STUDY GUIDE FOR RADFORD'S TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR

STUDY GUIDE FOR RADFORD’S TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR
CHAPTER SEVEN: THE LEXICON
LEXICON — the dictionary composed of lexical entries and lexical rules.
LEXICAL ENTRY — the lexical specification for a word, including its spelling, phonemic
form, phonetic form, etymology, derivatives, constructions, meanings, etc.
LEXICAL RULES — rules that are part of the lexical component of a grammar as opposed to
the syntactic component.
LEXICAL REDUNDANCY RULES — predictable aspects of language having to do with
lexical entries, e.g., all living things ([+ANIMATE]) are tangible ([+CONCRETE]). Such
predictable features are stated in redundancy rules like the following which are context free:
[+ANIMATE] [+CONCRETE]
Included here are various general principles such as:
PERIPHERY PRINCIPLE — the head of a phrase must appear at the periphery of X-bar.
HEAD FIRST PRINCIPLE — in English type languages, the head precedes the
complement.
STRICT ADJACENCY PRINCIPLE — an NP complement of a V, must be strictly
adjacent to the V.
CLAUSE LAST PRINCIPLE — in English type languages, an S must occur at the rightmost
periphery of its containing X-bar.
CO-OCCURRENCE RESTRICTIONS — restrictions on the co-occurrence of lexical items.
STRICT SUBCATEGORIZATION RESTRICTION — a co-occurrence restriction having
to do with syntactic categories, i.e., XP. For example, the verb give subcategorizes either an [NP
NP] as in He gave his employees a raise or [NP PP] as in He gave a raise to his employees. The
verb seem subcategorizes [AP] (He seems happy).
SELECTIONAL RESTRICTION — a co-occurrence restriction having to do with syntactic
or semantic features. For example, the verb sleep subcategorizes for a subject that is
[+ANIMATE].
PROJECTION PRINCIPLE — syntactic representations must be projected from the lexicon in
that they observe the lexical properties of the items they contain.

THEMATIC RELATION ( -ROLE) — a term that specifies the various roles that a noun phrase
can play in a clause, e.g., agent, experiencer, source, goal, etc. (Not to be confused with syntactic
relations like subject and direct object).
(1) THEME (PATIENT): the entity undergoing the effect of the action identified in the verb.
a. Someone opened THE DOOR. (door is both direct object and theme.)
b. THE DOOR opened. (door is subject, but still theme.)
(2) AGENT (ACTOR): the instigator of the action identified in the verb.
a. JOHN opened the door.
b. The door was opened BY JOHN.
(3) EXPERIENCER (DATIVE): the entity experiencing some psychological state identified
in the verb.
a. The movie appeals to HIM.
b. SHE is happy..
(4) INSTRUMENT: the means by which the action identified in the verb comes about.
a. He broke the window WITH THE HAMMER.
b. THE HURRICANE destroyed the village.
(5) BENEFACTIVE: the entity benefitting from the action identified in the verb
a. He bought the flowers FOR MARY.
b. He bought MARY the flowers.
(6) LOCATIVE: the plsce which identifies the location or spatial orientation of the state or
action identified in the verb.
a. It happened IN ITALY.
b. The book is ON THE TABLE.
(7) GOAL: the place which identifies the direction of the state or action identified in the verb.
a. John flew TO ITALY.
b. John ran INTO THE HOUSE.
(8) SOURCE: the place which identifies the origin of the state or action identified in the verb.
a. John flew FROM ITALY.
b. John ran OUT OF THE HOUSE.
-CRITERION — Each argument bears one and only one -rule, and each -role is assigned to
one and only one argument.
ARGUMENT — An NP that functions as a subject or a complement. Subjects are external
arguments; complements are internal arguments.
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LEXICAL INFORMATION
(9) The lexicon lists specialized properties of lexical items. Lexical entries should only contain
information which is not predictable.
a. go is irregular [past tense is went]
b. go is intransitive [*He went the library]
c. put requires both a direct object and a PP complement
(10) The lexicon also lists generalized properties of lexical items - properties that can be predicted
across a group of lexical items of a particular type. Redundancy rules.
a. The past tense of verbs is {-d}.
b. Subjects and Direct Objects are NP: REALIZATION RULE.
c. Direct Objects must immediately follow verbs: STRICT ADJACENCY PRINCIPLE
and so on
(11) give [+V, –N]; [Actor, Theme, Goal]
General principles predict:
EXAMPLE
a. The Actor argument is the subject. It is an NP with an animate noun in the head.
b. The Theme argument is the direct object. It is an NP.
c. The Goal argument is the indirect object which is a PP introduced by the P to.
The Goal is not a place, but most likely a person.
d. The verb allows “Indirect Object Inversion”:
V + NP 1 + [ PP to NP 2] V + NP 2 + NP 1
[I gave the book to him I gave him the book]
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CONSIDERATIONS IN SEMANTIC ANALYSIS
Semantic analysis involves using information specified in the lexicon to determine the meaning of
phrases and sentences. Consider the following:
(12) a. He got the family into the shelter.
b. He got the family into debt.
The two sentences above appear to involve parallel thematic representations; close examination,
however, reveals that they are not parallel. First, into the shelter must be a positional theme (one
referring to spatial relations), whereas into debt must be non-positional. Notice that we have He
managed to get his family there into the shelter before the tornado struck, but not *He managed to
get his family there into debt after a week–long gambling binge.
Second, while He got the family into the shelter entails that the family is in the shelter and He got
the family into debt entails that the family is in debt, the analyses of the two sentences must be
different. In the former, the shelter possesses the family (The shelter contains the family); in the
latter, the family possesses the debt (The family has debt). While one can paraphrase He got the
family into shelter (without the definite article before shelter) as He gave the family shelter, one
cannot paraphrase He got the family into the shelter (with the definite article) as He gave the family
the shelter. The two sentences have very different interpretations. Further, if we change the shelter
to some other container like a car, similar paraphrases are also impossible: He got the family into
the car does not mean that He gave the family the car.
Third, the selectional restrictions between the phrases in (12a) and those in (12b) are very different.
To illustrate this, let us refer to the phrase that contains family as the “entity,” the one containing
shelter as the “location,” and the one containing debt as the “condition.”
In (12a), the entity and the location are constrained by such considerations as number and size. For
example, He got/put all fifty members of his family into the car seems farfetched, whereas He got/put
all fifty members of his family into the bus does not. Notice that no such constraint exists in a
sentence like He got/put all fifty members of his family into debt or He got/put the entire population
of the city into danger. This distinction derives from the fact that phrases like into the shelter and
into the car are positional whereas phrases like into debt and into danger are non-positional.
The constraint between the entity and the condition in (12b) is entirely different. Basically, the
entity must be able to experience the condition. Thus, He got the family into debt and He got the
family into danger are possible because families can experience debt and danger. On the other hand,
He got the snake into debt and He got the pencil into danger make very little sense, if any. This
distinction derives from the fact that phrases like into debt and into danger are non-positional.
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