Title: On correlations between range in verb descriptivity and syntactic applicability
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2016, vol. 42, iss. 1, pp. [23]-47
Extent
[23]-47
-
ISSN0524-6881 (print)1805-0867 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2016-1-2
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/136082
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
The paper attempts to identify factors underlying apparent correlations between the level of descriptivity in verbs of self-agentive locomotion and the range of syntactic constructions in which these verbs may occur. While it has become clear that event structure theories provide a partial account of the connections between verbal semantics and syntactic behaviour, Boas's account (2006, 2008), deriving from the theory elaborated by Snell-Hornby (1983), would seem to be on the right track in offering a more fine-grained analysis of verbal lexical semantic structure. What remains to be answered is which elements of a verb's meaning are syntactically relevant and what underlies their sensitivity to syntax. The paper argues that an account of a verb's syntactic applicability must appeal to the interaction between the verb's lexical semantic structure and the causal structuration of a situation as encoded in a given construction.
References
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[25] Randall, Janet H. (2010) Linking: The Geometry of Argument Structure. Dordrecht: Springer.
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[29] Shibatani, Masayoshi (1976) 'The grammar of causative constructions: A conspectus.' In: Shibatani, Masayoshi (ed.) Syntax and Semantics, Vol. 6: The Grammar of Causative Constructions. New York: Academic Press, 1–40.
[30] Snell-Hornby, Mary (1983) Verb-descriptivity in German and English: A Contrastive Study in Se-mantic Fields. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag.
[31] Taylor, John R. (1996) 'On running and jogging.' Cognitive Linguistics 7(1): 21–34. | DOI 10.1515/cogl.1996.7.1.21
[32] Van Valin, Robert D. and Randy J. LaPolla (1997) Syntax: Structure, Meaning and Function. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[33] Vendler, Zeno (1957) 'Verbs and times.' The Philosophical Review 66(2): 143–160. | DOI 10.2307/2182371
[34] Warglien, Massimo, Peter Gärdenfors and Matthijs Westera (2012) 'Event structure, conceptual spaces and the semantics of verbs.' Theoretical Linguistics 38(3–4): 159–193.
[35] Wunderlich, Dieter (2000) 'Predicate composition and argument extension as general options - a study in the interface of semantic and conceptual structure.' In: Stiebels, Barbara and Dieter Wunderlich (eds.) Lexicon in Focus. Akademie Verlag, Berlin, 247–270.
[2] Boas, Hans C. (2006) 'A frame-semantic approach to identifying syntactically relevant elements of meaning.' In: Steiner, Petra C., Hans C. Boas and Stefan J. Schierholz (eds.) Contrastive Studies and Valency: Studies in Honor of Hans Ulrich Boas. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 119–149.
[3] Boas, Hans C. (2008) 'Towards a frame-constructional approach to verb classification.' In: Acevedo, Eulalia S. and Francisco J. Cortés Rodríguez (eds.) Grammar, Constructions, and Interfaces. Special issue of Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses 57: 17–47.
[4] Boas, Hans C. (2011) 'A frame-semantic approach to syntactic alternations: The case of build verbs.' In: Guerrero Medina, Pilar (ed.) Morphosyntactic Alternations in English. Sheffield: Equinox, 207–234.
[5] Croft, William (1998) 'The structure of events and the structure of language.' In: Tomasello, Michael (ed.) The New Psychology of Language: Cognitive and Functional Approaches to Language Structure. Mahwah, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum, 67–92.
[6] Croft, William (2012) Verbs: Aspect and Causal Structure. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[7] Čulo, Oliver, Katrin Erk, Sebastian Padó and Sabine Schulte im Walde (2008) 'Comparing and combining semantic verb classifications.' Language Resources and Evaluation 42(3): 265-291.
[8] Dixon, Robert M. W. (1971) 'A method of semantic description.' In: Steinberg, Danny D. and Leon A. Jakobovits (eds.) Semantics: An Interdisciplinary Reader in Philosophy, Linguistics and Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 436–471.
[9] Dowty, David R. (1979) Word Meaning and Montague Grammar: The Semantics of Verbs and Times in Generative Semantics and in Montague's PTQ. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.
