Suggested answer for Exercise 12
The lexical entry of a predicate contains a theta-grid that specifies the number and the type of arguments the predicate has and the subcategorisation frame that provides the categorical status of the complements (all the arguments but the subject) of the predicate.
| a | My brother ate a lot of chocolate. |
Eat is a two-place predicate that expresses an activity in which an “eater” and an entity which is eaten are involved. The “eater” performs the “eating” activity on the entity that is eaten. The thematic roles associated with the two arguments are the agent role (the “eater” who instigates the activity) and a patient role (the entity that undergoes a change of state caused by the agent). The subcategorisation frame specifies the categorical status of the patient, which is a noun phrase therefore it is categorically nominal.
| eat | category: ?–F, –N, +V? | ||
| Θ-grid: ?agent, patient? | |||
| subcat: nominal | |||
| b | John is keen on wild animals. | ||
Keen is a two-place predicate, an adjective that expresses a psychological state of the subject with respect to the object. The subject has experiencer theta role, the object has theme theta role. The subcategorisation frame specifies the categorical status of the complement, which is a preposition phrase therefore it is categorically prepositional.
| keen | category:?–F, +N, +V? | ||
| Θ-grid: ?experiencer, theme? | |||
| subcat: prepositional | |||
| c | John gave a book to his friend. | ||
give is a three-place predicate, a verb that describes a situation in which the object (theme) changes its position as the result of the activity of the subject (agent), that instigates the action, that is causes the change of place of the theme. The entity (goal) expressed by the prepositional phrase is the target of the movement of the theme. The subcategorisation frame specifies the categorial status of the two complements, which are a noun phrase and a prepositional phrase.
| give | category:?–F, –N, +V? | ||
| Θ-grid: ?agent, theme,goal? | |||
| subcat: nominal, prepositional | |||
| d | He always parks his car near a nice old hotel. | ||
park is a verb that has three arguments, an agent he that performs the action of parking, theme his car that get ‘suffers’ the result of parking and a location near a nice old hotel that specifies the location of the theme as the result of parking. The subcategorisation frame specifies the categorical status of the two complements, which are a noun phrase and a prepositional phrase.
| park | category:?–F, –N, +V? | ||
| Θ-grid: ?agent, theme,location? | |||
| subcat: nominal, prepositional | |||
| e | I love Vermeer’s painting of the young girl. | ||
love is a two-place predicate whose meaning is almost identical with the meaning of the adjective keen. It has a subject (experiencer) that is in a psychological state with respect to the object (theme). The differences between the two words are that love is a verb and keen is an adjective and that love takes a nominal complement, while keen has a prepositional complement.
| love | category:?–F, –N, +V? | ||
| Θ-grid: ?experiencer, theme? | |||
| subcat: nominal |
painting is a derived nominal that inherits the argument structure of the verb paint it is derived from. Painting expresses an activity in which the subject (agent) creates an object (theme) in a certain way. The subcategorisation frame specifies the categorical status of the complement, which is a prepositional phrase.
| painting | category:?–F, +N, –V? | ||
| Θ-grid: ?agent, theme? | |||
| subcat: prepositional | |||
| f | Jane broke the vase. | ||
The verb break in this sentence is a two-place predicate; the subject (agent) causes the object (theme) to undergo a change of state. Its complement is a nominal phrase.
| break | category:?–F, –N, +V? | ||
| Θ-grid: ?agent, theme? | |||
| subcat: nominal | |||
| g | The vase broke. | ||
The verb break in this sentence is a one-place predicate, whose meaning is very similar to the verb break in sentence (1f). The subject (theme) undergoes the same change of state as the object in sentence (1f), but as opposed to sentence (1f), in sentence (1g) the causer is not specified. There is no agent only a theme that is nominal.
| break | category:?–F, –N, +V? | ||
| Θ-grid: ?theme? | |||
| subcat: nominal | |||
| h | Everybody got a letter from the Prime Minister. | ||
get is a three-place predicate, which expresses movement of some entity, the object (theme) of the clause that undergoes some change of place. The source of movement is expressed with prepositional phrase (source). The target of movement is the subject (goal). The verb has two complements, the nominal theme and the prepositional source. The subject argument has the role of beneficiary.
| get | category:?–F, –N, +V? | ||
| Θ-grid: ?beneficiary, theme, source? | |||
| subcat: nominal, prepositional |