Abstract
Light Verb Constructions (LVCs) have received widespread attention. Research on these constructions, however, has
for the most part focused exclusively on their syntactic and lexical-semantic properties. Additionally, studies devoted to
specific LVCs tend to neglect the phrasal-semantic and pragmatic variation brought about by the combination of a light verb with
different nominal complements. This paper tries to fill those gaps by means of a quantitative and qualitative corpus-based study
of Light give Constructions (LgiveCs). The quantitative analysis investigates frequencies of LgiveCs in
British English and compares them across spoken and written (fiction) discourse, which reveals a high frequency of this
construction in speech, especially in combinations of give with a ring, a kiss and an
answer. When these combinations are excluded, LgiveCs are significantly more frequent in writing. In a
complementary qualitative approach, we highlight the structural and discursive features of the construction and attempt to explore
the factors that motivate the frequent use of the LgiveC in British English.
Quantitative analysis of the high-frequency components of the terminal portion of the body surface QRS in normal subjects and in patients with ventricular tachycardia.
