Description

Book Synopsis

This book deals with the characterization and history of the reaction object construction (ROC), as in Pauline smiled her thanks. The ROC consists of an intransitive verb followed by a nonprototypical object that expresses a reaction such that the whole syntactic unit acquires the extended meaning "express X by V-ing" (e.g. "Pauline expressed her thanks by smiling"). The hypothesis is put forward that ROCs follow a similar pathway as other valency-increasing constructions such as the cognate object construction and the way-construction, occurring first with more transitive-like verbs and then expanding to intransitives. Historical corpus evidence from several complementary data sources confirms this idea and reveals striking parallelisms with the way-construction.



Table of Contents

I Transitivization, Reaction Objects and Construction Grammar

II Hands- On with Data: A Usage- Based Approach to the History of the ROC

Changes in Argument Structure: The Transitivizing

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    A Hardback by Maurizio Gotti, Tamara Bouso-Rivas

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      Book details

      Publisher Peter Lang AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
      Published 28 May 2021
      ISBN-13 9783034340953
      978-3034340953
      ISBN-10 3034340958
      Also in:
      Books by Maurizio Gotti

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      This book deals with the characterization and history of the reaction object construction (ROC), as in Pauline smiled her thanks. The ROC consists of an intransitive verb followed by a nonprototypical object that expresses a reaction such that the whole syntactic unit acquires the extended meaning "express X by V-ing" (e.g. "Pauline expressed her thanks by smiling"). The hypothesis is put forward that ROCs follow a similar pathway as other valency-increasing constructions such as the cognate object construction and the way-construction, occurring first with more transitive-like verbs and then expanding to intransitives. Historical corpus evidence from several complementary data sources confirms this idea and reveals striking parallelisms with the way-construction.



      Table of Contents

      I Transitivization, Reaction Objects and Construction Grammar

      II Hands- On with Data: A Usage- Based Approach to the History of the ROC

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