Morphosyntactic Alternations in English; Functional and Cognitive Perspectives; Pilar Guerrero Medina

Edited by

Pilar Guerrero Medina [+–]

University of Córdoba

Pilar Guerrero Medina is Lecturer in English Grammar at the University of Córdoba, Spain. She has mainly conducted her research within a functionalist framework, focusing on the relationship between lexis and grammar on the one hand, and grammar and discourse on the other. Over the past decade, she has published articles on a range of topics, including transitivity in grammar and discourse, grammatical and lexical aspect, Object assignment and the get-passive. While the earlier articles are framed mainly within the Functional Grammar theory of Simon Dik, later work also incorporates insights from the Goldbergian version of Construction Grammar.

The book features a wide range of theoretical approaches, ranging from functionalist models such as Functional Discourse Grammar or the Cardiff Grammar version of Systemic Functional Linguistics to more cognitively-oriented approaches such as Goldberg’s Construction Grammar or Fillmore’s Frame Semantics. This attempt to describe morphosyntactic alternations within different contemporary theories¬¬ —derivational and non-derivational— will hopefully contribute to a better understanding of the linguistic phenomena traditionally subsumed under the rubric of morphosyntactic alternation. The book will be of interest to experienced linguists and researchers of a functionalist, cognitivist or even functional-typological persuasion.

Series: Functional Linguistics

Preliminaries

About the contributors [+–] vii – xvii

Pilar Guerrero Medina FREE

University of Córdoba

This volume brings together fourteen papers which explore the discourse-pragmatic, semantic, morphological and syntactic factors involved in English morphosyntactic alternations. The contributors to this volume deal with different types of “diathesis alternations” —broadly defined by Levin ( English Verb Classes and Alternations: A Preliminary Investigation , 1993) as “alternations in the expressions of arguments, sometimes accompanied by changes of meaning” —i.e. transitivity alternations (such as the causative/inchoative alternation and the conative alternation), alternations involving arguments within the VP (such as the Swarm-alternation, and the dative or benefactive alternations), etc. The volume will also include some contributions dealing more generally with the issues of morphological relatedness and verb-specific alternations within functionalist, cognitive and/or constructionist frameworks. The book features a wide range of theoretical approaches, ranging from functionalist models such as Functional Discourse Grammar or the Cardiff Grammar version of Systemic Functional Linguistics to more cognitively-oriented approaches such as Goldberg’s Construction Grammar or Fillmore’s Frame Semantics. This attempt to describe morphosyntactic alternations within different contemporary theories¬¬ —derivational and non-derivational— will hopefully contribute to a better understanding of the linguistic phenomena traditionally subsumed under the rubric of morphosyntactic alternation. The book will be of interest to experienced linguists and researchers of a functionalist, cognitivist or even functional-typological persuasion.

Acknowledgements [+–] xviii – xviii

Pilar Guerrero Medina FREE

University of Córdoba

Introduction

Introduction [+–] 1 – 10

Pilar Guerrero Medina £17.50

University of Córdoba

Part I. Theoretically-oriented approaches to the issue of morphosyntactic alternations

1. Alternations as a heuristic to verb meaning and the semantics of constructions [+–] 11 – 37

Kristin Davidse £17.50

Catholic University of Leuven

Kristin Davidse is professor of English Linguistics at the University of Leuven. She is also an alumna of the University of Sydney, where she was introduced to Hallidayan Functional Linguistics. Halliday supervised her Ph.D. in Linguistics on Categories of Experiential Grammar (1991). Her main research interest is the description of English grammar from a functional perspective. In the area of clause grammar, she has published on such topics as transitive – intransitive versus lexically ergative clauses, as well as middle, existential, copular and ditransitive constructions. In addition, she has dealt with it-and there-clefts and clauses containing fact projection. She has also published on various processes of change such as grammaticalization, deictification and intersubjectification in the English nominal group, as well as on the structure and functions of the nominal group per se. She was one of the founding editors of the journal Functions of Language.

In the first chapter in the volume, Kristin Davidse takes issue with Goldberg’s position in her 2002 article, where she advocated that the “robust generalizations” in the domain of argument-structure relations are “surface generalizations” (2002: 333). In contrast to Goldberg, Davidse emphasizes the heuristic potential of verb-specific alternations and defends the position that they are relevant both to verb meaning and the semantics of constructions. The descriptive heuristics that can be derived from Davidse’s argument, set in the structural-functional tradition of Gleason and Halliday, is illustrated with two alternation-based case studies of the subclassification of ditransitive verbs and of the semantic elucidation of ergative intransitives.

2. The study of alternations in a dialogic Functional Discourse Grammar [+–] 38 – 61

J. Lachlan Mackenzie £17.50

University Amsterdam

The chapter by Mackenzie puts forward an innovative analysis of alternations within the framework of FDG (Hengeveld and Mackenzie 2008). The author analyses the implications of recent work on priming in dialogue for a re-interpretation of FDG as a dialogic model, “in which there is a balance between the creativity of the individual speaker and her participation in a mutually aligned interaction” (p. 47). The notion of morphosyntactic alternation is claimed to be applicable only when there is connectedness without a corresponding semantic or pragmatic effect between the alternants. Examination of an extract from the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English reveals how this relatedness becomes visible in dialogue in the operation of priming.

