The semantics of verbs

Chafe's basic verb types Characteristic for Chafe's approach is the position that a sentence is build around a predicative element, usually the verb. The nature of the verb determines what nouns will accompany it, what the relation of these nouns to it will be and how these nouns will be semantically specified. For example if the verb is specified as an action, as in The men laughed, such a verb dictates that the noun to be related is agent which might be further specified as animate.
Chafe distinguished four basic verb types: states, processes, actions and action processes. State verbs describe the state or condition of a single argument (The elephant is dead) and they associate with Patient. Non-state verbs are subdivided into three subclasses: processes, action and action-processes. Processes express a change of condition or state in its argument (The elephant died). They cooccur with Patients. Actions describe something that verb argument does or performs (Harriet sang), hence Agent is associated with action verbs. Action-processes account for both actions and processes. They have two arguments, the performer of the action, Agent, and the thing undergoing the process, Patient (The tiger killed the elephant). Chafe offers a number of semantico-syntactic tests that are indicative in distinguishing the basic verb types. The following relations are discussed in Chafe's model: Agent, Patient, Experiencer, Beneficiary, Complement, Locative and Instrument. He also draws attention to the "derivational" relations between these four basic verb types, which enable these to be established by postulating features like inchoative, causative, decausative, resultative. Thus, for example, the feature "inchoative" when added to a state gives a process. These derivational features, which often can be manifested morphologically, reflect the compositionality of verb meaning.
Cook's verb classification
Cook's case grammar matrix is a system based on two parameters. The vertical parameter has four values: state verbs, process verbs, action verbs and action processes, taken from Chafe [Cha70]. The other parameter has also four values: either with no further nuclear role added (e.g. only agent (A) and/or patient (P)), or with experiencer (E), benefactive (B) or locative (L) added as further nuclear elements. The content in Cook's matrix is presented below.
A. The four basic verb types

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  A.1 State verbs
  
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    Case frame [___Os], where Os=stative Object
    
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    examples: broken, dry, dead, tight
    
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  A.2 Process verbs
  
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    Case frame [___O]
    
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    examples: die, dry (iv.), break(iv.), tighten(iv.)
    
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  A.3 Action verbs
  
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    Case frame [___A]
    
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    examples: dance, laugh, play, sing
    
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  A.4 Action-process verbs
  
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    Case frame [___A, O]
    
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    examples: break (tv.), kill, dry (tv.), tighten (tv.)
    

B. The four experiential verb types

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  B.1 State experiential verbs
  
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    Case frame [___E, Os], where Os=stative Object
    
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    examples: doubt, know, like, want
    
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  B.2 Process experiential verbs
  
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    Case frame [___E, O]/ + psych movement
    
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    examples: amuse, annoy, frighten, please (when used with inanimate subjects)
    
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  B.3 Action experiential verbs
  
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    Case frame [___A, E]/ (derived frame)
    
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    examples: amuse, annoy, frighten, please (with A=O) (when used with animate subjects)
    
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    examples: answer, congratulate, praise, question (with lexicalised O or with O which is coreferential with A)
    
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  B.4 Action-process experiential verbs
  
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    Case frame [___A, E, O]
    
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    examples: ask, say, speak, tell
    

C. The four benefactive verb types

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  C.1 State benefactive verbs
  
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    Case frame [___B, Os], where Os=stative Object
    
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    examples; have, have got, own, belong to
    
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  C.2 Process benefactive verbs
  
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    Case frame [___B, O]
    
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    examples: acquire, gain, lose, win
    
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  C.3 Action benefactive verbs
  
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    Case frame [___A, B] (derived frame)
    
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    examples: arm, bribe, help, supply (with lexicalized O)
    
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  C.4 Action-process benefactive verbs
  
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    Case frame [___A, B, O](derived frame)
    
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    examples: give, accept, buy, sell
    

D. The four locative verb types

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  D.1 State locative verbs
  
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    Case frame [___Os, L], where Os=stative Object
    
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    examples: dwell, stay,(be) in, (be) at
    
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  D.2 Process locative verbs
  
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    Case frame [___O, L] (derived frame)
    
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    examples: come, go, move, shift (with inanimate subjects)
    
