Lexical Generativity in English

Lexical Generativity in English: An Empirical Study of Verb Classes, Noun Polysemy, and Prepositions

Author: Pablo Nogueira Grossi · G6 LLC · Newark NJ ORCID: 0009-0000-6496-2186 Series root: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19117399 Submitted to: International Journal of Lexicography (Oxford University Press) License: CC BY 4.0

Abstract

This article examines lexical generativity in English: the capacity of a finite lexical inventory to support a theoretically unbounded range of context-sensitive meanings in use. Drawing on three converging empirical resources — the verb classification system of Levin (1991, 1993), the frame-semantic architecture of FrameNet (Fillmore, Johnson & Petruck, 2003), and the class-membership and alternation structure of VerbNet (Kipper, Korhonen, Ryant & Palmer, 2008) — the article proposes a layered model of lexical generativity that distinguishes among:

• (a) stored semantic primitives and qualia structure (Level I)
• (b) argument-structure templates licensed by class membership (Level II)
• (c) event-type composition rules governing productive meaning extension (Level III)

The empirical core consists of detailed analysis of twelve English verb classes: manner-of-motion, change-of-state, causative-inchoative alternation, communication verbs, psychological verbs, creation-and-transformation verbs, aspectual verbs, verbs of putting, spray-load verbs, contact-by-impact verbs, perception verbs, emission verbs, and verbs of appearance and disappearance. The analysis is extended to systematic noun polysemy — dot objects, type coercion, and metonymic transfer — and to the generative semantics of English spatial prepositions, with a case study of over. Throughout, the article argues that apparent lexicographic irregularities are systematic consequences of a small set of generative principles that can be stated precisely, incorporated into lexicographic description, and exploited in computational lexicography. Implications for dictionary design, large-scale lexical database annotation, and natural language processing are discussed.

Keywords: lexical generativity · verb classes · noun polysemy · prepositions · FrameNet · VerbNet · Levin classes · generative lexicon · computational lexicography · argument structure · type coercion · metonymy · qualia structure

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Submitted to the International Journal of Lexicography (Oxford University Press). This preprint is posted in accordance with OUP's preprint policy.

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