Cruse (1973): Some thoughts on agentivity

Cruse replaces the referential definitions of agentivity, Fillmore's animate perceived instigator and Gruber's wilful source, by an entailment test: a noun is a doer in a sentence when the sentence entails that the noun did something. The test admits inanimate doers, process verbs and statives, against the received opinions, and what it detects is heterogeneous: at least four features each suffice for doing, the volitive, the effective, the initiative and the agentive, an instrument bearing none of them, and each has contextual diagnostics of its own.

A noun's profile is the set of features its sentence attributes to it, so a doer is a noun with a nonempty profile. The paper's examples are checked against the normality each frame predicts from the profile, the three received opinions are refuted among them, and Gruber's criteria of agentivity, as the paper reanalyzes them, pick out strictly nested classes of nouns.

Implementation notes

• The agentive and the effective are the features of a force bearer drawing on its own energy and on energy imparted to it; isSelfEnergetic_iff_exists_energySource_eq identifies them with the self-energetic sources of EnergySource. An instrumental bears no feature.
• The paper's query mark is printed as ?; it defines the mark as clear abnormality, so a marked example counts as abnormal.
• The paper leaves open the contexts that neutralize do and happen, and its examples in them are outside the model.

References

• D. A. Cruse, Some thoughts on agentivity (1973)
• C. J. Fillmore, The case for case (1968)
• J. S. Gruber, Look and see (1967)
• M. A. K. Halliday, Notes on transitivity and theme in English: part 1 (1967)
• M. A. K. Halliday, Notes on transitivity and theme in English: part 3 (1968)
• J. Lyons, Structural semantics (1963)
• J. Lyons, Introduction to theoretical linguistics (1968)
• J. M. Anderson, The grammar of case (1971)
• W. L. Chafe, Meaning and the structure of language (1970)

inductive Cruse1973.Feature : Type

The features whose presence makes a noun a doer.

• volitive : Feature

  An act of will is stated or implied.

• effective : Feature

  The noun exerts a force by virtue of its position or motion, not of its own energy.

• initiative : Feature

  The noun initiates the action by giving a command.

• agentive : Feature

  The noun uses its own energy in carrying out the action.

@[instance_reducible]

instance Cruse1973.instDecidableEqFeature : DecidableEq Feature

Equations

• Cruse1973.instDecidableEqFeature x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯

@[instance_reducible]

instance Cruse1973.instFintypeFeature : Fintype Feature

Equations

• Cruse1973.instFintypeFeature = { elems := { val := ↑Cruse1973.Feature.enumList, nodup := Cruse1973.Feature.enumList_nodup }, complete := Cruse1973.instFintypeFeature._proof_1 }

def Cruse1973.Feature.energySource : Feature → Option ArgumentStructure.EnergySource

The energy source a feature attributes to a force bearer.

Equations

• Cruse1973.Feature.agentive.energySource = some ArgumentStructure.EnergySource.internal
• Cruse1973.Feature.effective.energySource = some ArgumentStructure.EnergySource.imparted
• Cruse1973.Feature.volitive.energySource = none
• Cruse1973.Feature.initiative.energySource = none

theorem Cruse1973.isSelfEnergetic_iff_exists_energySource_eq (s : ArgumentStructure.EnergySource) : s.IsSelfEnergetic ↔ ∃ (f : Feature), f.energySource = some s

The sources the features attribute are the self-energetic ones: an instrument, whose user supplies its energy, is no doer.

@[reducible, inline]

abbrev Cruse1973.Profile : Type

The features a sentence attributes to a noun in relation to its verb.

Equations

• Cruse1973.Profile = Finset Cruse1973.Feature

inductive Cruse1973.Frame : Type

The frames the paper places a sentence in.

• doForm : Frame

  What X did was …, for a subject.

• happenForm : Frame

  What happened to X was that …, for a subject.

• entails : Frame

  X VP entails X did something, or the normality of X VP: it therefore follows that X did something, for a subject or an object.

• purpose : Frame

  A purpose phrase in order to ….

• imperative : Frame

  The imperative.

• carefully : Frame

  Modification by carefully.

• reflexive : Frame

  Reflexivization of an ergative verb used intransitively, or V oneself Adj for a non-ergative, with minor rather than considerable semantic effects.

• manner : Frame

  A manner adverb of energy output, powerfully, vigorously or energetically, for gross physical actions.

• causative : Frame

  Transitive fly with the noun as its object.

• initiativeDenial : Frame

  A context denying a precondition of initiation by command.

• progressive : Frame

  The progressive form, Lyons's criterion for stativity.

• plain : Frame

  The sentence itself.

@[instance_reducible]

instance Cruse1973.instDecidableEqFrame : DecidableEq Frame

Equations

• Cruse1973.instDecidableEqFrame x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯

def Cruse1973.Frame.Normal : Frame → Profile → Prop

Normality of a sentence in a frame as the paper's diagnostics predict it from the noun's profile. The paper claims only that each feature suffices for the do form; that a noun with no feature is no doer is read off its happen-sentences. The progressive tests the verb's stativity, on which the profile places no constraint.

