ABSTRACT

This chapter deals with verbs within sentences. It explores the effects of argument structure of verbs on verb production: of the number of arguments and of deviations from the canonical arrangement of the arguments around verbs. Verbs are often missing in agrammatic patient's spontaneous speech and in structured tasks. Saffran, Schwartz and Marin claimed that sentence construction frequently breaks down at the point where a verb must be chosen. One of the complexities of verbs is their role of assigning thematic roles to the arguments around them. The number and type of arguments a verb has to assign is determined by its core meaning. Some verbs command one argument, others two, or three, and some verbs may have clausal arguments. Unaccusative verbs have one theme argument in subject position. Unaccusatives which derive from transitive verbs are alternating unaccusatives. Non-alternating unaccusatives, are in their base forms.