Changes in Argument Structure von Tamara Bouso-Rivas | The Transitivizing Reaction Object Construction | ISBN 9783034342650

Changes in Argument Structure

The Transitivizing Reaction Object Construction

von Tamara Bouso-Rivas
Buchcover Changes in Argument Structure | Tamara Bouso-Rivas | EAN 9783034342650 | ISBN 3-0343-4265-9 | ISBN 978-3-0343-4265-0

Changes in Argument Structure

The Transitivizing Reaction Object Construction

von Tamara Bouso-Rivas

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.