Complex verbs in English: the relationship between verb-forming suffix schemas and argument structure constructions

Laws, J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7275-116X and Booij, G. (2024) Complex verbs in English: the relationship between verb-forming suffix schemas and argument structure constructions. Constructions and Frames. ISSN 1876-1941 (In Press)

Abstract/Summary

This paper relates two levels of constructional analysis in accounting for the functions of verb-forming suffixation in English: argument structure constructions and suffix schemas. The function of verbal-forming suffixation expressed by the four suffixes in English, -ize, -ify, -en and -ate, has been shown to exhibit a wide range of semantic categories that correspond to a number of argument structure constructions (Laws 2023). The current paper extends that semantic analysis. Firstly, by using a Construction Morphology approach (Booij 2010) to formalize the relationship between argument structure and suffix schemas proposed by Laws. Secondly, a hierarchical view of verb-class and subclass argument structure constructions is articulated by using semantic rules that involve selection and enrichment by coercion within suffix subschemas. Thirdly, it is demonstrated that the motivation for partially opaque complex verbs with these suffixes can be expressed by referring to paradigmatic relationships between these complex verbs and other related words.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/118405
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Literature and Languages > English Language and Applied Linguistics
Publisher	John Benjamins Publishing
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