A Typology of Word Categoriescomplements, it is connected to the [–N] feature that they both share. The [+N]
categories (nouns and adjectives) obviously lack this property.
It is clear from the examples given above that nouns formed from verbs have
arguments in the same way that those verbs do: the noun wait may express the
relationship between someone who is waiting and what they are waiting for. The
argument that comes to the left of the verb is typically expressed by the possessor of
the derived noun (his and my and their in (87)). In other instances, however, the
possessor simply names the one who possesses the noun. The difference is made clear
in the two interpretations of the following:
(90) Ken’s construction of a kite
This can be interpreted either as something that Ken did (he constructed a kite) or
something that he possesses (the kite is his). Obviously the possessive interpretation is
only available for the case of the noun, the related verb cannot have a possessive
argument:
(91) Ken constructed a kite
In this example, Ken can only be interpreted as agent. The question arises as to
whether the possessor is another thematic argument which nouns can have, in addition
to agents, patients, themes, goals, etc., or whether it is something of a different nature.
There is reason to believe that the possessor is not the same kind of element as a
thematic argument. One thing that differentiates possessors from other arguments is
that the possessor may appear with almost any noun and does not appear to be
determined by the noun’s meaning:
(92) a my music (e.g. the CDs that I own)
b your drawing (the one on your wall)
c his organisation (the one that belongs to him)
d our plans (the bits of paper that we have)
Of course there are things named by nouns that cannot be possessed in this way:
(93) Emily’s embarrassment
In this example, Emily has to be interpreted as the one who experiences the
embarrassment rather than someone who possesses it outside of their emotions. But
this is a general semantic fact: some things can be possessed and other things cannot.
The fact remains, however, that of those things that are able to be possessed, the
relationship between them and the possessor is uniform and is not affected by the
meaning of the noun. This is very different from other argument–predicate
relationships:
(94) a he wriggled (he = agent)
b he arrived (he = theme)
c he embarrasses easily (he = experiencer)
d he attracts criticism (he = goal)