<p>This essay adopts a construction grammar approach to the linguistic pattern why don’t you. It argues that the pattern can have two different senses: an interrogative sense and a suggestive sense. Further it argues that the suggestive sense is a construction similar to the definition of a construction described by construction grammar theory.</p><p>In other words, the linguistic pattern why don’t you can have a specific underlying semantics that cannot be reached by an examination of its formal pattern.</p><p>Keywords: Construct, Construction, Construction Grammar, Idiom, Interpretation, Linguistic Pattern, Marker, Underlying Semantics</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

This thesis applies the construction grammar framework to a corpus-based study of the development of post-verbal ge in Chinese. Ge in Mandarin Chinese is widely considered as a general classifier (Li and Thompson 1981, Zhu 1982, Lü 1984). As a classifier, the main function of ge is to categorize the entity denoted by the following noun and enable numeral attachment. Thus, ge is typically preceded by numerals and followed by referential nouns. In a post-verbal position, when the numeral before ge is yi ‘one’, the numeral tends to be omitted. The ‘bare ge’ in post-verbal position is found co-occurring with non-referential nouns and non-nominal elements, such as predicative adjectives and verb phrases. The function of the post-verbal ge with these atypical collocations has attracted much attention in Chinese linguistic research (Zhang, 2003; Lü, 1984; Biq, 2004). One of the features of the previous research is that the researchers focus on a sub-set of post-verbal ge variations and try to provide a generalized claim about all instances of post-verbal ge used in Mandarin. Another feature is that the research focus is on ge alone and little attention has been paid to its co-texts and contexts of use. In addition, very little work has been done on the emergence of the mysterious function of post-verbal ge or the internal links between ge as a classifier and this new function. The main task of this thesis is to identify the semantic and syntactic properties of the post-verbal ge with atypical collocations and to explore how ge developed these properties in the post-verbal position. Within a construction grammar framework, the post-verbal ge with this special function and its co-texts are identified as a construction with a telic and bounded aspectual meaning. This [V ge X] construction of telic and bounded aspectual meaning is different from the classifier construction in terms of morpho-syntactic features as well as semantic and pragmatic properties. With the constructional approach, this research shows that the unit to which changes apply is not ge alone but the [V ge X] construction and the morpho-syntactic and semantic relations between these three elements have changed over time. Furthermore, the investigation into the mechanism of these changes also reveals that the development of micro-constructions of the [V ge X] construction of telic and bounded aspectual meaning occurred in a constructional network, which links different constructions with the [V ge X] schema.

This paper examines two English polyverbal constructions, COME to V2 and GET to V2, as exemplified in Examples 1 and 2, respectively. (1) the senator came to know thousands of his constituents (2) Little Johnny got to eat ice cream after every little league game. Previous studies considered these types of constructions (though come and get as used here have not been sufficiently studied) as belonging to a special class of complement constructions, in which the infinitive is regarded as instantiating a separate, subordinate predication from that of the “matrix” or leftward finite verb. These constructions, however, exhibit systematic deviation from the various criteria proposed in previous research. This study uses the American National Corpus to investigate the statistical propensities of the target phenomena via lexico-syntactic (collostructional analysis) and morpho-syntactic (binary logistic regression) features, as captured through the lens of construction grammar.

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published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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Support verb constructions (henceforth: SVCs) are constructions consisting of a verb with a reduced meaning (when compared to the full verb) and a noun. Previous analyses (e.g. von Polenz 1963, Winhart 2002) provide a detailed account of the function of the verb in SVCs. However, neither of the two approaches fully explains why certain verb-noun combinations are unacceptable. Geraten ('to get into') can combine with Brand ('fire') in but not with Feuer ('fire') even though the two nouns are synonyms. This dissertation proposes a novel approach towards identifying selectional restrictions in German support verb constructions by applying insights from Frame Semantics (Fillmore 1985) and Construction Grammar. It differs from syntactic-centric and lexical-conceptual structure approaches in that frame-semantic information is shown to directly influence a verb's and a noun's ability to combine with each other. I argue that the nominalization Feuer cannot combine with the support verb because the frame- semantic information evoked by Feuer is incompatible with the frame semantics of geraten. Thus, either the verb and/or the noun blocks the formation of a support verb construction. My analysis demonstrates that in order for the support verb and the noun to be able to combine, their frame-semantic information needs to be compatible. However, in some circumstances SVCs need to be listed as idioms in the lexicon because there do not seem to be any compositional restrictions that allow geraten to combine with Brand ('fire'), but not Feuer ('fire'). Based on a corpus of more than 1000 SVCs with geraten, I show that there are different patterns of productivity and idomaticity. Some SVCs, such as ins Rollen geraten ('to start rolling'), allow widespread replacement of the noun with near-synonyms. Other SVCs, such as in Brand geraten ('starting to burn'), do not allow such replacement. In this view, both the abstract meaning of an SVC (e.g., in X geraten 'to get into X') and item-specific knowledge needs to be captured to be able to account for the full range of SVCs headed by geraten. Therefore, I posit a new construction that captures all the meanings expressed by SVCs with geraten. / text

