40 ROBERT D. VAN VALIN, JR.
and the desk and the office are locatives, the first arguments of two-place
locational stative verbs. In the equational example, Bob is a locative, the
first argument of a two-place stative predicate, and the attribute a lawyer is
the theme. In the realization of this LS, the theme-attribute is incorporated
into the predicate and appears as a non-argument predicate nominal in the
nucleus. (See Schwartz, this volume, Van Valin 1990a.) In the last example
with see, a two-place stative perception verb, Sam is the first argument and
therefore an experiencer, while the painting is the second argument and a
theme. The thematic relations assignments of achievement verbs are the
same as the corresponding stati ves, as the addition of the operator
BECOME does not affect the argument structure of the LSs.
Activity verbs are the other class of primitive predicates, and there are
two subclasses: motion and non-motion. The single argument of a motion
activity verb, e.g. roll in (20c), is a theme, as it undergoes a change of loca
tion. The first argument of a non-motion activity verb is an effector, the
participant which does some action and which is unmarked for volition and
control. To indicate that this participant is necessarily acting volitionally,
the operator DO must be added. Activity verbs tend strongly to be intrans
itive, but there are some which have two arguments, e.g. eat, drink, play.
Since these verbs code unbounded, dynamic states of affairs, this second
argument by definition cannot be a patient, since that is the participant in
some state or condition. It will be treated as a locative. Thus in (20c), the
children, Mary, the door and Larry are effectors, the first argument of non-
motion activity verbs, the ball is a theme, the first argument of a motion
activity verb, and fish is a locative, the second argument of a non-motion
activity verb.
Accomplishment verbs have a LS composed of an activity LS plus an
achievement (or less commonly, an activity) LS linked by the connective
CAUSE. Accordingly, the role assignments of the accomplishment LS are
those of the constituent activity and achievement LSs; no new roles are
added. Hence in (20d) the thematic relations of the arguments are a func
tion of the assignments in (20a) and (20c).
The representation of arguments in the LS of a verb or predicator pro
vides a strict definition of "core argument". In section 1.2 it was stated sim
ply that the core contains the arguments of the predicate in the nucleus, and
it is now possible to state this more precisely. All arguments which appear
in the core of a simple clause must be linked to argument positions in the
LS of the predicate in the nucleus, and in the default situation, all argu-