View source for Arity

'''Arity''' is a term that is occasionally used to refer to much the same as [[valency]] (e.g. Reinhart & Siloni 2005) and refers to the number of [[argument]]s that a [[predicate]] takes. The predicate P in the formula P(a,b) has arity 2 (is a ''two-place predicate'') because it takes two arguments a and b. Generally, a predicate with arity ''n'' is called an ''n-place predicate''. Another term for arity is ''[[adicity]]''.

===Origin===
The term was taken from mathematics. According to the OED, arity is "the number of elements by virtue of which something is unary, binary, etc."

=== Link ===
[http://www2.let.uu.nl/UiL-OTS/Lexicon/zoek.pl?lemma=Arity&lemmacode=1039 Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics]

=== References ===
* Gamut, L.T.F. 1991. ''Logic, language, and meaning,'' Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago.
* Reinhart, Tanya & Siloni, Tal. 2005. "The lexicon-syntax parameter: reflexivization and other arity operations." ''Linguistic Inquiry'' 36.3:389-436.

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[[Category:Valence]]
[[Category:Semantics]]