locativerequiring

Locativerequiring is a term used in linguistics to describe verbs and constructions that demand a locative phrase as part of their subcategorization frame. In languages that exhibit locativerequiring semantics, certain verbs cannot appear without a location argument, and the locative phrase is often expressed via a case-marked noun, a prepositional phrase, or a dedicated locative postposition.

Typologically, locativerequiring items tend to include verbs of existence, posture, location, and some manner-of-motion or environment-internal events. The defining property is a valency requirement: the locative complement is not optional. The phenomenon interacts with how a language marks obliques and how locative information is encoded syntactically, sometimes correlating with richer locative case systems.

Attestation is mixed. Some languages show robust, obligatory locative arguments for a subset of verbs, while others treat locatives as optional adjuncts. Some researchers argue locativerequiring is a distinct subcategory of valency or satellite-framed constructions; others view it as a consequence of lexical semantics or case morphology rather than a separate syntactic class.

Illustrative examples (hypothetical) show how the concept works. In Language L, the verb sit requires a locative PP: I sit at the chair. In Language M, the verb exist requires a locative phrase in the locative case: The book lies on the table. These examples are intended to illustrate the notion rather than documenting real languages.

Research directions include cross-linguistic surveys, corpus studies to identify verbs with locative subcategorization, and theoretical work on how locatives influence argument structure and semantics.

See also: locative case, valency, argument structure, oblique marking, satellite-framed languages.