Notes on computational linguistics.pdf - UCLA Department of ...

Stabler - Lx 185/209 2003
10.3 Verb classes and other basics
We have enough machinery in place to handle quite a broad range of syntactic structures. It is worth a brief
digression to see how some of the basics get treated in this framework, and this will provide some valuable
practice for later.
We have already seen how simple transitive and intransitive verbs get represented in the simplified grammar
above. Consider the transitive verb
praise::=D +k V
Here we see that it selects a DP and then moves it to assign (accusative) case, forming a VP. Then this VP is
selected by v and the head V is left adjoined to the head v, and then the subject (the “external argument”) of
the verb is selected. In contrast, an intransitive verb has a lexical entry like this:
laugh::V
This verb selects no object and assigns no case, but it combines with v to get its subject in the usual way.
Notice that some verbs like eat can occur in both transitive and intransitive forms, so verbs like this have
two lexical entries:
eat::V eat::=D +k V
Considering what each V and its associated v selects, we can see that they are the semantic arguments. So
the familiar semantic relations are being mirrored by selection steps in the derivation:
intransitive
transitive
agent
Titus laugh −s
agent
theme
Titus praise −s Lavinia
Throughout this section, we will aim to have derivations that mirror semantic relations in this way.
10.3.1 CP-selecting verbs and nouns
It is easy to add verbs that select categories other than DP. For example, some verbs select full clauses as their
complements. It is commonly observed that matrix clauses have an empty complementizer while embedded
clauses can begin with that, and verbs vary in the kinds of clauses they allow:
(15) * That Titus laughs
(16) Titus knows that Lavinia laughs
(17) Titus knows which king Lavinia praises
(18) Titus thinks that Lavinia laughs
(19) * Titus thinks which king Lavinia praises
(20) * Titus wonders that Lavinia laughs
(21) Titus wonders which king Lavinia praises
Verbs like know can also occur in transitive and intransitive constructions. We can get these distinctions with
lexical entries like this:
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