Selection (Linguistics)
In linguistics, selection is the ability of predicates - verbs - to determine the semantic content of their arguments - the subject and object that they are used with.
Predicates âselectâ their arguments: they limit the semantic content and place conditions on the syntactic nature of their arguments.
Linguists distinguish types of selection: Semantic-selection and Category-selection.
Selection in general stands in contrast to subcategorization: Predicates both select and subcategorize for their complement arguments (objects) but they only select their subject arguments.
Selection is a semantic concept, whereas subcategorization is a syntactic one.
Selection is related to linguistic valency.
Example of selectional restrictions
Selectional restrictions of pregnant and carcinogenic.
The women stopped taking pills because they were {pregnant, carcinogenic}. Which individuals were {pregnant, carcinogenic}?
In any situation, pills do not get pregnant, women do. Women cannot be carcinogenic, but pills can.