Meaning, metaphor, and argument structure.
This paper challenges what it calls the semantic determinist hypothesis (SDH) of argument licensing, according to which the syntactic realisation of a verb's arguments is a function of its semantic properties. Specifically, it takes issue with 'event schema' versions of the SDH applied to the Englis...
| Published in: | Journal of Linguistics Vol. 56; no. 3; pp. 629 - 663 |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Article |
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Cambridge University Press
Aug2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=144806242&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 144806242 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00222267 LIG jtl: Journal of Linguistics issn: 00222267 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Aug2019 vid: 56 iid: 3 pid: 15979 pub: Cambridge University Press artinfo: ui: 144806242 10.1017/S002222671900029X ppf: 629 ppct: 34 formats: tig: atl: Meaning, metaphor, and argument structure. aug: au: NISBET, TIM De Wit, Astrid Brisard, Frank affil: Coventry University su: Idioms Parallel processing Argument Metaphor Construction grammar sug: subj: Idioms Parallel processing Argument Metaphor Construction grammar keyword: argument structure construction grammar ditransitive double object idioms metaphor ab: This paper challenges what it calls the semantic determinist hypothesis (SDH) of argument licensing, according to which the syntactic realisation of a verb's arguments is a function of its semantic properties. Specifically, it takes issue with 'event schema' versions of the SDH applied to the English ditransitive alternation (give/send {Jesse the gun/the gun to Jesse}), which claim a systematic, syntactically predictive distinction between 'caused possession' and 'caused motion'. It is first shown that semantic and syntactic irregularities among the alternating verbs disconfirm such a mapping. More crucially, however, it is argued that 'non-prototypical' (metaphorical and idiomatic) usage (The news report gave Walt an idea, Walt's actions gave the lie to his promises, The discovery sent Jesse into a fury) is fatal to the SDH, since the hypothesis entails the existence of semantic constraints on argument realisation which these expressions violate. Based on an analysis of the semantically-related verbs give, send, and put, it is claimed that prototypical, metaphorical and idiomatic expressions of a verb can all be licensed straightforwardly, but only if theory maintains separate syntactic and semantic representation of arguments in lexical entries, observing the 'parallel architecture' of Jackendoff (1997, 2002), and only if argument tokens are licensed by the syntactic representation alone. A type of structure called a Lexical Argument Construction is proposed, which can describe all the relevant properties of verbs and verbal idioms. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2020 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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