Subcategorization

In linguistics, subcategorization denotes the ability/necessity for lexical items (usually verbs) to require/allow the presence and types of the syntactic arguments with which they co-occur. For example, the word "walk" as in "X walks home" requires the noun-phrase X to be animate. The notion of subcategorization is similar to the notion of valency, although the two concepts (subcategorization and valency) stem from different traditions in the study of syntax and grammar. Argument structure is the list of selected arguments associated with a lexical category, such as a verb (SKS, 2015). When every predicate, otherwise known as a verb, is used, it selects a specific set of arguments that need to be fulfilled to create a well-formed sentence (Kroger, 2005). These are arguments such as AGENT, PATIENT, EXPERIENCER, THEME, RECIPIENT, and STIMULUS. To illustrate this, the sentence The adults asked if the cats would pee on the sofa, has been broken down into its semantic roles and argument selections below. It is necessary to understand the fundamentals of argument structure to understand the idea of subcategorization because subcategorization, as noted above, refers to the sub-categories a verb (or other semantic role) requires (Kroger, 2005). For example, the verb ask from above subcategorizes for a DPAGENT and CPTHEME, otherwise known as a subject and direct object, respectively. In this way, subcategorization is an important piece of information to include in any lexical entry. Theta roles identify the meaning relation between the constituent and the selected predicate (SKS, 2015). There are eight theta roles: AGENT, THEME, CAUSE, POSSESSOR, LOCATION, GOAL, EXPERIENCER, and BENEFICIARY. Each term indicates the relationship between the verb, predicate, and one of its arguments. This is what is called s-selection, a shortening of semantic selection. S-Selection is an important addition to any lexical entry in order to make them easier to interpret (SKS, 2015).