There Are More Valence Alternations than the Ditransitive

Recent research has witnessed a growing interest in determining how much usage frequency explains language patterns and language processing (Bybee, 2006; Pierrehumbert, 2001; Jurafsky, 2002). This paper focuses on the degree to which the relative frequency of verbs in syntactic frames (or valence alternations) may explain the acquisition of these frames (or these alternations). Valence alternations can be roughly defined as a set of verbs alternatively taking two or more sets of similar syntactic dependents with similar truth conditions. The English ditransitive alternation, one of the most widely discussed valence alternations, is illustrated in the sentences in (1).