Two Properties of the Intransitive Resultative Construction (original) (raw)
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Constructions in Role and Reference Grammar: The case of the English resultative
Linking Constructions into Functional Linguistics: The Role of Constructions in Grammar [Studies in Language Companion Series 145], B. Nolan and E. Diedrichsen (eds.), 2013
This is a contribution from Linking Constructions into Functional Linguistics: The Role of Constructions in Grammar [Studies in Language Companion Series 145], B. Nolan and E. Diedrichsen (eds.), 179-204. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. The object of this chapter is to present an RRG account of one of the most widely studied constructions: the English resultative. In order to provide a finer-nuanced description of the resultative than the one currently posited by Van Valin (2005: 239), our study mainly draws on the work on constructional schemas recently carried out by some RRG scholars (i.e. Cortés 2009; Diedrichsen 2010, 2011; Nolan 2011ab; Van Valin 2011, 2012, inter alios). Additionally, it also takes into consideration part of the semantic and syntactic analyses developed within the family of Construction Grammars (CxG(s)) by Gonzálvez-García (2009, 2011), Goldberg (1995), Godlberg & Jackendoff (2004), and Luzondo (2011), to name but a few, and some of the insights from the Lexical Constructional Model (LCM; Ruiz de Mendoza & Mairal 2008, 2011; Mairal & Ruiz de Mendoza 2009; see Butler 2009 for a critical overview). The structure of this paper is as follows. In section (2), a brief overview of the status of the notion of construction throughout RRG in general, and the account of the resultative construction in particular, is furnished. Section (3) presents a preliminary proposal of an RRG constructional schema for the property English resultative (e.g. The blacksmith hammered the metal flat), which enhances its constructional meaning and its relation with verb meaning. We sustain, with Diedrichsen (2010, 2011) and Nolan (2011ab), that RRG schemas should become more constructional and incorporate, among others, the construction signature, its constraints, its workspace, and its input and output strings. Furthermore, due to the fundamental role played by metaphor and metonymy in order to explain the data under scrutiny, we advance the addition of two new features to the proposed English resultative schema, namely, the motivation of the construction and the family resemblance connection. This stance on enriching RRG constructional schemas has immediate and direct consequences for our second goal in this work: what are the connections that the property English resultative establishes with the motion resultative construction (e.g. He hammered the metal into the shape of a heart), which we also posit could further be extended to other closely related constructions such as the motion resultative, the caused-motion, the way construction, etc. Section (4) explores this particularly interesting issue that still remains open in RRG (Van Valin 2011) but where we believe the theoretical apparatus of the LCM, a model which already integrates RRG in its lexical descriptions, could shed some light on. Finally, section (5) offers some concluding remarks.
The English Resultative as a Family of Constructions
Language, 2004
English resultative expressions have been a major focus of research on the syntax-semantics interface. We argue in this article that a family of related constructions is required to account for their distribution. We demonstrate that a number of generalizations follow from the semantics of the constructions we posit: the syntactic argument structure of the sentence is predicted by general principles of argument linking; and the aspectual structure of the sentence is determined by the aspectual structure of the constructional subevent, which is in turn predictable from general principles correlating event structure with change, extension, motion, and paths. Finally, the semantics and syntax of resultatives explain the possibilities for temporal relations between the two subevents. While these generalizations clearly exist, there is also a great deal of idiosyncrasy involved in resultatives. Many idiosyncratic instances and small subclasses of the construction must be learned and stored individually. This account serves to justify aspects of what we share in our overall vision of grammar, what we might call the CONSTRUCTIONAL view. To the extent that our treatment of the resultative can be stated only within the constructional view, it serves as evidence for this view as a whole.* * This paper originated during Jackendoff's residency at the University of Illinois as the George A. Miller Visiting Professor in the winter of 2002, when he and Goldberg had extended opportunities to discuss issues of mutual interest. In particular, we found it important to establish some of the basic points of convergence between our two somewhat disparate approaches to grammar-Goldberg coming by way of construction grammar/cognitive grammar with a sprinkling of lexical functional grammar (LFG) and head-driven phrase structure grammar (HPSG), Jackendoff coming by way of a long path diverging gradually from the Chomskyan tradition. The resultative seemed like an interesting quarry. Jackendoff is grateful for the support of the Miller Professorship, to Marc Hauser, who made an office at Harvard available during Jackendoff's sabbatical in 2002-3, and to Grant DC 03660 from the National Institutes of Health. We are grateful to two anonymous referees, James McCloskey, Brian Joseph, and Malka Rappaport Hovav for comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.
