bothactiveandpassive,isgiveninFigure3. from that of Tesnie`re, who saw reflexive verbs Trivalentverbsoftheindirectobjecttypediscussed as manifestations of a different kind of verbal voice, (like offer and give), also appear in two virtually the so-called recessive (French re´cessif), which re- synonymousformatsinEnglish,asexemplifiedby: duced the valency of a verb by one, so that bivalent verbs like lever ‘raise,’ or ouvrir ‘open (transitive)’ (25) AlfredhandedthatBibletoCharles. become monovalent when reflexive (se lever ‘rise, stand up,’ s’ouvrir ‘open (intransitive)’). Although (26) AlfredhandedCharlesthatBible. this view is an interesting one, it is something of an Thesetwoformatscanberegardedasvariantrealiza- oversimplification. tions of the same valency pattern, with the indirect In fact, reflexive verbs in French (and many other object appearing either after the object and with a languages, including German), seem to have at least preposition (as in (25)) or before it and without fourpossibledifferentkindsofstatus.Afirstgroupof apreposition(asin(26)).Eachversiongivesrisetoa verbs,likeselaver‘washoneself’orsecritiquer‘criti- differentpassivesentence(ThatBiblewashanded.../ cize oneself’ are ordinary transitive verbs that can Charleswashanded...). have a reflexive object as an alternative to a normal one, but the reflexive one has no special significance for verb valency. A second group of verbs, like Different Links betweenElaborators and s’absenter‘absentoneself’orsesouvenir(de)‘remem- Semantic Roles ber,’ do not have a nonreflexive use, and thus the reflexive pronoun is an empty elaborator, even Ratherdifferentinitsvalencyimplicationsisthekind though an essential one, rather similar to the es of of obligatorily reflexive verb exemplified by absent German Es regnet (discussed in the section Levels oneselfin(27),comparedwiththeincidentallyreflex- of Analysis). Thirdly, there are verbs like douter/ iveverbof(28): se douter ‘doubt/imagine, suspect’ or re´soudre/se (27) Aliceabsentedherselffromthemeeting. re´soudre (a`) ‘solve/decide,’ which have both a non- reflexive and a reflexive use, but where the semantic (28) Alicecriticizedherselfatthemeeting. differenceistoogreatforthemtobesimply counted Sinceanonreflexiveobjectisimpossiblewiththeverb asthesameverb;infact,reflexivizationisusedalmost absent,theherselfof(27)isanemptyelaboratorthat likeadeviceofword-formationforproducinganew cannot be said to express an independent semantic lexical item, one that has to count as a compulsorily rolebeyondthatofthesubject,whichinthiscasecan reflexiveverb.Finally,thereareverbslikeouvrirand be described as agent. In (28), on the other hand, vendre, for which the reflexive pattern is used to herself has the role of patient (or affected entity), convey the idea that the subject is semantically the ValencyGrammar 309 patient (and hence also object), and that there is no (34) Theglassbroke. explicitagent,whichiswhythepatienthastofillthe (35) Johnbroketheglass. subjectpositiontoo,asinLaportes’ouvre‘Thedoor opens (itself).’ This reflexive use truly is a way of Withsuchverbs,thesubjectoftheintransitivepattern coping with a reduced number of semantic roles and andtheobjectofthetransitivepatternhavethesame givesriseto‘polyvalency,’thatis,averbdisplayingan semanticroleof‘patientaffected,’whilethetransitive equivalentmeaningintwoquitedifferentgrammatical subjecthastheroleof‘agent.’ uses. An alternative way of dealing with different con- Tesnie`re also recognized syntactic devices for stellations of elaborators with semantic roles is by increasingthevalencyofverbs,suchasFrenchcausa- marking the particular valency pattern by means of tive constructions with faire. English causative con- derivational morphology, i.e., having a related verb structions with have, make, cause, etc. preserve derived with an affix to create a verb of different subject and object functions in the embedded infini- valency: the German prefix be-, for instance, often tive clause of sentences like those of (29) and (30) hastheeffectofconvertinganintransitiveverbintoa below,so that Alfred remains the subject and Balzac transitive one, as in the pairs arbeiten/bearbeiten the object of the verb (to) read, just as they would ‘work/work on, process’ and enden/beenden ‘(come have been in a full sentence with the same content toan)end/(bringtoan)end,complete’.Swahilihasa (AlfredreadsBalzac,forinstance): rangeofsuffixesthatworkinasimilarway: (29) JohnhadAlfredreadBalzac. -w(a) dynamic e.g.,-vunjwa (30) JohncausedAlfredtoreadBalzac. passive ‘be(come) broken’ In French, on the other hand, faire seems to com- -ı´k(a)/-ek(a) stative e.g.,-vunjika‘be/ binewithinfinitivestoformcomplexverbslikefaire passive remainbroken’ mourir‘have...die,’faireapprendre‘have...learn,’ -an(a) reciprocal e.g.,-pendana andfairedonner‘have...give’togivesentenceslike ‘seeeachother’ thefollowing(adaptedfromTesnie`re),inwhichJean -i(a)/-e(a) applicative e.g.,-letea‘bring isintroducedasthecauserorinstigatorandassubject to(someone)’ ofthewholefaireþverbcomplex,displacingAlfred -sh(a)/-z(a)/-ny(a) causative e.g.,-angusha ‘make fromsubjectposition: fall¼drop’ (31) JeanfaitmourirAlfred. All of these Swahili suffixes give rise to sets of (cf.Alfredmeurt.) relatedverbswithdifferentconstellationsofelabora- (32) Jeanfaitapprendrelebulgarea` Alfred. tors with semantic roles, but these constellations (cf.Alfredapprendlebulgare.) are of different kinds. The applicative and the (33) JeanfaitdonnerlaBiblea` CharlesparAlfred. dynamic passive (like the English passive) reassign (cf.AlfreddonnelaBiblea` Charles.) elaborators:theobjectintheapplicativecorresponds to a normal preposition phrase; the subject in the As Tesnie`re pointed out (1966: 260–262), French dynamic passive corresponds to a normal object. requiresthatthedisplacedsubjectshouldoccupythe The stative passive involves reassignment of the nextavailableplacedownthehierarchy,startingwith object to subject position but loss of the original theobject(¼secondactant)asin(31),goingontothe subject. The reciprocal reduces bivalent subject- indirect/ prepositional object (¼tierce actant) as in object structure to a simple monovalent one. The (32), and going on as far as the agent phrase causative and the applicative increase the valency: (¼quatrie`meactant)asin(33). the causative includes a new ‘instigator’ subject, Other languages have different ways of dealing downgrading the normal subject to object, while the with the valency of causative relationships. One applicative introduces a new ‘indirect patient’ as possibility is to allow polyvalency in such a way object, downgrading the normal object to a kind of that the same verb may be used intransitively and secondaryobject. transitively in a causative sense without change of form, as with the many so-called ergative verbs of English, which typically refer to a change of state or Patterns Involving a Transcategorial position. Verbs such as break, cook, open, boil, Quasitransformational Relationship and sink have a monovalent use as in (34) below, beside a bivalent one with a causative meaning as in Apartfromtheregular,transformationalrelationships (35): thatwefindbetweenactiveandpassivestructuresor 310 ValencyGrammar in other cases of polyvalency, there are some more that semantically such correspondences obtain. But distantandlessregularcasesofvalencypatternrela- grammatically, even at the deeper valency level, de- tionships that need to considered. These are cases in rive is a verb and enjoyment is a noun. Such quasi- which not simply the elaborators of the verb are transformational relationships between ‘kindred’ reconfigured in some way, but ones in which the constructions are therefore semantic in nature but verb itself is involved in the restructuring. Unlike need to be recognized as involving a grammatical active-passive and similar regular transformational correspondencethatistranscategorial.Theexistence relationships, these partly irregular relationships of stretched verb constructions