L’objectif général de la présente thèse est d’évaluer dans quelle mesure la grammaire des verbes, aussi appelée complémentation verbale, peut être basée sur l’usage de la langue. La linguistique de l’usage (usage-based approach) constitue un récent changement de paradigme dans les sciences du langage, qui défend l’idée que la grammaire est un inventaire dynamique d’unités symboliques qui émergent et sont constamment redéfinies par l’usage de la langue. En adoptant une approche constructionnelle de la complémentation verbale et sur la base de données de l’anglais, nous traitons la question de la relation entre la grammaire des verbes et leur usage à trois niveaux d’organisation.Au niveau des verbes, nous comparons des résultats expérimentaux à des données de corpus, et trouvons que les plus fréquentes valences d’un verbe sont traitées plus facilement, ce qui montre que la valence est basée sur l’usage. Au niveau des constructions, nous montrons que, dans le cas de la construction conative, il est possible de formuler le sens d’une construction sur la base du sens des verbes en se plaçant au niveau de classes sémantiques, mais moins facilement au niveau le plus abstrait. Nous considérons ceci comme une preuve supplémentaire de l’importance des schémas de bas niveau sur les généralisations abstraites. Au niveau des alternances, nous suggérons que la productivité verbale peut être basée sur des relations d’alternances. Nous montrons que l’alternance dative présente une asymétrie en productivité, et que cette asymétrie peut être expliquée par des différences correspondantes en termes du nombre de verbes utilisés dans chaque construction. / The general goal of this thesis is to investigate to what extent the grammar of verbs, also called argument realization, can be based on linguistic usage. The usage-based approach is a recent paradigm shift in linguistics which takes the view that grammar is a dynamic inventory of symbolic conventions that emerges through, and is likewise shaped by, actual language use. Adopting a constructional approach to argument structure and on the basis of English data, we address the question of the usage basis of argument realization at three levels of organization.At the level of verbs, we compare experimental results to usage data, and find that more frequent valency patterns of a verb are processed more easily. These findings provide evidence for the usage basis of valency. At the level of constructions, we show that, in the case of the conative construction, it is possible to formulate constructional generalizations on the basis of verbal meaning at the level of semantically defined verb classes, but not so easily at the most abstract level. We take this as further evidence of the importance of lower-level schemas over broad generalizations. At the level of alternations, we present usage-based evidence that productivity can be based on alternation relations. We report that the dative alternation displays a productivity asymmetry, and we show that these differences can be explained by corresponding asymmetries in type frequencies.

Attributive absolute constructions in contemporary French The aim of this master thesis is a detailed analysis of French attributive absolute constructions (att. AC) with emphasis on their semantic characteristics. Att. AC is an example of what is called "secondary predication", i.e. a non-finite predicative structure modifying the primary predication, see a typical example "les yeux fermés", 'the eyes closed', in the sentence "Marie est assise, les yeux fermés.", 'Mary sits with her eyes closed.'. The main function of the att. AC is the modification of the head noun through the relation of inalienable possession (IP), or a part - whole relation, between this noun, which is mostly a human being, and an entity conceptualized in the att. AC. The thesis finds its main source in a monograph about AC written by Suzanne Hanon (1989), which is here completed by a qualitative analysis of syntactic and semantic factors that come into play in the formation of att. AC. Att. AC are approached form the perspective of Cognitive Linguistics and Construction Grammar as conceptualizations of the IP (or part - whole) paradigm and it is proposed their description as a prototype-based category with some instances more typical (see the example above) than others (e.g. att. AC with an adverbial function or modifying an...