[10] Faber, Pamela B. and Ricardo Mairal Usón (1999) Constructing a Lexicon of English Verbs. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
[11] Fellbaum, Christiane (1990) 'English verbs as a semantic net.' International Journal of Lexicography 3(4): 278–301. | DOI 10.1093/ijl/3.4.278
[12] Fellbaum, Christiane (2002) 'Autotroponymy.' In: Ravin, Yael and Claudia Leacock (eds.) Polysemy: Theoretical and Computational Approaches. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 52–67.
[13] Fillmore, Charles J. (1982) 'Frame semantics.' In: The Linguistic Society of Korea (ed.) Linguistics in the Morning Calm. Seoul: Hanshin Publishing, 111–137.
[14] Fillmore, Charles J. (1985) 'Frames and the semantics of understanding.' Quaderni di Semantica 6(2): 222–254.
[15] Goldberg, Adele E. (1998) 'Patterns of experience in patterns of language.' In: Tomasello, Michael (ed.) The New Psychology of Language: Cognitive and Functional Approaches to Language Structure. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum, 203–219.
[16] Goldberg, Adele E. (2002) 'Surface generalizations: An alternative to alternations.' Cognitive Lin-guistics 13(4): 327–356.
[17] Jackendoff, Ray (1983) Semantics and Cognition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
[18] Jackendoff, Ray (1990) Semantic Structures. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
[19] Kudrnáčová, Naděžda (2008) Directed Motion at the Syntax-Semantics Interface. Brno: Masaryk University.
[20] Kudrnáčová, Naděžda (2013) Caused Motion: Secondary Agent Constructions. Brno: Masaryk University.
[21] Kudrnáčová, Naděžda (2015) 'On the holistic status of direct object participants.' Ostrava Journal of English Philology 7(1): 57–67.
[22] Langacker, Ronald W. (1987) Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, Vol. 1: Theoretical Prerequisites. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
[23] Levin, Beth (1993) English Verb Classes and Alternations: A Preliminary Investigation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
[24] Levin, Beth and Malka Rapapport Hovav (2005) Argument Realization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[25] Randall, Janet H. (2010) Linking: The Geometry of Argument Structure. Dordrecht: Springer.
[26] Rappaport Hovav, Malka and Beth Levin (1998) 'Building verb meanings.' In: Butt, Miriam and Wilhelm Geuder (eds.) The Projection of Arguments: Lexical and Compositional Factors. Stanford, CA: CSLI, 97–134.
[27] Rappaport Hovav, Malka and Beth Levin (2001) 'An event structure account of English resultatives.' Language 77(4): 766–797. | DOI 10.1353/lan.2001.0221
[28] Ruppenhofer, Josef, Michael Ellsworth, Miriam R. L. Petruck, Christopher R. Johnson and Jan Scheffczyk (2010) FrameNet II: Extended Theory and Practice. Available online at: https:// framenet2.icsi.berkeley.edu/docs/r1.5/book.pdf. Accessed on 2 June, 2015.
[29] Shibatani, Masayoshi (1976) 'The grammar of causative constructions: A conspectus.' In: Shibatani, Masayoshi (ed.) Syntax and Semantics, Vol. 6: The Grammar of Causative Constructions. New York: Academic Press, 1–40.
[30] Snell-Hornby, Mary (1983) Verb-descriptivity in German and English: A Contrastive Study in Se-mantic Fields. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag.
[31] Taylor, John R. (1996) 'On running and jogging.' Cognitive Linguistics 7(1): 21–34. | DOI 10.1515/cogl.1996.7.1.21
[32] Van Valin, Robert D. and Randy J. LaPolla (1997) Syntax: Structure, Meaning and Function. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[33] Vendler, Zeno (1957) 'Verbs and times.' The Philosophical Review 66(2): 143–160. | DOI 10.2307/2182371
[34] Warglien, Massimo, Peter Gärdenfors and Matthijs Westera (2012) 'Event structure, conceptual spaces and the semantics of verbs.' Theoretical Linguistics 38(3–4): 159–193.
[35] Wunderlich, Dieter (2000) 'Predicate composition and argument extension as general options - a study in the interface of semantic and conceptual structure.' In: Stiebels, Barbara and Dieter Wunderlich (eds.) Lexicon in Focus. Akademie Verlag, Berlin, 247–270.