Diathesis alternation

In linguistics the term diathesis alternation or verb alternation^[1] refers to the fact that verbs can be used in different subcategorization frames where they slightly change their semantic meaning. It is a hard problem for theoretical linguistics how to encode constraints on the diathesis alternation of a specific verb to a lexicon. It is also claimed that the manner in which verbs undergo diathesis alternation can be used to identify the semantic class they belong to e.g. in a machine learning task.

Examples

• Fred ate the pizza vs. Fred ate
• Mary broke the window vs. The window broke
• Mary presented the flowers to John vs. Mary presented John with the flowers

References

1. ^ Levin, B. (1993) English Verb Classes and Alternations: A Preliminary Investigation, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL

See also

• Voice (grammar)

This syntax-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Syntax Syntax stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую Ellen Tebbits Woodworth, Wisconsin Look at other dictionaries: Alternation — may refer to:*Alternation (card game) *Alternation (linguistics), a variation in the phonological form of a morpheme *Diathesis alternation *Alternation (algorithms), see Alternating Turing machine *R/N alternation, see Rhotacism * AlterNation, a …   Wikipedia Voice (grammar) — Grammatical categories Animacy Aspect Case Clusivity Definiteness Degree of comparison Evidentiality Focus …   Wikipedia Manic-Depressive Illness —    (Bipolar Disorder)    Before 1850, numerous physicians had commented on the alternation of mania and melancholia. In 1844, Karl Wigand Maximilian Jacobi (1775–1858), chief physician of Siegburg asylum in Germany, noted that Exaltation and… …   Historical dictionary of Psychiatry 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”