3. Constraints on syntactic alternation: Lexical-constructional subsumption in the Lexical-Constructional Model [+–] 62 – 82

Francisco José Ruiz de Mendoza,Ricardo Usón £17.50

University La Rioja

Spanish National Distance-Learning University

In this chapter by Francisco Ruiz de Mendoza and Ricardo Mairal Usón, set within the framework of the Lexical-Constructional Model (LCM), the authors argue that syntactic alternation is a natural consequence of lexicalconstructional subsumption, a cognitive fusion process regulated by a number of constraints that are either internal or external to the process. The mechanism of subsumption is illustrated with an inspection of the way in which the external principles of high-level metonymy and metaphor apply in the explanation of related alternations, such as the causative/inchoative and middle, on the one hand, and the caused-motion and resultative, on the other. This account allows the authors to offer a more detailed description of the notion of constructional coercion, which is now seen “in terms of the ability of lexical structure to be construed from different perspectives that will license its integration into constructional structure” (p. 79).

4. Alternation and Participant Role: A contribution from a Systemic Functional Grammar [+–] 83 – 114

Amy Neale £17.50

Queen Mary, University of London

Amy Neale is Head of Business Development, Innovation and Enterprise at Queen Mary, University of London.

Amy Neale’s contribution is located within the approach to TRANSITIVITY developed within the Cardiff Grammar (CG) version of systemic theory. Building on the Systemic Functional notions of “Process”, “system network” and “delicacy” and extending the semantic classification of verb senses, she provides an alternative approach to Levin’s (1993) for modelling paradigmatic relations between verb senses. After outlining how verbal alternations such as the “dative alternation” can be handled by the CG through the lexicogrammar, the article deals in more detail with alternating constructions which involve different Participant Role configurations, positing that they demonstrate a change in the verb sense conveyed and should be thus treated as examples of “near equivalences”.

Part II. Studies of specific alternations

5. The causative/inchoative alternation in Functional Discourse Grammar [+–] 115 – 136

Daniel García Velasco £17.50

University of Oviedo

Daniel García Velasco’s contribution offers an FDG approach to the causative/inchoative alternation, showing that a proper account of this alternation (in English and other languages) should pay attention to the way in which events are conceptually constructed by speakers. The author explores the extent to which FDG can handle this alternation more adequately than Classical Functional Grammar. The introduction of a Conceptual component, including those aspects of cognition which are relevant for the immediate communicative intention, and the separation of lexemes from the frames in which they occur, are presented as relevant aspects of the FDG model to account for this process.

6. Spontaneous and facilitative events revisited [+–] 137 – 160

Juana L. Marín-Arrese £17.50

Universidad Complutense of Madrid

Juana Marín-Arrese’s chapter deals with the codification of facilitative and spontaneous linguistic types in English and Spanish. The author revisits the characterizing features of inchoative and middle constructions from a cognitive linguistic perspective. Marín-Arrese argues for a non-derivational analysis of these constructions, based on the notions of construal and profiling. A “fuzzy middle area” is posited between the two constructions, which accounts for instances of “blends” and other nonprototypical constructions.

7. The semantics of English middles and pseudo-middles [+–] 161 – 182

Casilda García de la Maza £17.50

University of Basque Country

This chapter by Casilda García de la Maza focuses on the semantics of English middles and “pseudo-middles” (e.g. The subsequent article almost writes itself/This new sofa seats four). The English middle is characterized as having a clear constructional meaning, which can be seen as a compositional function of the meaning of the subject in combination with the verb and the adverb. The author highlights the lexicalization process that some middles are undergoing, which is indicative of the semantic idiosyncrasy of the construction.

8. An antipassive interpretation of the English “conative alternation”: Semantic and discourse-pragmatic dimensions [+–] 182 – 206

Pilar Guerrero Medina £17.50

University of Córdoba

In this chapter Pilar Guerrero Medina aims to explore the connection between the English conative construction and what is regarded as an “antipassive” in the functional-typological literature, drawing on corpus data with a sample of verbs from Levin’s (1993) semantic classes of Contact by Impact, Breaking, Cutting and Ingesting. It is here argued that a constructionist approach of the English conative alternation along the lines of Goldberg (1995) is in principle superior to a lexicallybased one. However, in the author’s view, the Goldbergian approach still provides an incomplete picture of the problem, and she furthers claims that the semantic and discourse-pragmatic properties of the conative construction would be better captured under Cooreman’s (1994) definition of the antipassive.