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  D.3 Action locative verbs
  
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    Case frame [___A, L] (derived frame)
    
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    examples: come, go (with animate subjects, where A=O), run, walk (where A=O)
    
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  D.4 Action-process locative verbs
  
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    Case frame [___A, O, L] (derived frame)
    
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    examples: bring, put, place, take
    

Longacre's verb classification
Longacre extended the number of nuclear cases to 10, which resulted in a considerable enlargement of the number of verb classes. His scheme of case frames reminds one of that of the periodic chart of the chemical elements. The horizontal parameter accounts for the four basic verb types. The vertical parameter covers verb classes specified below and marked with letters (a) to (h). The following thematic roles were posed as nuclear by Longacre: Experiencer (E), Patient (P), Agent (A), Range (R), Measure (M), Instrument (I), Locative (L), Source (S), Goal (G), Path (Pa), Time. Manner and Accompaniment were considered peripheral roles. The verb classes specified in Longacre's scheme include following (for the complete exemplificatio:

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  (a) ambient verbs: It's hot. It's cooling off.
  
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  (b) ambient-experiential verbs: It hailed on me. The patient is hot. John got cold. (E)
  
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  (c) emotive, psych and impingement verbs John is discouraged (about his work). E (I), John hit Bill (with his fist). A E (I)
  
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  (c') factual knowledge verbs know, learn, teach, study. They are illustrated below for the four basic verb types: state Susan knows algebra. (E R); process Susan has learned a lot of algebra. (E R); action Susan is studying algebra. (A/E R)
  
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  (d) verbs expressing desire or cognition: state Mary wants a Cadillac. (E G); process: Mary fell in love with Tom. (E G); action-process I introduced Mary to Tom. (A E G); action John scorned Mary. (A E/G or A G)
  
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  (d') verbs of sensation, speech and attention like f.ex. see, tell, listen
  
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  (e) physical verbs (These verbs correspond roughly to Chafe's and Cook's basic verb types.)
  
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  (f) measure verbs: state The statue weights one ton. (P M); process My bonds went down 10%.(P M); action-process I shortened it two inches. (A P M); action The cowboy gained five yards. (A M)
  
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  (g) locative verbs which are static in nature and combine with Locative The knife is in the box. (P L),They placed the book by the phone.(A P L)
  
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  (g') motion, propulsion and locomotion verbs which occur with cases like Source, Path, GoalDon fell from the chair.
  
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  (h) verbs of possession, acquisition, transfer and "grab" have, obtain, give, grab, all but the last of which involve the idea of property Dick has a new book. (P G), T. gave B. a book. (A/S P G).
  
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  (h') is similar to (h) but adds a semantic component of transitoriness (by having the feature MOTION instead direction.) T. gave B. a book for Sue. (A/S P Path G).
  

In Longacre's frame scheme there are 45 filled cells with the total of 48 case frames. It is characterised by an overall regularity with some spots of local irregularity. Longacre observes that rows (a-d') may have Experiencer but not Patient while rows (e-h') can have Patient but not Experiencer. This plus the distribution of Agent in the columns describing action-processes and actions show some major verb classes in the case frame approach.
Role and Reference Grammar (RRG)
The Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) has some characteristics in common with the models discussed above. The theory of verb classes occupies a central position in the system of lexical representation in RRG. The verb is also assumed to be a determining element in the nucleus predication. RRG starts with the Vendler [Ven68] classification of verbs into states (e.g. have, know, believe), achievements (e.g. die, realise, learn), accomplishments (e.g. give, teach, kill) and activities (e.g. swim, walk, talk). It utilises a modified version of the representational scheme proposed in Dowty [Dow89] to capture the distinctions between these verb classes.
Dowty explains the differences between the verb classes in terms of lexical decomposition system in which stative predicates (e.g. know, be, have) are taken as basic and other classes are derived from them. Thus achievements which are inchoative semantically are treated as states plus a BECOME operator, e.g. BECOME know' "learn". Accomplishments which are inherently causative are represented by the operator CAUSE linked to the achievements operator BECOME, e.g. CAUSE [BECOME know'] "teach". Activities are marked by the operator DO for agentive verbs. These decompositional forms are termed Logical Structures (LS) by Dowty. In RRG they are interpreted in the following way: