Actants in semantics and syntax II: actants in syntax

Abstract

Part II of the article deals with deep-syntactic and surface-syntactic actants. A deep-syntactic actant slot is defined by its correspondence to a semantic actant slot; a deep-syntactic actant of a lexical unit L either fills a deep-syntactic slot of L or corresponds to a surface-syntactic actant of L. The article discusses the numbering of deep-syntactic actant slots, some problematic cases of such numbering, restrictions on the surface realizations of deep-syntactic actant slots, and the ways to change the active deep-syntactic valence of a given lexical unit. Surface-syntactic actants are defined inductively - by bundles of relevant syntactic properties that a clause element shares with an established surface-syntactic actant, such as the subject or the direct object. The problem of actants vs. circumstantials is considered, including the DO SO test. The correspondence between semantic, deep-syntactic, and surface-syntactic actant slots of a lexical unit is characterized, with special attention to the four cases of discrepancy between them. The concept of government pattern of a lexical unit L is introduced and illustrated.

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