List 6: Goal verbs

A. human roles: fool the man, orphan the children, baby the student, knight Gawain, sucker the public, scapegoat the Jews, cuckold his neighbour, cripple the man, beggar his opponents, gull the onlookers, dupe the voter, widow the woman, outlaw the thief, ⁺countess the woman [Meredith], dwarf his enemies, ⁺saint the reformer, martyr the woman, ⁺god the hero, ⁺hostage the child, recruit the boy, ⁺monk the man, apprentice the youth.

B. groups: (tr.) group the actors, pod the seals, regiment the crowd, parade the troops, line up the class, sequence the lessons, array the jewelry, swarm the bees, order the data; (intr.) cluster around the hive, group together, club together, gang up, line up, queue up, the fish schooled, the politicians caucused.

С. masses: (tr.) pile the money, mass the money, heap the dirt, hoard the acorns, pool the savings, carpool the people, bundle the clothes, ⁺lawn the grass, stack the boards, sheaf the wheat, bale the straw, pulp the oranges. [...]

D. shapes: (tr.) loop the rope, coil the rope, knot the string, crook his finger, ⁺hinge his knee, curl up his toes, ball up the handkerchief, braid her hair, plait her hair, ringlet her hair, wrinkle the sheets, crease the tablecloth, pleat the kilt, ⁺accordion the curtains, honeycomb the cliffs, dice the potatoes, cube the potatoes, ⁺match-stick the potatoes, ⁺julienne the potatoes, ⁺square his fists, cup his hands, ⁺tent the blanket, ⁺balloon up his clothes, block his hat, form the circle, terrace the slopes, ⁺spread-eagle his opponent, silhouette the tree against the sky, ⁺concertina the place-card, ⁺lump the sugar, ⁺loaf the dough, ⁺layer the cake, ⁺bulbed his nose [Farris]; (intr.) bead with sweat, cave in, balloon up, the clouds mushroomed, the trains telescoped, cocoon with blankets, ⁺it’s stratusing right now [weather report], the truckjack-knifed.

E. pieces: powder the aspirin, crumb the bread, ⁺joint the chicken, cash the check, flake the paint, quarter the carcass, segment the sentence, portion the loot, share the cake, ⁺fission the nucleus, parcel out the land.

F. products: ⁺monolog, cipher, script the movie, fingerprint the immigrant, copy the paper, ⁺alphabet, ⁺cuneiform, number, psalm, Latin the speech; burrow, nest; smoke, leaf out, branch, flower, bud, bloom, blossom, ⁺the stalks eared early this spring; foal, cub, calve, lamb, fawn, kitten, pup, litter, whelp, spawn, child [archaic]; teethe, tear (of eyes), freckle; the trail elbowed, fork, zigzag, spiral; ⁺before the grapes begin to raisin [article on wine].

G. miscellaneous: sandwich the man between them, cream the butter, lather the soap, flame the pudding, pickle the watermelon, ⁺blot the ink, strand the wool, ⁺image the scene, ruin the building, treasure the necklace, pawn the ring, quilt the coat, riddle the door with holes, dart across the road, tower over the child, ⁺the neons rainbow the California night [ad.], his hair silvered, the beer frothed, the waves foamed.

The goal verbs labeled human roles in List 6 contrast with the agent verbs in an important way. In John fathered the child, with an agent verb, John is the father; but in John orphaned the child, with a goal verb, the child (not John) is the orphan. But what makes some roles agentive and others factitive? From the examples in List 6, the answer seems clear. For agent verbs, the parent nouns denote roles or professions that people take on deliberately. For goal verbs, however, the parent nouns denote roles conferred on people by external forces, sometimes against their will. It is because butchering is an active role that The school butchered John cannot be taken to mean ‘The school turned John into a butcher’. Yet being a fool is a role that can be either active or receptive, as in Nick fooled around with Asta vs. Nick fooled Nora.

In List 7, piece the quilt together is classified as a source verb on the basis of the rather awkward paraphrase do something to cause it to come about that [the quilt is together out of pieces], i. e. put the quilt together from pieces. Here piece denotes the substance from which the quilt is formed, and is therefore in the source case. Word the sentence carefully and letter the sign may also be source verbs.