Valency (linguistics)
Encyclopedia
In linguistics
, verb valency or valence refers to the number of arguments
controlled by a verbal predicate
. It is related, though not identical, to verb transitivity, which counts only object
arguments of the verbal predicate. Verb valency, on the other hand, includes all arguments, including the subject
of the verb.
The linguistic meaning of valence derives from the definition of valency in chemistry
. This scientific metaphor is due to Lucien Tesnière
, who developed verb valency into a major component of his dependency grammar
theory of syntax and grammar. The notion first appeared in Tesnière's posthumously published book Éléments de syntaxe structurale (Elements of structural syntax).
The verb requires all of these arguments in a well-formed sentence, although they can sometimes undergo valency reduction or expansion. For instance, to eat is naturally divalent, as in he eats an apple, but may be reduced to monovalency in he eats. This is called valency reduction. In the southeastern United States, an emphatic trivalent form of eat is in use, as in I'll eat myself some supper.
Verbs that are usually monovalent, like to sleep, cannot take a direct object. However, there are cases where the valency of such verbs can be expanded, for instance in He sleeps the sleep of death. This is called valency expansion.
Verb valence can also be described in terms of syntactic versus semantic
criteria. The syntactic valency of a verb refers to the number of dependent arguments that the verb can have, while semantic valence describes the thematic relation
s associated with a verb.
that elaborates on the role of argument structure - it refers to the capacity of other lexical units to combine with the given word. For instance, valence is one of the elements defining a construction in some Construction Grammar
s. This sense of the term, sometimes called Lexical Valency, is related to the above, but is far richer than the numerical notion inherited from chemistry.
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, verb valency or valence refers to the number of arguments
Verb argument
In linguistics, a verb argument is a phrase that appears in a syntactic relationship with the verb in a clause. In English, for example, the two most important arguments are the subject and the direct object....
controlled by a verbal predicate
Predicate (grammar)
There are two competing notions of the predicate in theories of grammar. Traditional grammar tends to view a predicate as one of two main parts of a sentence, the other being the subject, which the predicate modifies. The other understanding of predicates is inspired from work in predicate calculus...
. It is related, though not identical, to verb transitivity, which counts only object
Object (grammar)
An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...
arguments of the verbal predicate. Verb valency, on the other hand, includes all arguments, including the subject
Subject (grammar)
The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
of the verb.
The linguistic meaning of valence derives from the definition of valency in chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
. This scientific metaphor is due to Lucien Tesnière
Lucien Tesnière
Lucien Tesnière was one of the most prominent and influential French linguists.Tesnière was born in Mont-Saint-Aignan on May 13, 1893...
, who developed verb valency into a major component of his dependency grammar
Dependency grammar
Dependency grammar is a class of modern syntactic theories that are all based on the dependency relation and that can be traced back primarily to the work of Lucien Tesnière. Dependency grammars are distinct from phrase structure grammars , since they lack phrasal nodes. Structure is determined by...
theory of syntax and grammar. The notion first appeared in Tesnière's posthumously published book Éléments de syntaxe structurale (Elements of structural syntax).
Types of valency
There are several types of valency:- an avalentAvalentAvalency refers to the property of a verb of taking no arguments. Avalent verbs are verbs which have no valency, i.e. they have no logical arguments, such as subject, object or otherwise...
verb takes no arguments, e.g. It rains. (Though it is technically the subject of the verb in English, it is only a dummy subjectDummy pronounA dummy pronoun is a type of pronoun used in non-pro-drop languages, such as English....
, that is a syntactic placeholder - it has no concrete referent. No other subject can replace it.) - a monovalentIntransitive verbIn grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb that has no object. This differs from a transitive verb, which takes one or more objects. Both classes of verb are related to the concept of the transitivity of a verb....
verb takes one argument, e.g. He1 sleeps. - a divalentTransitive verbIn syntax, a transitive verb is a verb that requires both a direct subject and one or more objects. The term is used to contrast intransitive verbs, which do not have objects.-Examples:Some examples of sentences with transitive verbs:...
verb takes two, e.g. He1 kicks the ball2. - a trivalentDitransitive verbIn grammar, a ditransitive verb is a verb which takes a subject and two objects which refer to a recipient and a theme. According to certain linguistics considerations, these objects may be called direct and indirect, or primary and secondary...
verb takes three, e.g. He1 gives her2 a flower3. - a tetravalent verb takes four. Sometimes bet is considered to be a tetravalent verb in English like in the example, The fool1 bet him2 five quid3 on ”The Daily Arabian”4 to win.
The verb requires all of these arguments in a well-formed sentence, although they can sometimes undergo valency reduction or expansion. For instance, to eat is naturally divalent, as in he eats an apple, but may be reduced to monovalency in he eats. This is called valency reduction. In the southeastern United States, an emphatic trivalent form of eat is in use, as in I'll eat myself some supper.
Verbs that are usually monovalent, like to sleep, cannot take a direct object. However, there are cases where the valency of such verbs can be expanded, for instance in He sleeps the sleep of death. This is called valency expansion.
Verb valence can also be described in terms of syntactic versus semantic
Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....
criteria. The syntactic valency of a verb refers to the number of dependent arguments that the verb can have, while semantic valence describes the thematic relation
Thematic relation
In a number of theories of linguistics, thematic relations is a term used to express the role that a noun phrase plays with respect to the action or state described by a sentence's verb. For example, in the sentence "Susan ate an apple", Susan is the doer of the eating, so she is an agent; the...
s associated with a verb.
Lexical valency
The term valence has a related technical meaning in lexical semanticsLexical semantics
Lexical semantics is a subfield of linguistic semantics. It is the study of how and what the words of a language denote . Words may either be taken to denote things in the world, or concepts, depending on the particular approach to lexical semantics.The units of meaning in lexical semantics are...
that elaborates on the role of argument structure - it refers to the capacity of other lexical units to combine with the given word. For instance, valence is one of the elements defining a construction in some Construction Grammar
Construction grammar
The term construction grammar covers a family of theories, or models, of grammar that are based on the idea that the primary unit of grammar is the grammatical construction rather than the atomic syntactic unit and the rule that combines atomic units, and that the grammar of a language is made up...
s. This sense of the term, sometimes called Lexical Valency, is related to the above, but is far richer than the numerical notion inherited from chemistry.
See also
- Verb argumentVerb argumentIn linguistics, a verb argument is a phrase that appears in a syntactic relationship with the verb in a clause. In English, for example, the two most important arguments are the subject and the direct object....
- ArityArityIn logic, mathematics, and computer science, the arity of a function or operation is the number of arguments or operands that the function takes. The arity of a relation is the dimension of the domain in the corresponding Cartesian product...
- VerbVerbA verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
- Morphosyntactic alignmentMorphosyntactic alignmentIn linguistics, morphosyntactic alignment is the system used to distinguish between the arguments of transitive verbs and those of intransitive verbs...
- Transitivity (grammar)
- Subcategorization frameSubcategorization frameIn syntax, a subject within linguistics, the subcategorization frame of a word is defined to be the number and types of syntactic arguments that it co-occurs with...