Nouns too have argument structures. Semantic arguments appear, for instance, with kinship expressions likethe father
of the brideandthe bride of Frankenstein, withpart-whole expressions likea part of the sentenceanda component of the grammar,
and with expressions denotingproperties of objectslikethe style of her hatandthe size of the house. Argument structure
flourishes in nouns that are morphologically related to verbs, reaching a peak in nominal counterparts of the four-
argument verbs in (31):
(37) a.Pat's sale of a lawnmower to Chris for $20
b. Fran's $5 bet with Phil that Mark wouldn't comeThree points on the argument structure of nouns in English. First, with a few tricky exceptions (Grimshaw 1990),
syntactic arguments of nouns are all optional. Second, all syntactic arguments of nouns are either genitive NPs (before
the noun) or PPs and clauses (after it).^66 Third,of inthe examples above is a meaningless preposition used to fulfill the
requirementfor a noun's syntacticargumentto be a PP.^67 In particular,ofis themost common preposition for nominal
counterparts of direct objects (38a), though not the only possibility (38b).
(38)a. destroy the plans destruction of the plans
own a car ownership of a car
he fearsflying his fear offlying
he claims immunity his claim of immunity
b. he desires truth his desire for truth
X equals Y X's equality with YThusofis another of those“defective”words that have syntax and phonology but no semantics; it is used as a default
to satisfy the syntax.
Adjectives too can have semantic arguments that are expressed syntactically as PPs or clauses. Again the defaultofis
prominent. I know of no case where an adjective has more than a single syntactic argument.^68
THE PARALLEL ARCHITECTURE 137
(^66) An exceptionis $5 in (37b). This positionis used also for adjuncts of size, cost, and duration, as ina ten-gallon jug, a $20,000 car, anda two-year drought. I don't knowof any
research on this configuration. Traditional grammar would probably call it adjectival because of its position and semantic function—but it certainly looks like an NP.
Another possibly controversial case isthe American invasion of Vietnam, in which the adjectiveAmerican supplies the Agent role ofinvasion.
(^67) Langacker(1992) arguesthatofdenotesthatthere existssome semanticrelationor otherbetweentheheadnounand theNP thatfunctionsas itssyntacticargument.Ifind
this argument rather empty: there is no constituent of the larger NP that doesnot have some semantic relation or another to the head.
(^68) Inmanyapproaches, theindividualofwhichtheadjectiveis predicatedisconsideredalsotobea semanticargumentoftheadjective,onethatcannotbeexpressedwithinthe
adjectivephraseitself.Forexample,inPhil is proud of Bill, Phil wouldexpress thissemantic“externalargument.”Undersuchapproaches,theadjectivesin(39)wouldallhave
twosemanticarguments, the“external”argumentand the“internal”argument. I personallydo notsubscribe to such an approach(Jackendoff 1983; this is notthe placeto
go through the arguments.