Distinction argument - condition

Various tests have been described for making the distinction between argument and condition (Gussenhoven, 1984; Baart, 1987; Marsi, 2001). In general, constituents that can be left out (can be deleted) and are not subcategorized for by the verb are condi-tions. All other constituents are arguments. A well known test to decide whether or not the constituent can be removed from the matrix phrase is the so called “en wel...” test.

The nominal constituent is a condition if the constituent can be removed from the tence and can be placed after “en wel” (and more specifically), and if the resulting sen-tence forms a semantically and syntactically correct sensen-tence. If the resulting sensen-tence is not syntactically correct (indicated by * in the examples) the nominal constituent is an argument. Instance 5.11 is an example of this test: sentence 5.11a concerns a condi-tion and sentence 5.11b concerns an argument. This is in accordance with the analysis of sentences 5.1 and 5.2.

(5.11) (a) Hij

”He has been reading, and more specifically the entire night.”

(b) *Hij

”He has read, more specifically the entire book.”

From the test for “deletability” information about subcategorization frames of verbs can be derived. If the constituent is an argument, the verb subcategorizes for a cer-tain constituent. If the constituent is a condition, the verb does not subcategorize for that constituent. Subcategorization information is not for all verbs available from a corpus. Besides, some verbs have several subcategorization frames, which introduces an extra ambiguity to resolve, namely which frame is the one that applies to a specific appearance of that verb.

5.2 ARGUMENT VERSUSCONDITION

Arguments

As argued before, arguments do not induce accentuation of the sentence final verb phrase. Below, there are some examples of an argument preceding the verb phrase.

These examples illustrate that indeed the predicate should not be accented when pre-ceded by an argument. This is in accordance with SAAR (see section 5.2.1).

(5.12) (direct object)

”He has read a book by Wolkers.”

(5.13) (subject)

”Tomorrow the piano will be delivered.”

(5.14) (subject)

”In Zeist an instruments factory did burn down.”

(5.15) (indirect object)

”I have given the book to my dad.”

(5.16) (prepositional object)

”Guss has longed for the Easter holidays.”

(5.17) (prepositional object)

”Charles has been waiting for his brother for hours.”

Prepositional objects constitute a special type of arguments, because superficially they resemble conditions. Since we want to decide between argument or condition on the basis of the surface structure, indirect objects (such as example 5.15) and prepositional objects (such as examples 5.16 and 5.17) may give complications in the machine learn-ing experiments. Sentences 5.16 and 5.17 convinclearn-ingly demonstrate that prepositional objects induce deaccentuation of the predicate.

Conditions

As mentioned above, constituents that can be left out and are subcategorized for by the verb are conditions. Typically, these are adverbs. When we change the order of the constituents of examples 5.12–5.14 for arguments in such a way that a condition precedes the verb (as in examples 5.18–5.20), we see that the accentuation status of the verb changes due to the fact that it is now preceded by a condition instead of an argument.

”The books by Wolkers are still read very often.”

(5.19) De

”The piano will be delivered tomorrow.”

(5.20) In

”In Zeist an instruments factory was destroyed by a fire.”

Other examples in which the sentence final verb is preceded by an adverb and in which SAAR correctly predicts the accentuation are given below.

(5.21) (predicative adverb)

”The bill has been paid last week.”

(5.23) (adverb of manner)

”The conference ended without results.”

(5.24) (adverb of aspect)

”She has reached her goal despite all bad luck.”

5.2 ARGUMENT VERSUSCONDITION

”The new book by Hermans was discussed by the critic.”

However, there are some apparent counterexamples. The verb in sentence 5.26 is not accented (against our expectations).

”The fresh bridal couple has stayed in a hotel.”

In this example the nominal constituent that precedes the verb is a locative. In the next section we will consider accentuation patterns in sentences with locative expressions more closely.

Locatives

The impression from the examples above is that the sentence final verb is not accented if preceded by a locative. The examples below support this impression.

When we compare sentence 5.27 to sentence 5.6a, we see that in these sentences the order of the constituents is identical. However, whereas instance 5.6a is an example of marked order, instance 5.27 cannot be explained in this manner. We suppose that the verb ‘zetten’ (to put) subcategorizes for an object and a locative, and that the verb

‘kopen’ (to buy) subcategorizes for an object, but not for a locative.

(5.27) Hij

”The cat has been under the table for hours.”

(5.29) Hij

”He has been playing in the garden.”

For these examples we argue that the locatives behave like arguments instead of con-ditions, because (i) they do not induce accentuation of the predicate, and (ii) they can not be left out. However, there exist locatives that can be left out and that do induce accentuation of the verb (see example 5.30).

(5.30) Moeder

”Mother has been reading the entire afternoon in the garden.”

This example implies that we can not state that in general locatives behave like argu-ments. We suppose that accentuation status of the verb is connected with the identity of the verb. Verbs like ‘zetten’ and ‘zitten’ (to put, to sit) that express an action that in-trinsically requires a certain location, subcategorize for the constituent expressing that location. In such cases the verb will not be accented, since the verb subcategorizes for the nominal constituent preceding the verb.

In examples such as 5.29 the location is not intrinsically required by the verb, because the locative can be deleted (as in example 5.31). However, we assume that accent on adverbs has an integrative function (see Baart, 1989), so that the expression “has been playing in the garden” as a whole expresses the predicate. Obviously the suitability of locative-verb combinations constituting a predicate will depend on the particular items to be combined. This is a topic for further research.

(5.31) Hij

”He has played the entire afternoon.”