Subcategorize
verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To categorize more specifically by placing in a subcategory. transitive
- 2 To practice subcategorization.
"As we see from the examples in (55): (55) (a) John will put [_(NP) the car] [_(PP) in the garage] (55) (b) ^✽John will put [_(NP) the car] (55) (c) ^✽John will put [_(PP) in the garage] (55) (d) ^✽John will put the Verb put subcategorizes (i.e. ‘takesʼ) obligatory NP and PP complements (to simplify exposition here, we ignore the fact that the subcategorization properties of put may be predictable from its thematic properties, and from general word-order principles such as the STRICT ADJACENCY CONDITION)."
Example
More examples"As we see from the examples in (55): (55) (a) John will put [_(NP) the car] [_(PP) in the garage] (55) (b) ^✽John will put [_(NP) the car] (55) (c) ^✽John will put [_(PP) in the garage] (55) (d) ^✽John will put the Verb put subcategorizes (i.e. ‘takesʼ) obligatory NP and PP complements (to simplify exposition here, we ignore the fact that the subcategorization properties of put may be predictable from its thematic properties, and from general word-order principles such as the STRICT ADJACENCY CONDITION)."
Etymology
From sub- + categorize.
More for "subcategorize"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.