Verb valency as a semantic-grammatical category

The present article explores verb valency, which is seen as a universal semantic-grammatical category specifying the correlation between semantic (potential) actants and syntactic (actualized) ones. Valency is analysed through the example of the group of meteorological verbs of the English language, which comprises such verbs as to thunder; to frost; to ebb; to fog; to hail; to rain; to snow. Valency potential of the stated verbs is determined on the basis of their semantic and syntactic potential. Data from the Leipzig Corpora Collection and the Corpora of Contemporary American English were used as the sources of empirical evidence. The analysis of the semantic and syntactic actants, which constitute the valency structure of the verbs under study, enabled us to determine the position of the identified actants on the «centre -periphery» scale. The research findings give a more comprehensive idea of the valency potential of the investigated verbs.