Nativised structural patterns of make light verb construction in Malaysian English

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Sook Beng Ong ◽  
Hajar Abdul Rahim
Keyword(s):  
Structural Patterns ◽  
Light Verb Constructions ◽  
Light Verb ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Light Verb Construction ◽  
Reference Corpus ◽  
Descriptive Approach ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Influence Of Substrate ◽  
National Corpus

Abstract This study investigated nativised structural patterns of light verb constructions (LVCs) in Malaysian English using a corpus-based, descriptive approach to analyse grammatical innovations. To facilitate the analysis, a 100-million-word general corpus comprising threads from Lowyat.Net, a popular Internet forum in Malaysia, was created, and the British National Corpus (BNC) was used as the reference corpus. Using the Sketch Engine corpus tool, the three most frequently occurring make LVCs in the Malaysian English corpus were identified. The data was analysed to reveal the differences between the structures of make LVC in Malaysian English and its prototypical structure. The findings show that besides the non-isomorphic deverbal noun form, make LVCs in Malaysian English prefer taking the basic constituents of an LVC. Nativised LVCs are essentially those with zero articles and isomorphic deverbal nouns taking definite articles, determiners, and descriptive adjectives in their modifier slots. The zero article LVC is the most common nativised structure pattern due to the influence of substrate languages in Malaysian English.

A Cognitive Approach to Light Verb Constructions: Backstage Issues

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Babak Sharif ◽  
Mohammad Amouzadeh
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Complex Predicate ◽  
Light Verb Constructions ◽  
Light Verb ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Light Verb Construction

<p>Persian Light Verb Constructions (LVCs) have been studied by many scholars. Yet, little attention has been paid to the process of LVC formation. This paper aims to situate the components of Persian light verb constructions in contexts that can be justifiably invoked as a motivation for LVC formation. We will investigate the issue by arguing that Persian LVCs can be analyzed in terms of incorporation process. This process, explained from a cognitive viewpoint, involves LVCs originating from complete clauses, then passing through a <em>compositional path</em> (Langacker 1987, 2008) where a nonverbal and a verbal element are selected out of a kernel clause and end up in a complex predicate (CPr). The investigation will be primarily focused on the LVCs constructed with<em> </em>LV<em> kardan </em>‘do, make’, as the most frequently used light verb in Persian. The paper will also explore how different paths could be associated with certain particular ‘light’ meanings of<em> kardan. </em>The resulting LVCs may further yield <em>constructional schemas</em> upon which other LVCs formed with a given LV can be formed.</p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong>Light verb construction, Complex predicate, Incorporation, Persian</p>

At the interface of grammaticalisation and lexicalisation: the case of take prisoner

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-55
Author(s):  
EVA BERLAGE
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Considerable Effect ◽  
Light Verb Constructions ◽  
Light Verb ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Light Verb Construction

Brinton & Traugott (2005) and Brinton (2008) have suggested that light verb constructions of the type take a look (at) are instances of grammaticalisation. This article shows that this is because the emphasis has been on the verb take. Exploring the light verb construction take prisoner, we see that one and the same construction involves both lexicalisation and grammaticalisation processes. For grammaticalisation, the focus will be on the semantic bleaching of take and the productivity of the pattern take + NP. For the lexicalisation of the construction, we will focus on the increasing fixedness of the collocation take prisoner, evident from the decreasing acceptability of the pattern make prisoner, and on the decategorialisation of the original NP prisoner, which is manifested in the loss of plural -s inflection in prisoner. The article further investigates the decategorialisation of prisoner, revealing that the word order of prisoner(s) relative to its complement NP (e.g. take the men prisoner(s) vs take prisoner(s) the men) has a considerable effect on the speed of plural s-deletion.

The emergence of light verb constructions

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-156
Author(s):  
Jens Fleischhauer ◽  
Stefan Hartmann
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Middle High German ◽  
Light Verb Constructions ◽  
Light Verb ◽  
Internal Position ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Reference Corpus ◽  
Early New High German ◽  
The One

Abstract This paper takes a data-driven perspective on the grammaticalization of German light verb constructions (LVCs) with kommen ‘come’. LVCs are complex predicates consisting of a semantically light verb and an eventive noun realized within a phrasal complement, e.g. German zur Vollendung kommen, lit. ‘come into completion’. We assume that (at least) two different processes interact in the emergence of LVCs: the desemanticization of the verb on the one hand and the realization of eventive nouns in the complement-PP of the verb on the other. In order to check whether these processes take place in parallel or if one precedes the other, we conduct a corpus study based on samples from the Reference Corpus of Middle High German (REM) and the Bonn Early New High German Corpus (FnhdC), focusing on the animacy and concreteness of the subject NPs and the PP-internal nouns. Our results indicate that we can first observe an increase in the use of abstract nouns in subject position and that only later – from Middle High German to Early New High German – eventive nouns in PP-internal position become more frequent.

scholarly journals Funktionsverbgefüge - empirisch (am Beispiel von kommen)

2006 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Kamber
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Light Verb Constructions ◽  
Light Verb ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Light Verb Construction ◽  
To Come

In grammars and textbooks used to teach German as a foreign language, the chapters devoted to the "Funktionsverbgefüge" (light verb constructions) are based on data that are mainly obtained by introspection. German dictionaries also often seem not to be based on empirical data. Through the example of kommen (to come), the present paper aims at showing a few new and decisive elements that empirical, strictly corpus-driven research, by means of the new digital corpora, makes it possible to highlight. The purpose is to achieve a description that is more precise and more faithful to the target language in foreign languages teaching. Keywords: Light verb construction - light verb - corpus linguistics - empirical research - digital corpora - COSMAS II - prototype semantics - syntax - valence - complementation - lexicology - grammar

scholarly journals Paraphrasing of Japanese light-verb constructions based on lexical conceptual structure

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atsushi Fujita ◽  
Kentaro Furihata ◽  
Kentaro Inui ◽  
Yuji Matsumoto ◽  
Koichi Takeuchi
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Structure ◽  
Light Verb Constructions ◽  
Light Verb ◽  
Lexical Conceptual Structure ◽  
Verb Constructions

Reciprocity in Czech Light Verb Constructions: The Dependency Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-68
Author(s):  
Václava Kettnerová ◽  
Markéta Lopatková
Keyword(s):  
Structure Formation ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Rule Based ◽  
Light Verb Constructions ◽  
Light Verb ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Complex Mapping

Abstract In this paper, we draw attention to reciprocity in Czech light verb constructions – a language phenomenon, which has not been discussed yet. Reciprocity is contributed to light verb constructions by predictive nouns, as they are the nouns that represent the semantic core of these constructions. Here we focus on reciprocal light verb constructions derived by the syntactic operation of reciprocalization. We show that the complex mapping of semantic participants onto valency complementations, characteristic of reciprocalization, is reflected in reciprocal light verb constructions in the same way as in reciprocal nominal constructions. The main difference between reciprocal nominal constructions and reciprocal light verb constructions lies in the morphosyntactic expression of reciprocalized participants. We demonstrate that surface syntactic changes in reciprocal light verb constructions are regular enough to be described on the rule basis: the rule based generation of reciprocal light verb constructions requires a cooperation of two sets of rules – rules for deep and surface syntactic structure formation of light verb constructions and rules for capturing reciprocity.

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