Argument structure and linking

In this chapter, we discuss the nature and purpose of argument structure in HPSG, focusing on the problems that theories of argument structure are intended to solve, including: (1) the relationship between semantic arguments of predicates and their syntactic realizations, (2) the fact that lexical items can occur in more than one syntactic frame (so-called valence or diathesis alternations), and (3) argument structure as the locus of binding principles. We also discuss cases where the argument structure of a verb includes more elements than predicted from the meaning of the verb, as well as rationales for a lexical approach to argument structure.