A Typology of Word Categoriesfly category: [–F, –N, +V]
-grid:
subcat: [∆]
sleep category: [–F, –N, +V]
-grid:
subcat: [∆]
Because these verbs have no complements, their subcategorisation frames are empty
(as indicated by the ‘null symbol’ ∆, which typically stands for the absence of
content). These verbs obviously differ from those such as wait which have non-null
subcategorisation frames. We might distinguish between the two types by referring to
those in (72) as true intransitives and those such as wait as being prepositional verbs.
Various types of transitive verbs can also be distinguished. For example there are
those which take one nominal complement and those which take two:
(73) a the hero fought the dragon
b the king gave the hero half the kingdom
The traditional term for verbs with two nominal complements is ditransitive. We can
represent the lexical entries for these verbs as follows:
(74) fight category: [–F, –N, +V]
-grid: <agent, patient>
subcat: [nominal]
give category: [–F, –N, +V]
-grid: <agent, goal, theme>
subcat: [nominal, nominal]
A further type takes both a nominal and a prepositional complement, known as
complex transitive verbs:
(75) a Percy placed the penguin on the podium
b place category: [–F, –N, +V]
-grid: <agent, theme, location>
subcat: [nominal, prepositional]
Other verbs take adjectival or adverbial complements:
(76) a the judge looked mean
b look category: [–F, –N, +V]
-grid: <theme, attribute>
subcat: [adjectival]
(77) a the pianist performed passionately
b perform category: [–F, –N, +V]
-grid: <agent, manner>
subcat: [adverbial]
Finally, there are verbs which are often traditionally called transitives, but which
do not have a nominal complement at all. These verbs take sentences as their
complements.