arguments

the participants minimally involved in an action defined by the predicate. The complements and the subject, the latter also called an external argument.

[±F]

one of the three basic binary features on which all categories can be defined. With the help of these features we can explain why we have the categories that we do and also describe how these categories are related. With the help of the three binary features we can predict what kinds of categories are possible in human language, we can give an exclusive list of them. [±F] is a feature used to distinguish between functional and thematic categories. [–F] categories have thematic content and [+F] categories do not. The categories with [+F] feature are the following: inflections, complementisers, determiners and degree adverbs. Certain categories are unspecified for the [±F] feature, see underspecification.

functional category

categories without lexical content, fulfilling some grammatical function in a given structure: inflections, determiners, degree adverbs and complementisers.

predicate

the part of the clause excluding the subject giving information about the subject: Mary [is clever/likes chocolate/is waiting for Jamie/was in bed/is a university student].

thematic category

categories with lexical content: verbs, nouns, adjectives, prepositions.

1.3.4 The Thematic categories

Let us focus our attention first on the thematic ([–F]) categories, returning to the functional ([+F]) categories towards the end of the chapter. Much of our discussion so far has concerned verbs. This perhaps reflects their centrality in many sentences, being typical predicates. It also seems that notions such as predicate and argument are more obviously expressed in relation to verbs. So it is right to start our discussion of categories with them.

1.3.4.1 Verbs

1.3.4.2 Nouns

1.3.4.3 Adjectives

1.3.4.4 Prepositions