Avalent
Encyclopedia
Avalency refers to the property of a verb of taking no argument
s. Avalent verbs are verbs
which have no valency
, i.e. they have no logical arguments, such as subject
, object
or otherwise. A common example of such verbs in many languages are verbs describing weather
.
It rains.
It snows.
It is freezing.
It is snowing.
Though these verbs do have what seems to be a subject, it, it is arguably completely void of semantic meaning and merely a syntactic placeholder, a dummy subject. Contrary views of this use of it do exist, however, making it here potentially a "quasi-(verb) argument" or simply a normal subject.
The point of avalency is more demonstrative and pronounced in pro-drop languages
such as Spanish
, which do not grammatically require a dummy pronoun as English does. For instance, the Spanish equivalent of it's raining is llueve.
Verb argument
In linguistics, a verb argument is a phrase that appears in a syntactic relationship with the verb in a clause. In English, for example, the two most important arguments are the subject and the direct object....
s. Avalent verbs are verbs
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
which have no valency
Valency (linguistics)
In linguistics, verb valency or valence refers to the number of arguments controlled by a verbal predicate. It is related, though not identical, to verb transitivity, which counts only object arguments of the verbal predicate...
, i.e. they have no logical arguments, such as subject
Subject (grammar)
The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
, object
Object (grammar)
An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...
or otherwise. A common example of such verbs in many languages are verbs describing weather
Weather
Weather is the state of the atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. Most weather phenomena occur in the troposphere, just below the stratosphere. Weather refers, generally, to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate...
.
It rains.
It snows.
It is freezing.
It is snowing.
Though these verbs do have what seems to be a subject, it, it is arguably completely void of semantic meaning and merely a syntactic placeholder, a dummy subject. Contrary views of this use of it do exist, however, making it here potentially a "quasi-(verb) argument" or simply a normal subject.
The point of avalency is more demonstrative and pronounced in pro-drop languages
Pro-drop language
A pro-drop language is a language in which certain classes of pronouns may be omitted when they are in some sense pragmatically inferable...
such as Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, which do not grammatically require a dummy pronoun as English does. For instance, the Spanish equivalent of it's raining is llueve.