A Constructional Approach to Resultatives

Providing a unified solution within the frameworks of Construction Grammar and Frame Semantics, Hans Boas develops an account of resultative constructions in English by grouping them in two classes: conventionalized and non-conventionalized. The usage-based model used here proposes that each particular sense of a verb constitutes a conventionalized mini-construction, which is crucial information for the licensing of arguments. In contrast, verbs in non-conventionalized resultative constructions can acquire a novel meaning and thereby a new syntactic frame. English and German resultatives are compared to illustrate the distinct lexical polysemy networks of English and German verbs.

Hans Christian Boas is an assistant professor of Germanic Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin and is affiliated with the FrameNet Project at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley.

Please download the supplemental appendix (3.8 MB PDF file) containing the data for this volume.

Acknowledgements

1 Introduction

1.1 Aim and Scope
1.2 Three Classes of Resultive Constructions
1.3 Syntactic, Semantic and Pregmatic Restrictions
1.4 Methodology
1.5 Overview of the Book

2 Syntactic Approaches to Resultatives

2.1 Introduction
2.2 Small Clause Analysis of Resultative Construction
2.3 Resultatives in Prediction Theory
2.4 Conclusions

3 The Role of Event Structure and Lexical Semantics

3.1 Introduction
3.2 From Aspectual Classes to Event Structure
3.3 The Aspectual Interface Hypothesis
3.4 Combining Thematic Relations with Event Structure
3.5 Building Verb Meanings through Event Structure Augmentation
3.6 Conclusions

4 The Role of Argument Structure Constructions

4.1 Introduction
4.2 Construction Grammar
4.3 Caused-Motion and Resultative Constructions
4.4 Towardd an Integrated Account of Caused-Motion and Resultative Constructions
4.5 Conclusions

5 Towards a Usage-Based Analysis of Resultatives

5.1 Introdution
5.2 Usage-Based Models of Language
5.3 Resultatives and Conventionalization
5.4 The Communicative Functions of Resultative Constructions
5.5 Conclusions

6 Event Based Frames Semantics

6.1 Introduction
6.2 Information Contained in a Verb's Lexical Entry
6.3 Different Event-Frames, Different Result States
6.4 Conclusions

7 Lexical Licensing of Resultatives

7.1 Introduction
7.2 Conventionalized Resultatives
7.3 Nonconventionalized Resultatives Based on Analogy
7.4 Conclusions

8 A Contrastive Look at Resultatives in English and German

8.1 Introduction
8.2 Differences and Similarities between English and German Resultatives
8.3 Contrastive Lexical Entries of English and German Verbs
8.4 Other Accounts
8.5 Conclusions

9 Conclusions

9.1 Summary
9.2 Outlook

Appendix A
Appendix B
Appenix C
References
Name Index
Subject Index

2/1/2003

ISBN (Paperback): 1575864088 (9781575864082)
ISBN (Cloth): 157586407X (9781575864075)

A Constructional Approach to Resultatives

Contents

Books by Hans C. Boas