<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Theories of valency and valency dictionaries are inevitably and understandably based on the valency behavior of frequent verbs. This paper scrutinizes 154 low-frequency Czech verbs and argues that they demonstrate that Czech verbs are more malleable in their valency behavior than suggested by the literature. It is argued that this fits better within a constructionist approach to valency rather than a lexicalist one. Furthermore, the paper illustrates two alternations, previously unrecognized for Czech as semantic diatheses, namely the causative-inchoative alternation and the Agent-Means alternation.</p>
</abstract>

Theories of valency and valency dictionaries are inevitably and understandably based on the valency behavior of frequent verbs. This paper scrutinizes 154 low-frequency Czech verbs and argues that they demonstrate that Czech verbs are more malleable in their valency behavior than suggested by the literature. It is argued that this fits better within a constructionist approach to valency rather than a lexicalist one. Furthermore, the paper illustrates two alternations, previously unrecognized for Czech as semantic diatheses, namely the causative-inchoative alternation and the Agent-Means alternation.

The study of valency is biased toward more frequent verbs: A corpus study of the valency of less frequent verbs in Czech

Journal of Linguistics/Jazykovedný casopis

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Theories of valency and valency dictionaries are inevitably and understandably based on the valency behavior of frequent verbs. This paper scrutinizes 154...

The study of valency is biased toward more frequent verbs: A corpus study of the valency of less frequent verbs in Czech

Published Online: Dec 30, 2021

Page range: 434 - 443

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jazcas-2021-0040

Keywords
valency, valency alternation, causativity, frequency

© 2021 Jakub Sláma, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The study of valency is biased toward more frequent verbs: A corpus study of the valency of less frequent verbs in Czech

Published Online: Dec 30, 2021

Page range: 434 - 443

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jazcas-2021-0040

Keywordsvalency, valency alternation, causativity, frequency

© 2021 Jakub Sláma, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
valency, valency alternation, causativity, frequency