The syntactic behaviour of verbs is largely determined by their meaning. A problem for this theory is that verbs behave in a syntactically variable way, for example all intransitive verbs also occur with an object ('nod one's approval', 'smile a happy smile', etc.). This study of English takes its bearings from generative grammar and classifies verbs in lexical and syntactic terms. On this basis, theories of argument linking are then discussed. The study elaborates a model centering on Optimality Theory and implemented for the analysis of argument alternations (resultative construction, causative alternation, passive) and verb classes (psych verbs, verbs of movement).