Subcategorization of Pangasinan Verbs

Abstract

In Generative Grammar, the primary goal of a linguist is to determine and formulate the underlying rules and principles that govern a language. Using the concept of subcategorization, this study primarily aims to identify the subcategories of Pangasinan verbs based on the selected syntactic argument/s, as well as the selectional or the semantic restrictions required by the verb. There are four main subcategories of Pangasinan verbs identified in this study, which include V; [ __ ], V; [ __ NP], V; [ __ NP1 NP2] and V;[ __ PP]. Under each subcategory, the selectional rules are also provided which, on the other hand, indicate the affixes that a verb may take, as well as the thematic role assigned to each syntactic argument that co-occurs with the verb. Although not all possible Pangasinan verbs were included the analysis, the presented subcategorization and selectional rules can still be applied to describe and classify other verbs, as well to generate grammatical and semantically acceptable constructions.


Keywords: Generative Grammar, subcategorization, verbs, Pangasinan language