Linking as constraints on word classes in a hierarchical lexicon

In this paper, we propose an alternative account of linking patterns which does away with intermediary mechanisms such as thematic or actor/undergoer hierarchies. The basis of this theory is constraints on word classes, deened by both syntactic and semantic criteria, which encode generalizations between semantic roles and syntactic arguments. We show that the generalizations a linking theory needs to capture can be modeled via the same mechanisms as other lexical generalizations. In particular, we posit a set of hierarchically organized conditions, speciied on word classes. Each condition provides a partial speciication of the mapping between semantic roles and syntactic arguments. We argue that this constraint, verb-class-based view of linking present several empirical advantages: partial regularities and exceptions are easily accomodated, ne-grained semantic distinctions relevant to linking are countenanced, cross-cutting similarities between semantic and syntactic verb classes are economically captured. What are the general principles governing the mapping of semantic arguments onto syntactic functions? Theories of this correspondence (often referred to as linking theories or mapping theories) typically invoke intermediary mechanisms such as thematic or ac-tor/undergoer hierarchies. Since the original work of Fillmore (1968) in case grammar, these hierarchies have featured prominantly in a wide range of models (see Foley and Van Valin among others). In this paper, we propose an alternative account of linking patterns which does away with any such hierarchy. The basis of this theory is constraints on word classes, deened by both syntactic and semantic criteria which encode generalizations between semantic roles and syntactic arguments. This theory thus builds on the richer view of the lexicon which has emerged in recent years in several frameworks we take the view that word classes are organized in a subsumption hierarchy (Fickinger (1987), among others), with more speciic ones inheriting information from more general ones. We show that the generalizations a linking theory needs to capture can be modeled The order of the authors' names is purely alphabetical; each contributed equally to this paper. 1 via the same mechanisms as other lexical generalizations and do not require intermediary mechanisms such as thematic or actor/undergoer hierarchies. In their place, we posit a set of hierarchically organized conditions, speciied on word classes. Each condition provides a partial speciication of the mapping between semantic roles and syntactic arguments. Throughout this paper, we will focus on three advantages this view ooers: We can motivate the general architecture of our linking theory on independently justiied …