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LIVEA VALENCY ANALYSIS

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The verb live has two meanings:

He lives (in) London.

They lived happily ever after.

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The same is true of Russian zhit’:

On zhivet (v) Moskve.

Nam zhilos’ xorosho.

’He lives in Moscow.’ /We had a good life.’

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…whereas in German we have two different verbs:

Er wohnt (in) Berlin

Er lebt (ein) schönes (Leben).

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In Swedish, too, there are two verbs:

Han bor (i) Stockholm.

Han lever (i) högönsklig välmåga.

(The analysis of högönsklig could be elaborated further.)

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Now let us look into word formation. The derivative life and its equivalents are

one-place predicates.

life in London

ett liv (i) rikedom

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In Russian there are two derived nouns, one for each meaning. However, the

two-place predicate is formed not from zhit’ directly, but from prozhivat’.

zhizn’ v Moskve

prozhivanie (v) Moskve

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Actant derivatives are absent in English. In other languages they are mostly

formed from the two-place predicate. One exception are words like Lebemann,

viveur:

<Lebe>mann

<viv>eur

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In these examples leben/vivre has, of course, a restricted meaning. We could

add an extra predicate («high») to represent this.

«hoch» <Lebe>mann

«haut» <viv>eur

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In Swedish there are non-actant derivatives from the one-place predicate

leva: leverne and levnad.

<lev>erne

way (of) life

which means:

Leverne can also mean simply ’life’.

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Levnad:

<lev>nad «under (loppet av)»

which means:<life>time «during»

Cf. also: levnadslopp, Lebenslauf.

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As to the two-place predicate, derivatives occupying the first valency

position are quite common.

husets <bebo>ere

<stads><bo>r

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In German different words are used for inhabitants of houses and towns.

die Ein<wohn>er der Stadt

die <Haus><bewohn>er

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The same is true of Russian:

<zhi>teli Moskvy

<zhil’>cy doma

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The second actant (the place) is expressed by derivatives in several

languages:

<Wohn>ung

<zhil>ishche

<bo>stad, <bo>ning, <bo>

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The last Swedish noun, bo, is formed by zero suffixation and has a restriction

(«animals») on the first valency position of the corresponding verb.

«djur» <bo>

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Only seldom such derivatives can be used to form syntagms.

invånarna (i) <bo>staden

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When other words than derivatives are used, it is necessary to insert an implicit

predicate.

the inhabitants «live» (of) the house

invånarna «bo» (i) lägenheten

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The implicit verb «live» is extracted from the meaning of either or both of the

explicit actants. More examples:

«live» flat

«live» <bee>hive

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In the last example bee- can be removed without changing the meaning. This

means that bee is moved to an implicit node. Cf.:

«live» <bee>hive

«live» hive «bee»

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The word house is rather weakly connected with «live» and therefore

sometimes need specification.

(<bo>nings)hus

(<bo>stads)hus

zhiloj dom

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In living room the verb live has a modified meaning. It can no longer be

regarded as a two-place predicate.

living «in» room

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A common type of first-actant derivatives are formed from the name of

the place (mostly proper names).

the <London>ers «live»

die <Berlin>er «wohnen»

<göteborg>are «bo»

<moskv>ichi «zhit’»

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Kennedy said: ”Ich bin ein Berliner.” Maybe he should have said:

Ich (bin <Berlin>er). «wohnen»

But ”Ich wohne in Berlin” wouldn’t have the same effect, would it?

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Much more seldom common names are used as bases for such derivatives.

<kvartir>anty «zhit’»

<gorozh>ane «zhit’»

’inhabitants of the flat’ /’inhabitants of the city’

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Certain suffixes can evoke other implicit predicates than «live». Cf.:

<lund>ensare «studera» «i»

<lunda><bo>

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THE END