Application of lexical information in grammar: On the data of Czech verbs

Abstract

The interplay between lexical information and the rules of grammar is demonstrated by selected morphological and syntactic phenomena from the domain of Czech verbs. The application of some grammatical rules is based on the data stored in the lexicon. The information about valency is a substantial part of a lexical entry and it contains a great deal of supplementary information about this item. Systemic surface omissions of the obligatory valency positions are indicated in the valency frame in the lexicon (Sect. 2). Conditions for the choice of the formal expressions of the valency members (e.g. conjunctions in content clauses, infinitive forms of participants) depend on the features given in the corresponding lexical item of their governing verb as well (Sect. 3 and 6). Two types of semantic conversions are demonstrated in Section 4 with regard to the distinctions in their valency frames. The relation of reciprocity is understood here as a syntactic diathesis (Sect. 5). The introduction of the new types of grammatical diatheses is discussed in Sect. 7: The morphologhy and syntax of resultative, recipient and dispositional diatheses are described here together with the requirements of the grammatical component regarding the shape of lexical items of the verbs participating in these diathesis (Section 8).