You can say John threw the stone but you cannot say The stone threw. Our understanding that the second sentence is not legal derives from our experience with
A) the subject-relative clause.
B) subcategorization information.
C) lexical co-occurrence.
D) particles.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The second sentence is not grammatically correct because it violates the subcategorization information of the verb "throw." "Throw" is a transitive verb that requires a subject (the person doing the throwing) and an object (the thing being thrown). Therefore, the subject (John) can “throw the stone,” but the stone cannot “throw.”

You Can Say John Threw the Stone but You Cannot