Valency (linguistics)

From Freepedia

In linguistics, valency or valence refers to the capacity of a verb to take a specific number and type of arguments (noun phrase positions). A monovalent verb (for example, sleep) cannot take a direct object (*he sleeps it). A trivalent verb has three arguments (e. g., give has the giver, the givee, and the thing given).

The linguistical meaning of valence is derived from the definition of valency in chemistry.

Valency is closely related, though not identical, to transitivity. Transitivity refers to the number of core arguments of the verb that are not optional (giving intransitive verbs, transitive verbs, and ditransitive verbs). For example:

(1) Newlyn lies at the western end of Mount's Bay.

(2) Newlyn lies.

In sentence (1), the verb lies implies the occurrence of a subject and an adverbial (valency = 2). In sentence (2) it means a different thing, and its valency is 1. However, the verb lie is formally classified as intransitive because it only requires one core argument (the subject).