Syntactic derivation of resultatives in view of the refined VP structure
Papers from the Secondary Predication Workshop 2020, 2020
Various types of resultatives will be accounted for syntactically. The proposed syntactic structure, where the lexical property of predicate is structurally represented, à la Hale and Keyser (1993) and Travis (2010), will properly distinguish inherent resultatives and two types of derived resultatives both in English and Japanese. The analysis crucially makes use of Result Phrase (ResP) whose head may be phonologically null [ φ Res]. Some interesting consequences of the null Res head [φRes] will be explored. In addition, we further refine our structure by incorporating Reinhart's (2002) theta features in it, which may lead to a possible explanation for the hitherto not widely discussed fact that resultatives do not (or rarely) involve experiencer predicates: *John visited Mary surprised.
Lexical-constructional subsumption in resultative constructions in English 1
Within the scenario of Construction Grammar approaches to linguistic explanation, the present paper aims to study one specific construction, namely the resultative pattern, which Goldberg (1995) characterizes as 'x causes y to become z'. In doing so, we will make use of the analytical and explanatory tools developed by the Lexical Constructional Model (LCM), as propounded by Ruiz de Mendoza and Mairal (2008) and Mairal and Ruiz de Mendoza (2008, 2009). After a brief discussion of Goldberg's work on lexical-constructional fusion, here considered not to be fine-grained enough, we will examine a number of examples and propose two basic schemas underlying resultative/caused-motion constructions, namely A > B, in which the object is perceived as undergoing a transcendent change (e.g. The magician turned the frog into a prince), and A > A', in which the object either changes a property or acquires a new one but does not suffer a substantial change of state (e.g. The case just broke itself open).
Semantics-oriented resultatives: Evidence from valency alternation verbs
Proceedings of the International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, 2021
Resultative phrases are generally believed to conform to the Direct Object Restriction: that is, they describe the direct object if verbs are transitive. However, some exceptions have occasionally been reported, and this paper investigates the problem by focusing on resultative phrases that occur with the valency alternation verbs in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. Verbs that license the locative alternation and locatum-subject alternation describe events that involve two arguments, the location and the locatum, which are perceived to concurrently undergo a change of state. It will be shown that resultative phrases with a valency alternation verb can be predicated of either argument regardless of whether it is expressed as direct object. Furthermore, resultative verbal suffixes in Mandarin, interpreted as description of either the location or the locatum, give rise to the locative alternation while their interpretation remains the same. Thus, it is claimed that in Japanese and Mandar...
2001
In this paper I firstly argue that secondary predicates are complement of v, and v is overtly realized by Merge or Move in secondary predication in Chinese. The former option derives the de-construction, whereas the latter option derives the V-V construction. Secondly, I argue that resultatives are hosted by complement vPs, whereas depictives are hosted by adjunct vPs. This complement-adjunct asymmetry accounts for a series of syntactic properties of secondary predication in Chinese: the position of a secondary predicate with respect to the verb of the primary predicate, the co-occurrence patterns of secondary predicates, the hierarchy of depictives, the control and ECM properties of resultative constructions, and the locality constraint on the integration of secondary predicates into the structure of primary predication. Thirdly, I argue that the surface position of de is derived by a PF operation which attaches de to the right of the leftmost verbal lexical head of the construction. Finally, I argue that in the V-V resultative construction, the assumed successive head-raising may account for the possible subject-oriented reading of the resultative predicate, and that the head raising out of the lower vP accounts for the possible non-specific reading of the subject of the resultative predicate.