Roots don’t select, categorial heads do: lexical-selection of PPs may vary by category

Abstract

Abstract The vast majority of roots in English show uniform selectional properties across their various instantiations in verbs, nouns, or adjectives: relyV\textit{rely}_{\textrm{V}}on, relianceN_{\textrm{N}}on, reliantA_{\textrm{A}}on. This paper reports a new discovery: there are more than a hundred roots that display nonuniform selectional behavior. Their selectional class depends on whether the root is realized as a verb, a noun, or an adjective: prideV_{\textrm{V}}oneself on, prideN_{\textrm{N}}in, proudA_{\textrm{A}}of. I argue that this is best modeled if the categorizing node itself determines selection.