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ALEKSANDER SZWEDEK
SPOŁECZNA AKADEMIA NAUK, WARSAW
KUJAWY AND POMORZE UNIVERSITY IN BYDGOSZCZ
More evidence on the primacy of the noun
over the verb. A cognitive explanation
ABSTRACT. In linguistic tradition, the verb has frequently been regarded to be the central
element of the sentence. Only recently Ronald Langacker (1986) argued that relations
(represented by verbs) are conceptually dependent on things (represented by nouns). The
present paper offers more evidence of the primacy of nouns over verbs drawing on the
following diverse language phenomena: (1) semantic description of nouns and verbs in terms
of selectional restrictions, (2) sentence stress placement and its relation to word order, (3)
conceptualisation of abstract entities in terms of physical objects, and (4) language
acquisition.
While nouns are described independently, verbs get their description in terms of noun
features. For example, teach whose subject is described as [+ human], will collocate with
[+human] nouns, but not with [-human] nouns. It has been shown that in Polish, in normal
intonation, sentence stress falls on the contextually new noun (KSIĄŻKĘ). Verbs and adverbs
get the stress only if no new noun is present. Moreover, research has demonstrated that all
abstract entities are conceptualized as objects, represented by nouns, nouns are acquired
before verbs, nouns predominate in early production and comprehension, children learn
object reference readily. The discussion will show that nouns are independent; hence, the
conclusion is about the primacy of nouns over verbs.
KEY WORDS. Cognitive linguistics, the hypothesis of objectification, the primacy of nouns
over verbs, Functional Sentence Perspective.
1. Introduction
In linguistic tradition, the verb was often regarded to be the central element
of the sentence. For example, Christian Lehmann (1991) wrote that “the verb is
the central element of the sentence” (1991: 481). Angela Downing, Philip
Locke (2006 /1992 /: 12) maintained that “[a]s clauses have as their central
element the verbal group, their status as finite or non-finite depends on the form
of the verb chosen”. According to Charles Fillmore (1977), each verb selects, as
if it was the determining category, a certain number of deep cases which form
its case frame.
In contrast, Langacker (1986) believed that relations, represented, among
others, by verbs, are conceptually dependent on things, represented by nouns.
Dedre Gentner (1982), and Dedre Gentner and Lera Boroditsky (2001) presented
convincing language acquisition arguments for the primacy of nouns
over verbs, and, what is more, offered cognitive explanation of this primacy.
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