OTHERS

A number of other Primary-B types are here surveyed quite briefly since they do not have critical properties in terms of the syntactic topics. All of these types include some verbs which take complement clauses and some which do not.

The ACTING subtype refers to a manner of behaving. Act and behave are intransitive, generally with a HUMAN subject, and normally receive adverbial modification that expresses a value judgement about the activity, e.g. He is acting like a fool, She is behaving well. (If no adverbial element is included with behave then ‘well’ is implied, i.e. She is behaving is an abbreviation of She is behaving well. When act is used without adverbial modification it takes on a quite different sense, akin to ‘behaving falsely’.)

Transitive verbs adopt (e.g. habits), copy, imitate, mimic, mime and reproduce have a similar, very general potential reference; their A NP is likely to be HUMAN and the O NP should refer either to a person or to some activity (either through an NP or—except for adopt—an ING complement clause), e.g. She copied John, She adopted his manner of walking, They reproduced the fight, She imitated John’s trying to button his shirt when he was dizzy.

HAPPENING verbs describe some event taking place and generally have an ACTIVITY noun in S or O slot. Happen and take place are intransitive, and carry no implication that an ‘agent’ was involved, e.g. The fight just happened. The transitive verbs organize, arrange and bring NP about will have a HUMAN as A and either an ACTIVITY noun or a THAT or ING clause as O, e.g. He arranged the fight/that they should fight after school/their fighting after school. There are transitive verbs with more specific meanings which are only likely to have an NP as O—commit (e.g. a crime), attend to/neglect (e.g. the arrangements), put NP on (e.g. the concert), take NP on (e.g. the responsibility of organizing something), do (e.g. the organizing), tie (e.g. the concert) in with (e.g. the prize-giving), one sense of change (e.g. the arrangements), devise (e.g. a new hierarchy).

Experience and undergo are transitive verbs with a different semantic profile—here the A NP is a HUMAN who is generally not in control of what happens. In O relation we can have an ACTIVITY or STATE noun or an ING complement clause (often in the passive, as befits the meanings of experience and undergo), always with the same subject as the main clause, e.g. I experienced being shot at/a bloody battle/her jealousy.

Transpire is an intransitive verb whose S can be the interrogative what—as in What transpired at the meeting?—or a THAT complement clause, generally with extraposition, as in It transpired that John had forgotten his wallet.

COMPARING verbs are all transitive (some having inherent prepositions). Resemble and differ (from) must have NPs or subjectless complement clauses with comparable meanings as fillers of A and O slots, e.g. John differs a lot from his brother (in work habits), Being kissed by Zelig resembles being licked by an elephant. The phrasal verb take after NP is restricted to NPs in A and O relation, e.g. He takes after his mother (in being deeply religious). Adjectives like, unlike, similar (to) and different (from) have similar semantics and syntax to resemble and differ (from).

A second set—distinguish (between), compare; class, group, cost, grade (the last four derived from nouns); match, balance, measure, weigh, time (e.g. a race) and count—describe the human activity of comparing and quantifying. They normally take a HUMAN noun as head of the A NP and an O that refers to several comparable things or activities (which can be described through NPs or ING complement clauses linked by a preposition), e.g. He compared Headley and/with Hobbs, She found it hard to distinguish between John’s nodding his head and his shaking his head. Fit and suit, which can refer to natural connections between things, belong in the same type, e.g. Yellow suits Mary, That dress fits you, Going in first wicket down suited Don Bradman. Equal is most frequently used with numerical quantities, e.g. The square on the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares on the other two sides.

The verbs include, comprise, consist of/in and be made up of may have NPs or complement clauses in A and O relations, e.g. That book includes four maps, Mailing a letter consists of buying a stamp, sticking it on the top right corner of the envelope, and then dropping it into the mailbox. Comprise is fascinating in that it has the same meaning as be comprised of, with the past participle as copula complement; for example, The expeditionary force comprised/was comprised of four battalions.

RELATING verbs are basically all transitive (again, some include an inherent preposition) and refer to a natural or logical relationship between two states or activities. A and O can each be a plain NP (generally, with an ACTIVITY or STATE noun as head) or a THAT or WH- or ING complement clause, e.g. Whether John will agree to go depends on the weather/on who is appointed leader, Mary’s refusing to eat dinner results from the fact that her dog just died, The fact that the dog died indicates that it wasn’t properly cared for.

Verbs in this type, besides depend (on), result (from) and indicate, include relate (to), imply, be due (to) and particular senses of show, demonstrate and suggest. Note that these verbs, together with some from the COMPARING type (such as resemble, differ from, include, comprise) and some from MAKING and HELPING, appear to be the only verbs in English which can take complement clauses in A and O slots simultaneously.

In an appropriate context one may hear someone say just It depends, but there is likely to be an expectation that the addressee is aware of what it depends on, in terms of knowledge shared with the speaker (this may relate to something which has just been discussed).