gives the speaker a are like word-formation patterns in their partial un- wide choice between different verbal construction predictability,sothatitwouldbereasonabletorefer types to express broadly the same meaning, as the tothem as ‘quasitransformational’ patterns of corre- furtherexamplesof(40)show. spondence. Eachoftheoptionsgivenin(40a)–(40f)represents Considerthefollowingexamples: a different grammatical structure, with a different relationship to the underlying sentence (40), which (36) Alfredgreatlyenjoyedthemusic. has the action expressed by a verb. Compared with (37) AlicereallylovedMozart. the simplex structure of (40), the eventuality type named by the verb has been ‘moved’ into a verb (38) Alfredderivedgreatenjoymentfromthemusic. elaborator position (predicative or prepositional (39) AlicereallywasinlovewithMozart. objoid or object) and there have been reallocations The sentences of (36) and (37) are simple bivalent oftheverbelaboratorsthemselves.Inthestructureof structureswithsubjectandobjectasverbelaborators, (40b), a ‘former’ object has been downgraded to whereas their quasi-synonymous kindred sentences, the position of a prepositional phrase qualifier (PQ) (38)and(39)respectively,involveadifferentpattern. of a verb elaborator, which in this case is a nominal In this more complex structure, a semantically predicative(ND): lightweight verb is used, pushing the verb’s meaning (40) Thechildhelpedtheteacher. into an elaborator position, object position in the SþVþO case of (38) and noun phrase within a prepositional (40a) Thechildwashelpfultotheteacher. predicative in (39). Although the valency of the sim- S/sþV/øþAD/vþPO¨/o plex verbs enjoy and love is identical (i.e., they are bothbivalent,witha‘mentalprocessor’subjectanda (40b) Thechildwasahelperoftheteacher. ‘mental focus’ object), the corresponding nouns S/sþV/øþND/v<PQ/o> (enjoyment and love) participate in quite different (wheretheNDisagent-oriented) patterns and are anything but interchangeable. In (40c) Thechildwasahelptotheteacher. Allerton (2002), sentences like those of (38) and S/sþV/øþND/vþPO¨/o (39)aresaidtoinvolve‘stretchedverbconstructions,’ (wheretheNDisprocess-oriented) and the relationship of their structure to that of (40d) Thechildwasofhelptotheteacher. theirkindredsimpler‘unstretched’structureisrepre- S/sþV/øþPD/vþPO¨/o sented by marking the functions of their elaborators (40e) Thechildcametothehelpoftheteacher. with the capital letters used already (S, O, etc.) and S/sþV/øþPO¨/vþPO¨/o byattachingtoeverydescriptivecategoryanoblique stroke(or‘slash’)followedbyalowercaseletterindi- (40f) Thechildgavehelptotheteacher. cating the corresponding element in the equivalent S/sþV/øþO/vþIO/o ‘unstretched’structure. Elements that have no corre- What all stretched verb constructions share is the late in the simple verb structure are labeled as .../ø. waytheprocessofhelpingissignaledbyanadjective Sentences (38) and (39) could be represented at a or noun rather than the verb. The verb in such con- valencylevelas(38x)and(39x)respectively: structions has been variously described as a light or thin verb, or as a support verb, because its semantic (38x) Alfredderivedgreatenjoymentfromthe contribution is so weak. In English stretched verb music. S/sþV/øþO/vþPO¨/o constructions with a copular verb, the standard verb isofcoursebe,butotherwise,theverbseemstohave (39x) AlicereallywasinlovewithMozart. been selected from a limited list of possibilities: in- S/sþV/øþPD/vþPO¨/o transitive patterns like (40e) have come, go, put, The collocation derive enjoyment from has a mean- meet, and provide or some such similar verb, while ing that is not essentially different from enjoy, so intransitiveoneslike(40f)themostcommonverbis

Description:
has the same semantic role. ('agent') as the passive agentive phrase, by Alice, . (32) Jean fait apprendre le bulgare a` Alfred. (cf. Alfred apprend le
See more

The list of books you might like

Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.