Suggested Answers and Hints - Chapter 8(ii) In sentence (1b) there are two verbs, persuade and kill. Persuade is a three-
place predicate as is indicated in (4a), while kill is a two-place predicate as in (4b):
(4) a persuade category: [–F, –N, +V]
-grid: <agent, theme, proposition>
subcat: nominal, sentential
b kill category: [–F, –N, +V]
-grid:
subcat: nominal
It seems that the person, who is persuaded, is the theme of the verb persuade and
the subject of the verb leave is the DP Bill. The DP Bill has a ‘theme’ thematic role
assigned by the verb persuade and an agent thematic role assigned by the verb leave
contrary to the Theta Criterion.
(iii) The relevant structure of sentence (in bold letters) (1c) is seemingly identical
with sentence (1b) as in (5).
(5) DPnom – V – DPacc – V – (DP)
But the lexical entries of the verbs suggest that the two sentences have fairly
different structures. The lexical entries of the predicates in (i) are repeated here as (2)’
and (3)’.
(2)’ want category: [–F, –N, +V]
-grid:
subcat: clausal
(3)’ leave category: [–F, –N, +V]
-grid:
subcat: 0
The verb want is a two-place predicate that has an agent DP argument I and a
clause, but no object DP. leave has one agentive argument. The DP Mary is assigned
agent theta role by the verb leave. The DP Mary has only one theta role, therefore the
Theta Criterion predicts that the sentence is grammatical.
(iv) In sentence (1d) the verb like is a two-place predicate as indicated in its
lexical entry in (6).
(6) like category: [–F, –N, +V]
-grid: <experiencer, theme>
subcat: nominal
The verb has an experiencer subject I and a theme object her. The object DP and
the sentence-initial DP Mary have the same reference. The DP her is in the canonical
object position, in Spec,VP and gets thematic role from the verb there. But it is not
obvious what assigns thematic role to Mary. There are two options. One is that the
verb assigns the theme theta role both to the DP Mary and to the DP her. The Theta
Criterion does not allow this option. The other option is that the DP Mary is not the
argument of the verb, but an adjunct. It is adjoined to the highest node in the sentence.