9. A frame-semantic approach to syntactic alternations: The case of build verbs [+–] 207 – 234

Hans C. Boas £17.50

University of Texas

This chapter by Hans Boas offers an alternative frame-semantic approach to the various syntactic alternations which Levin (1993) claims to occur with her class of build verbs. The author shows that not all members of this class exhibit identical alternating behaviour, arguing (as is also the case in Neale’s article in Part I of this volume) that Levin’s definitions of verb classes are too coarse-grained. It is then claimed that differences in syntactic behaviour are best accounted for in terms of the different polysemy networks of senses associated with each verb. Adopting ideas from Fillmore’s (1982) Frame Semantics, Boas proposes that each sense of a verb is best characterized by referencing the semantic frame(s) that it evokes.

10. Acquiring particle placement in English: A corpus-based perspective [+–] 235 – 263

Stefan Th. Gries £17.50

University of California

Stefan Gries’s chapter studies the early acquisition of the constituent order alternation of English verb-particle constructions such as He gave back the bottle vs. He gave the bottle back, where the choice between these two constructions has been shown to be determined by a large number of linguistic and psycholinguistic determinants. On the basis of data from the CHILDES set of corpora, the article investigates several hundred constructions from three children, with the aim of determining to what extent previously-studied syntactic and semantic factors, as well as new phonological and frequency variables that have received little attention,may affect early particle placement. Gries also discusses lexically specific preferences for particular verb-particle constructions and examines to what degree data from different children may be conflated.

11. Looks, appearances and judgements: Towards a unified constructionist analysis of predicative complement alternations in English and Spanish [+–] 264 – 293

Francisco González-García £17.50

University of Almenia

This chapter by Francisco Gonzálvez-García focuses on the non-equivalence of predicative complement alternations with a phrasal and infinitival realization after seem-type verbs in English and Spanish (e.g. He seems (to be) angry/Parece (estar) enfadado). Through analysis of data from corpora and other sources, the author argues for a unified constructionist account of the semantico-pragmatic and information structure restrictions which impinge upon the alternation of predicative complements in the subjectiveattributive construction with seem-type verbs and their Spanish counterparts. Gonzálvez-García then proposes that this unitary analysis can also be applied to the evaluative subjective-transitive construction with consider-type verbs in both languages, as both constructions display a number of similarities which affect not only the core constructional meaning but also the semantico-pragmatic profile of the construction’s components.

12. Metonymy-motivated morphosyntactic alternations [+–] 294 – 315

Antonio Barcelona Sánchez £17.50

University of Córdoba

This chapter by Antonio Barcelona Sánchez argues for the role of conceptual metonymy as a crucial motivating factor in some instances of the three main types of morphosyntactic alternations which, in the author’s view, can be discerned: (i) the conventional pairing of a basic form with more than one basic constructional meaning; (ii) the conventional pairing of a basic constructional meaning with more than one uninflected form; and (iii) the model-variant relationship of two constructions within the same network. Instances from the following morphosyntactic areas are discussed: suffixal derivation, conversion, abbreviatory lexical forms and ellipsis, and syntactic constructions.

13. A Functional Discourse Grammar approach to the Swarm-alternation as a case of conversion [+–] 316 – 338

Carmen Portero Muñoz £17.50

University of Córdoba

This chapter by Carmen Portero Muñoz centres on the so-called “Swarm-alternation”. As opposed to most traditional approaches which exclude verbal alternations from the realm of word-formation, the Swarmalternation is here regarded as a case of conversion. Portero Muñoz favours a non-derivational account of this alternation and contends that the FDG framework may solve some of the shortcomings of former accounts of the process, given the separation of frames and lexemes postulated in the theory.

14. Morphological relatedness and zero alternation in Old English [+–] 339 – 362

Javier Martin Arista £17.50

University of La Rioja

This chapter by Javier Martín Arista, is centrally concerned with morphological alternations as recurrent pairings of meaning and form. Martín Arista deals with zero alternation in Old English (OE) as comprising two phenomena involving an irregular association (or mismatch) between form and meaning: zero derivation and the empty morph. The author proposes a typology of affixless derivation in OE that distinguishes zero derivation and conversion, and shows that zero derivation and redundant derivation with empty morphs are related phenomena if word-formation is considered in its syntagmatic and paradigmatic dimensions.

Index

Index [+–] 363 – 383

Pilar Guerrero Medina FREE

University of Córdoba

Reviews

Brings together a valuable collection of often challenging papers that not only address alternation phenomena from differing theoretical perspectives, but contribute .. to our understanding of morphosyntactic alternation in general.
Functions of Language 20:2, 2013

I found this rich collection of papers a useful overview of some well-known alternations such as the inchoative/middle alteration from a cognitive-functional perspective.
Cristiano Broccias, Universita di Genova, Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 11.1, 2013

A successful work on the study of English morphosyntactic alternations, which provides new suggestive insights into this complex linguistic phenomenon. It contains, in fact, many reflections and findings that are enlightening, arousing the reader’s curiosity and opening interesting new lines of future research.
Atlantis: Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies, 34.2

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Morphosyntactic Alternations in English

Functional and Cognitive Perspectives

Pilar Guerrero Medina [+–]

University of Córdoba

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