How many participants a verb requires.
Also called: valence, argument structure.
In precise terms
The number and type of arguments a predicate requires. Valency-changing operations — passive, antipassive, causative, applicative, reflexive — systematically add or remove arguments.
An example
Ni-li-m-pik-i-a mtoto chakula.
I cooked food for the child.
What is going on here
The Swahili applicative suffix '-i-' adds a beneficiary argument to 'pika' (cook), taking the verb from two arguments to three. The extra participant is licensed by morphology on the verb, not by a preposition.
Why this matters when you are learning a language
Valency explains why some verbs cannot be passivised, why others need a preposition, and why a causative in one language corresponds to a whole clause in another.
Across languages
Turkish and Japanese have productive morphological causatives; Swahili and other Bantu languages have applicatives; English mostly changes valency with separate words and word order instead.
Related terms
- Transitive and intransitive verbsIntermediate — A transitive verb takes an object; an intransitive one does not.
- Grammatical voiceIntermediate — Whether the subject is the one doing the action or the one it is done to — active versus passive.
- Direct and indirect objectsIntermediate — The direct object is what the action affects; the indirect object is usually the recipient.
- Modifier and complementIntermediate — A modifier adds optional information; a complement is required to complete the meaning.
- PolysynthesisAdvanced — A label for language patterns in which one word—often a verb—can contain many meaningful and grammatical parts.
Where to go next
- Language guides — See grammatical and lexical categories used in context.
- Terminology quiz — Test the terms on this page.