[Corpora-List] Subcat Questions

[Mike Maxwell]

Ute Römer wrote:
> ... I explained verbal
> subcategorisation frames to my intro to linguistics students this
> morning as the combination of complements (obligatory constituents) a
> verb (as head of a VP) takes.

One of the differences between this idea of subcat and that in the
earlier msg today, concerns whether subjects are subcategorized
(previous msg) or not (above-quoted msg).  This is a theoretical issue.
Since all finite verbs in English require subjects, and since there is
evidence that the subject is outside the VP, while all the complements
are inside the VP, some linguists hold that subjects are not
subcategorised.  There are lots of arguments pro and con, which I won't
go into here.

There are also questions about whether other categories besides verbs
have subcategorization frames (prepositions, for instance, and at least
some adjectives).

     Mike Maxwell
     Linguistic Data Consortium
     maxwell at ldc.upenn.edu