Equations

• Cruse1973.Frame.doForm.Normal x✝ = Finset.Nonempty x✝
• Cruse1973.Frame.entails.Normal x✝ = Finset.Nonempty x✝
• Cruse1973.Frame.happenForm.Normal x✝ = (x✝ = ∅)
• Cruse1973.Frame.purpose.Normal x✝ = (Cruse1973.Feature.volitive ∈ x✝)
• Cruse1973.Frame.imperative.Normal x✝ = (Cruse1973.Feature.volitive ∈ x✝)
• Cruse1973.Frame.carefully.Normal x✝ = (Cruse1973.Feature.volitive ∈ x✝ ∧ Cruse1973.Feature.agentive ∈ x✝)
• Cruse1973.Frame.reflexive.Normal x✝ = (Cruse1973.Feature.agentive ∈ x✝)
• Cruse1973.Frame.manner.Normal x✝ = (Cruse1973.Feature.agentive ∈ x✝)
• Cruse1973.Frame.causative.Normal x✝ = (Cruse1973.Feature.agentive ∈ x✝)
• Cruse1973.Frame.initiativeDenial.Normal x✝ = (Cruse1973.Feature.initiative ∉ x✝)
• Cruse1973.Frame.progressive.Normal x✝ = True
• Cruse1973.Frame.plain.Normal x✝ = True

@[instance_reducible]

instance Cruse1973.instDecidablePredProfileNormal (t : Frame) : DecidablePred t.Normal

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

inductive Cruse1973.VerbClass : Type

Lyons's verb classes at issue in the received opinions.

• process : VerbClass

  An obligatorily process verb, die.

• stative : VerbClass

  A stative verb, stand, have.

@[instance_reducible]

instance Cruse1973.instDecidableEqVerbClass : DecidableEq VerbClass

Equations

• Cruse1973.instDecidableEqVerbClass x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯

Gruber's criteria

theorem Cruse1973.carefully_lt_purpose_lt_doForm : Frame.carefully.Normal < Frame.purpose.Normal ∧ Frame.purpose.Normal < Frame.doForm.Normal

Gruber's criteria of agentivity, as the paper reanalyzes them, pick out strictly nested classes of nouns: carefully detects the volitive and the agentive together, the purpose phrase the volitive, and the do form any feature.

The paper's examples

def Cruse1973.Frame.labels : List (String × Frame)

The frames by their paperFeatures labels.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def Cruse1973.Profile.labels : List (String × Profile)

The profiles by their paperFeatures labels; an instrumental bears no feature.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

structure Cruse1973.Row : Type

An example of the paper, with its frame, the profile of its noun, its judgment, and whether it states that an entailment fails.

• frame : Frame
• profile : Option Profile

  The profile attributed to the noun, if any; the stative and some ambiguous examples carry none.

• inferred : Bool

  Whether the attribution is the study's rather than the paper's.

• inanimate : Bool

  Whether the noun is marked inanimate.

• verbClass : Option VerbClass

  The verb's class, where a received opinion is at issue.

• neutralized : Bool

  Whether do and happen are neutralized, as in why does the door do that.

• judgment : Judgment
• denied : Bool

  The example states that the entailment fails, X VP does not entail X did something.

def Cruse1973.Row.ofDatum (e : Datum) : Option Row

An example read into its frame, profile and judgment.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

theorem Cruse1973.isSome_ofDatum (e : Datum) : e ∈ Examples.all → (Row.ofDatum e).isSome = true

Every example names its frame.

def Cruse1973.data : List Row

The paper's examples.

Equations

• Cruse1973.data = List.filterMap Cruse1973.Row.ofDatum Cruse1973.Examples.all

theorem Cruse1973.acceptable_iff_normal (d : Row) : d ∈ data → d.neutralized = false → ∀ p ∈ d.profile, d.judgment = Judgment.acceptable ∧ d.denied = false ↔ d.frame.Normal p

The paper reports a sentence normal in its frame, printing it unmarked and not denying its entailment, exactly when its noun's profile predicts it, neutralization aside.

theorem Cruse1973.exists_neutralized_doForm : ∃ d ∈ data, d.neutralized = true ∧ d.profile = some ∅ ∧ d.frame = Frame.doForm ∧ d.judgment = Judgment.acceptable

Where do and happen are neutralized, the do form is normal though the noun bears no feature: why does the door do that?

Against the received opinions

theorem Cruse1973.exists_inanimate_doer : ∃ d ∈ data, d.inanimate = true ∧ d.frame = Frame.doForm ∧ d.judgment = Judgment.acceptable

An inanimate noun is a doer: the wind, the computer, the bullet.

theorem Cruse1973.exists_process_doer : ∃ d ∈ data, d.verbClass = some VerbClass.process ∧ d.frame = Frame.doForm ∧ d.judgment = Judgment.acceptable

A process verb has a do-interpretation: dying in order to save us.

theorem Cruse1973.exists_stative_doer : ∃ d ∈ data, d.verbClass = some VerbClass.stative ∧ d.frame = Frame.doForm ∧ d.judgment = Judgment.acceptable

A stative verb has a do-interpretation: standing, having one's passport ready.

The heterogeneity of doing

theorem Cruse1973.exists_doer_of_feature (f : Feature) : f ∈ [Feature.volitive, Feature.effective] → ∃ d ∈ data, d.inferred = false ∧ d.profile = some {f} ∧ d.frame = Frame.doForm ∧ d.judgment = Judgment.acceptable

The volitive and the effective each make a doer alone on the paper's own attribution: drifting so as to avoid enemy territory, the flying stone breaking the window. The agentive alone, as in sneezing, rests on the study's attribution.