Light Verbs: Tnx0lVN1

Description:

The verb/noun pairs that select this tree families are pairs in which the interpretation is non-compositional and the noun contributes argument structure to the predicate (e.g. The man took a walk. vs. The man took a radio). The verb and the noun occur together in the syntactic database, and both anchor the trees. The verbs in the light verb constructions are do, give, have, make and take. The noun following the light verb is (usually) in a bare infinitive form (have a good cry) and usually occurs with a(n). However, we include deverbal nominals (take a bath, give a demonstration) as well. Constructions with nouns that do not contribute an argument structure (have a cigarette, give NP a black eye) are excluded. In addition to semantic considerations of light verbs, they differ syntactically from Transitive verbs (section 6.2) as well in that the noun in the light verb construction does not extract. Some of the verb-noun anchors for this family, like take aim and take hold disallow determiners, while others require particular determiners. For example, have think must be indefinite and singular, as attested by the ungrammaticality of *John had the think/some thinks. Another anchor, take leave can occur either bare or with a possesive pronoun (e.g., John took his leave, but not *John took the leave). This is accomplished through feature specification on the lexical entries. There are 259 verb/noun pairs that select the light verb tree.

Examples:

give groan, have discussion, make comment
The audience gave a collective groan .
We had a big discussion about closing the libraries .
The professors made comments on the paper .

Declarative tree:

See Figure 6.15.

  

Figure: Declarative Light Verb Tree: $\alpha$nx0lVN1

Other available trees:

wh-moved subject, subject relative clause with and without comp, adjunct (gap-less) relative clause with comp/with PP pied-piping, imperative, determiner gerund, NP gerund.