ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at some of the considerations that are important in establishing subcategories of verbs and nouns. The relationship between the head of a phrasal category and its sisters is particularly important because lexical classes are categorized into subclasses on the basis of the number and nature of their sisters within the phrase. Verbs have traditionally been subcategorized on the basis of the number and nature of their sisters within the verb phrase (VP), often referred to as the ‘complement(s)’ of the verb. Constituents that precede the VP, most crucially the ‘subject’ noun phrase (NP), are non-criterial; in English all sentences must have a ‘subject’ NP so its presence cannot be critical for subcategorization. Intransitive verbs cannot be followed by an NP, but may be followed by an optional adverb. Transitive verbs occur within the VP and cannot typically occur without a following NP. The chapter examines a different type of co-occurrence restriction between verbs and NPs, ‘selection restrictions’.
