Instructor: Adriana Todea

atodea@yahoo.com
Office hours: Friday 2-3 p.m., Alpha Centre room

Introduction to Generative Grammar

Course 4: Syntactic valence. Argument structure and theta-roles.
Mappings between syntax and semantics: The Universal Alignment
Hypothesis; the Little Alignment Hypothesis
WEEK 4
Outline1
The notion of syntactic valence
1. The notion of valence
Analogy with the notion of valence in Chemistry: the valences of
the combining elements determine the structure of the molecule.
Exemplification: the chemical formula of rust:

Fe2 O3
The valences of the atoms of iron and oxygen are determined by
the inner structure of the respective atoms, and are a good
indicator in predicting the ways in which the atoms combine in
order to form a stable molecule.
2. The syntactic valence
Lexical items belong to different syntactic categories, which determine
their phrasal distribution.
Example: a transitive verb always selects two arguments, an
intransitive, only one, a ditransitive, three. Therefore, we can say that
a transitive clause is generated by a transitive verb, or, specifically, by
the syntactic ability of the verb to initialise two arguments, which we
call a transitive valence.
3. The Projection Principle
Lexical information is syntactically represented.
In other words, lexical information determines the syntactic structure.
It is the syntactic valence of the building blocks (words) of a phrase or
sentence that determine the syntactic structure of the sentence.
In the mental lexicon every lexical entry (word) consists of both
semantic information (what it means) and the syntactic information
(syntactic valence) that controls its phrasal distribution.
You find in this outline the content of the slides that I project during the course,
which contain the main topics and also structures and diagrams which may be difficult
and time consuming for you to copy during my lecture. They are made available to you
before class to save time and to make note-taking easier, but not unnecessary!
The outline as such (without your notes covering the detailed explanations that I give
during the course) cannot constitute a sufficient source of information when preparing
for the exam. If you miss the class, it is strongly recommended that this outline be used
as a guide to the bibliography indicated at the end of this document.
1

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NOTE: Lexical items are learned and stored in the mental lexicon,
whereas the syntactic categories, which are actualized for every lexical
item, are primitives of Universal Grammar.
Predicates and their argument structure
The argument structure describes the syntactic relationship between
the arguments and their predicates.
A predicate syntactically initialises its arguments by assigning them a
number of grammatical relations (S, DO, IO), according to its
argument structure.
The argument structure indicates the number and the syntactic
functions (grammatical relations) of the arguments that a predicate
must/ can initialise.
1. The argument structure of the verb

S P
DO
John hit the boy.

hit
(vb) S
DO
Syntactic info

S
P
DO
IO
John gave the book to Mary.

give
(vb) S
DO
(IO)
Syntactic info

John slept.

sleep

The prisoner escaped.

escape

(vb)
Syntactic info

(vb)
Syntactic info

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I broke the glass. The glass broke.

break
(vb)
Syntactic info

Maria exaggerated the situation. Maria exaggerated.

exaggerate
(vb)
Syntactic info

2. The argument structure of nouns, prepositions and adjectives

John is in London

in
(prep) S
O
Syntactic info

John is envious of Mary.

envious
(adj) S
(O)
Syntactic info

John is crazier than Mary

crazier
(adj) S
O
Syntactic info

Johns analysis of the problem

analysis
(adj) (S) (O)
Syntactic info

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Thematic structure: Theta-roles and theta-grids

A predicate assigns not only syntactic properties to its arguments, but
also semantic properties, called theta-roles.
Thematic (semantic) role: semantic meaning is syntactically assigned
to a word or a phrase, which indicates the role that some entity plays
in the action described by the predicate.

1. Inventory of main theta-roles

Theme/ Patient: something which moves, literally or metaphorically,
as part of an action.
Source: the location/ individual from which movement occurs.
Goal: the location/ individual to which movement occurs.
Location: the location at which something happens.
Beneficiary/ benefactive: benefits from what has happened or what
has been performed; receiver.
Experiencer: someone who experiences something.
Agent/Doer: entity that makes something happen or performs the
action; the actor, the performer.
Instrument: something an agent uses to make something happen.
Cause: something that causes something to happen.
Stimulus: something that causes an experience.

