VOS: Alternate Explanation

Last Edited: 2006.Aug.04 Fri

Word Classification

Lexical nouns can function as syntactical verbs as well as syntactical nouns and lexical verbs and adjectives can function both as syntactical verbs and as syntactical adjectives. The word's valence is probably more important.

Monovalent Words

The monovalent words have a single argument, A1, specifying the word's subject. The actants for A1 are the prefixes. Monovalent words include intransitive lexical verbs, lexical adjectives, and most lexical nouns.

Divalent Words

Divalent words have an additional argument, A2, specifying either the words's object or its possessor. The actants for A1 are the suffixes. The divalent words include transitive lexical verbs and lexical nouns denoting relationships, such as kinship terms and words for body parts.

Trivalent Words

Trivalent words have a third argument, A3, specifying the direct object, with A2 now specifying the indirect object. A3 is normally inanimate and A2 here is normally animate; thus for each there are certain suffixes that rarely occur. The trivalent words include the ditransitive lexical verbs.

Argument Structure Classes

This will show which roles are matched with which arguments for each word class.
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Actant Affixes

The following table shows the actants. Subjects are marked using prefixes and objects using suffixes. There are two subject paradigms, depending on whether the word has imperative mood or not. Entries such as m(u)- indicate that the vowel is dropped under certain phonological conditions. Note the multiple 3rd person actants. Their exact use depends on how the word functions in the sentence.
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There may also be distinct subject paradigms for Impersonal and Modal words.

3rd Person Actants

For each 3rd person actant (i.e. 3., 3A-, 3I-, 3H-, -3D, -3A, -3I), either an argument phrase appears or the actant coreferences an argument of the matrix or the argument is nullified. Which of these occurs depends on the actant, the other actants present, and the word form's syntactical usage.

* If 3H- appears, a corresponding argument phrase must appear.
* -3D always coreferences an argument of the matrix.
* 3A- and 3I- will always act like 3. in the same situation.

Main Usage

This applies to the syntactical verb of a main clause or a relative clause. There are no forms with 3H- or -3D and argument phrases always appear.

Conjunctive Usage

This applies to the syntactical verb of complement clauses and adverbial clauses and after conjunctive particles.

* 3. always coreferences an argument of the matrix.
* There are corresponding argument phrases for -3A and -3I.

Phrasal Usage

This applies to syntactical nouns and adjectives. One argument must be nullified. If 3. appears, A1 is nullified; in this case, if -3A or -3I appears, a corresponding argument phrases must appear. Otherwise, either -3A or -3I must appear with that argument nullified. If both appear, the one whose argument is nullified is the one whose gender is required by the situation; the other will have a corresponding argument phrase.

Examples

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(no subject)

* I have more new shoes (and socks) as of yesterday.
* I hope to find an apartment soon.
* I also hope to go to Worldcon next month, but the odds are against it. The money is earmarked for other things and I don't have a working credit card, which makes payment difficult.
* I've started working on the new derivational use of the "classifiers" which probably have to be renamed.