scholarly journals Light Verb Constructions and Their Families - A Corpus Study on German ‘stehen unter’-LVCs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Fleischhauer
Keyword(s):  
Corpus Study ◽  
Light Verb Constructions ◽  
Light Verb ◽  
Verb Constructions

Choosing an event description: What a PropBank study reveals about the contrast between light verb constructions and counterpart synthetic verbs

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 577-600
Author(s):  
CLAIRE BONIAL ◽  
KIMBERLY A. POLLARD
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
General Function ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Light Verb Constructions ◽  
Light Verb ◽  
Event Description ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Motivating Factor

Light verb constructions (LVCs) in English and Romance languages are somewhat unique crosslinguistically because LVCs in these languages tend to have semantically similar synthetic verb counterparts (Zarco 1999): e.g. make an appearance and appear. This runs contrary to assumptions in linguistic theories that two competing forms are rarely maintained in a language unless they serve distinct purposes (e.g. Grice 1975). Why do English LVCs exist alongside counterpart synthetic verbs, especially given that synthetic verbs are arguably the more efficient form (Zipf 1949)? It has been proposed that LVCs serve an aspectual function (Prince 1972, Live 1973, Wierzbicka 1982, Tanabe 1999, Butt & Geuder 2001), as there are telic LVC counterparts (e.g. have a thought) of atelic verbs (e.g. think).  This proposal has been difficult to evaluate without a large-scale resource providing a markup of both LVCs and counterpart verbs. Addressing this gap in resources, the present research describes the development of guidelines for LVC annotation in the English PropBank (Bonial & Palmer 2015). The focus of this article is the subsequent analysis of these annotations, aimed at uncovering corpus evidence of what contexts call for the use of an LVC over a synthetic verb. The corpus study shows that the general function of LVCs is not an aspectual one and provides distributional evidence that the ease and variety with which LVCs can be modified is the general motivating factor for the use of an LVC.

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.

Give as a light verb

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 280-306
Author(s):  
Elena Martínez Caro ◽  
Jorge Arús-Hita
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
British English ◽  
Light Verb Constructions ◽  
Light Verb ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Pragmatic Variation ◽  
Semantic Properties

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.

Light verb constructions in spoken L2 English

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaëtanelle Gilquin
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Advanced Level ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Light Verb Constructions ◽  
Light Verb ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
The Trinity

Abstract Light verb constructions (LVCs), that is, combinations like take a walk or make a choice, are often claimed to be problematic for non-native speakers of English. In this paper, spoken data from the Trinity Lancaster Corpus are used to explore the use of these constructions across different sections of the corpus, representing different proficiency levels (from lower intermediate to upper advanced) as well as different types of acquisitional contexts, namely English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English as a Second Language (ESL). The results of the study reveal a tendency towards an increased frequency of LVCs, as well as more complex and abstract uses, as we move from an intermediate to an advanced level and from an EFL to an ESL context. For the EFL speakers, this development corresponds to a better approximation to native English. For the ESL speakers, on the other hand, LVCs seem to have become ‘constructional teddy bears’, used more often than by the native speakers themselves.

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