Practice: Identify the theta-roles assigned by the predicates in the

following sentences.
Experiencer

Stimulus

Maria

likes

apples.

Agent

The girl

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gave

Theme

Beneficiary

the book

to Tom.

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Agent

Patient

Instrument

John hit the boy with his fists.

Agent

George has just left

Cause

Source

Goal

Cluj

for Bucharest

Theme

Global warming is melting the ice caps.

The argument structure describes the syntactic relation between the
predicate and its arguments.
The theta-grid describes the thematic/ semantic relationship between
the arguments and their predicates.
2. Theta Criterion
A predicate assigns grammatical relations to its arguments.
Also, a predicate syntactically assigns thematic roles to its arguments.
Theta Criterion: Each argument is assigned one and only one thetarole. Each theta-role is assigned to one and only one argument.
Semantic info
Agent

hit

Semantic info

Patient/ Theme

give

Theme

(Bene)

(vb) S
DO
Syntactic info

(vb) S
DO
(IO)
Syntactic info

Semantic info

Semantic info

sleep

Exp

escape

(vb) S
Syntactic info

exaggerate

Agent

Agent

(vb) DO
Syntactic info

Semantic info
(Theme)

(vb) S
(DO)
Syntactic info

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Agent

Page 5

Semantic info
break

(Agent)

Theme

(vb) (S)
DO
Syntactic info

3. Controlling the correlation between argument structure and theta-grid.

The Universal Alignment Hypothesis (UAH): There is a universal
(meaning across all human natural languages) mapping between
semantic roles and grammatical relations.
UAH presumes that the same meaning in different languages will
generate the same syntactic structure, that is syntax is generated by
semantic meaning.
Lets compare the structures meaning I sweated in two unrelated
languages: --Italian, an Indo-European language
-- and Choctaw, a Native American language, spoken in the
area of the Mississippi river.
Exp

P assigns semantic values

Exp P

P
P assigns syntactic values
DO P
Ho sudato.
Sa-laksha
st
st
(1 sg) have sweated
1 sg Acc- sweated
Italian
Choctaw
unergative verb
unaccusative verb
Semantic info
sudare

Semantic info

Exp

laksha

(vb)
S
Syntactic info

Exp

(vb)
DO
Syntactic info

UAH is invalidated: Identical meaning correlates an experiencer with a

subject in Italian, and an experiencer with a direct object in Choctaw.
Although sudare and laksha mean exactly the same, syntactically, the
former is unergative and the latter unaccusative. Which means that
there is no universal correlation between theta-roles and grammatical
relations. Syntax is autonomous: there is some arbitrariness in the
correlation between argument structure and theta-roles.
Little Alignment Hypothesis (LAH): There is a fixed mapping between
theta-roles and grammatical relations for a particular predicate in a
particular language.
The meaning of a predicate will always correlate with the same
syntactic valence in a particular language, that is a specific predicate has
a stable mapping between its argument structure and its theta-grid.
Such a mapping does not change with the context.

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Conclusions:
In the mental lexicon, the stored lexical entries consist of both
semantic information and syntactic information (syntactic valence
which determines the ways in which the entry combines with other
lexical or functional items);
A syntactic structure is projected by the syntactic valence of its
constituents;
There are 6 verbal syntactic types:
--unaccusativity;
--unergativity;
--unaccusativity with optional transitivity;
--unergativity with optional transitivity;
--transitivity;
--transitivity with optional ditransitivity;
As well as verbs, nouns, adjectives, and prepositions are syntactic
predicates that project syntactic structures;
Theta-roles (semantic information) are syntactically assigned by
predicates to their arguments;
Syntax is autonomous. Meaning does not necessarily generate syntax:
the interface between syntax and semantics allows for some degree of
arbitrariness in correlating the theta-grid and the argument structure;
A predicates theta-gridargument-structure mapping is stable and
does not change with the context.

Bibliography:
Carol G. Rosen (1996-1997) Interfaa dintre rolurile semantice i
relaiile gramaticale iniiale n Dacoromania, II pe 1996-1997, nr. 1-2,
Editura academiei romne.pp.207-251
(you can find a copy in the Generative Grammar dossier at the library)

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