Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 1c John gave a book to his friend.
give is a three-place predicate, a verb that describes a situation in which the object
(theme) changes its position as the result of the activity of the subject (agent), that
instigates the action, that is causes the change of place of the theme. The entity (goal)
expressed by the prepositional phrase is the target of the movement of the theme. The
subcategorisation frame specifies the categorial status of the two complements, which
are a noun phrase and a prepositional phrase.
give category:[–F, –N, +V]
-grid: <agent, theme,goal>
subcat: nominal, prepositional
d He always parks his car near a nice old hotel.
park is a verb that has three arguments, an agent he that performs the action of
parking, theme his car that get ‘suffers’ the result of parking and a location near a nice
old hotel that specifies the location of the theme as the result of parking. The
subcategorisation frame specifies the categorical status of the two complements, which
are a noun phrase and a prepositional phrase.
park category:[–F, –N, +V]
-grid: <agent, theme,location>
subcat: nominal, prepositional
e I love Vermeer’s painting of the young girl.
love is a two-place predicate whose meaning is almost identical with the meaning of
the adjective keen. It has a subject (experiencer) that is in a psychological state with
respect to the object (theme). The differences between the two words are that love is a
verb and keen is an adjective and that love takes a nominal complement, while keen
has a prepositional complement.
love category:[–F, –N, +V]
-grid: <experiencer, theme>
subcat: nominal
painting is a derived nominal that inherits the argument structure of the verb paint
it is derived from. Painting expresses an activity in which the subject (agent) creates
an object (theme) in a certain way. The subcategorisation frame specifies the
categorical status of the complement, which is a prepositional phrase.
painting category:[–F, +N, –V]
-grid: <agent, theme>
subcat: prepositional