Others

A number of other Primary-A types are surveyed here quite briefly, since they generally do not have critical properties in terms of the syntactic topics. The types listed below—unlike MOTION, REST, AFFECT, GIVING and CORPOREAL—do permit non-concrete nouns (mostly, ACTIVITY nouns) in core syntactic relations.

COMPETITION refers to some Competitor (who is invariably HUMAN) trying to establish their superiority, whether in fighting a battle or playing a game. These verbs are generally transitive, with the A relation filled by a Competitor role. With conquer, beat, overcome and race (against), the O relation relates to another Competitor (and generally may not be omitted), e.g. John beat Fred at Scrabble/in battle. For resist, fight and play the O can be either another Competitor or else an ACTIVITY noun such as attack, e.g. The French resisted the Germans/the attack/the attack of the Germans. For win or lose the O will be either an ACTIVITY noun, or else a noun referring to some prize that is transferred as a result of the competition; an object of the first kind can be omitted but one of the second kind may not be. In addition, an NP referring to a second Competitor may be introduced by a preposition. Thus Argentina lost (the battle of the Falkland Islands) (to Britain), and John won the book (from Mary). With win and lose an NP that provides a general description of some kind of activity may be introduced by a preposition, whereas an NP referring to a specific instance of activity would be in O slot, e.g. John won/lost that game of chess, but John wins/loses at chess. For attack, guard, shield and surrender the O NP can refer to a place or to people, e.g. They attacked the city/army, They surrendered the city/hostages/themselves (to the enemy), while for defend it must be a place or thing, e.g. They defended the city (against enemy attack), They defended their company (against take-over bids). Finally, there are a number of ‘symmetrical’ verbs, as John competed with Mary, John struggled against Mary and John and Mary competed (with each other), John and Mary struggled (against each other); fight and play may be used in the same manner.

Race can be used in a causative construction, e.g. The tortoise raced against the hare, John raced the tortoise against the hare. Win and lose form unusual causatives where the ‘reason’ for winning/losing (which may, in the plain construction, be introduced by because) becomes transitive subject and the original transitive subject is now introduced by for, e.g. We lost/won the match because of that error and That error won/lost the match for us. The NP governed by for can be moved into direct object slot (with the for dropping), e.g. That error won/lost us the match.

For greater pragmatic effect, sports commentators (in Australia, at least) often employ metaphorical senses of other verbs in place of plain win and lose. For example, an emphatic win can be described by St Kilda crushed/ thrashed/flogged/smashed Brisbane.

SOCIAL CONTRACT refers to the ways in which some human societies are organized. Most of these verbs are transitive, and require a HUMAN in A relation. Some may have an O NP referring to one person or to a group of people, e.g. appoint, employ, dismiss, sack, fire, promote, nominate, convert, arrest, prosecute, impeach, punish. For others the O must refer to a group of people (often organized in units like a nation or company), e.g. govern, rule, civilize, missionize and join. Manage may have the O NP referring either to a group of people or to some activity, e.g. manage the pupils/the school/the organization of sports day. There are also SOCIAL CONTRACT verbs that involve an inherent preposition introducing an NP that refers to some job or position, e.g. apply for, qualify for, resign from, one sense of withdraw ( from) and one sense of work (at). A further kind of social contract is described by the inherently reciprocal verb marry.

USING verbs are all transitive. The verb use can take a wide range of O NPs; it means ‘do with that thing whatever is most appropriately done with it, in the circumstances, doing this in a productive manner’, thus He used all the potatoes might refer to cooking them; She always uses flowers from the garden could refer to picking them and putting them in vases through the house. Use will often be followed by a subordinate clause specifying the appropriate activity, e.g. use the flour to make a cake, use the money to buy a dress, use the stick to hit Fred, use the bus to get to work, use those allegations of misconduct to get John to resign. There are also hyponyms of use such as operate, manipulate, one sense of work, one sense of employ, wear (e.g. clothes); and there are waste ‘use non-productively’ and fiddle with ‘play at using’.

OBEYING verbs are also transitive. The verb obey can have as referent of the O NP either a specific kind of SPEECH ACT (e.g. order, instruction) or else the person who issued such a speech act. For execute (in the ‘obey’ sense) the O must be a speech act. Process, deal with, grant and refuse (in one of its senses) take as head of the O NP another kind of SPEECH ACT noun (e.g. request, application). Perform requires an activity noun (e.g. task, plan). The O NP may be omitted after obey (e.g. John always obeys), but not after the other, more specific verbs.