Verb Valency Patterns Topics in English Linguistics 71
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Verb Valency Patterns Topics in English Linguistics 71 Editors Bernd Kortmann Elizabeth Closs Traugott De Gruyter Mouton Verb Valency Patterns A Challenge for Semantics-Based Accounts by Susen Faulhaber De Gruyter Mouton ISBN 978-3-11-024071-9 e-ISBN 978-3-11-024078-8 ISSN 1434-3452 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Faulhaber, Susen, 1978Ϫ Verb valency patterns : a challenge for semantics-based accounts / by Susen Faulhaber. p. cm. Ϫ (Topics in English linguistics ; 71) Originally presented as the author’s thesis (doctoral Ϫ University of Erlangen and Nuremberg, Germany, 2009) under the title: Semantic aspects of verb valency. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-3-11-024071-9 (alk. paper) 1. Grammar, Comparative and general Ϫ Verb phrase. 2. Seman- tics. 3. Dependency grammar. I. Title. P281.F38 2011 4251.6Ϫdc22 2011009773 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. ” 2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 10785 Berlin/New York Cover image: Brian Stablyk/Photographer’s Choice RF/Getty Images Printing: Hubert & Co. GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ϱ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Preface This book, which is a revised version of my doctoral thesis, submitted to and accepted by the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in 2009 under the title Semantic Aspects of Verb Valency – The Relationship between Meaning and Form, would not have been possible without the help of so many people who supported me in various ways. In the following few lines a number of them are gratefully acknowledged for helping me in vari- ous ways – in the process of collecting and preparing the data and arranging the results into a presentable format or by providing valuable comments throughout different phases of the manuscript as well as providing encou- ragement and moral support. For any errors, shortcomings or inadequacies that may remain in this work the responsibility is, of course, entirely my own. My special thanks go to Thomas Herbst for arousing my interest in the fascinating ways in which verbs behave – or do not behave as expected, for that matter –, for encouraging me to do research in this field and helping me in refining the topic. His support as supervisor of my thesis was truly exceptional, not only in providing numerous valuable suggestions and comments on various stages of the manuscript, but also by always affording the requisite moral support whenever needed. I am very grateful to Michael Klotz for his constructive feedback on various passages of earlier drafts of the manuscript and to Mechthild Habermann for her interest and suggestions concerning possible future research in this field as well as for her willingness to function as deputy supervisor. Bernd Kortmann, the co-editor of this book, provided helpful comments on the manuscript and gave the impetus for several worthwhile changes in the structure of the book for which I am much obliged to him. I would also like to express my gratitude to Birgit Sievert for her interest and support right from the start. I am much obliged to the many patient native speakers for sacrificing hours of their private time for uncountable interview sessions, patiently going trough ever new batteries of invented sentences: (in alphabetical order) Naomi Bishop, Amy Buer, Gayle Goldstick, Andrea Hunt, Turloch o’Brion, Elena Rippel, and Ned Reif. My special thanks go to David Heath and especially Kevin Pike for not only participating in the interviews but also reading the final manuscript and providing invaluable advice concern- ing both language, style, and also content. vi Preface Peter Uhrig was a tremendous help concerning all questions of a tech- nical nature – from the subtleties of corpus research to formatting the ma- nuscript – but also in providing invaluable last-minute moral support, for which I am very grateful. I would also like to thank Christian Hauf for proofreading the manuscript, Matthias Limmer for checking example sen- tence references in the appendices, and all other colleagues and friends who contributed to this work and thereby helped to enhance the quality of it. Finally my dearest thanks go to my family. My parents Helga and Manfred Schüller always believed in me and supported me in every con- ceivable way, for which I am deeply grateful. Moreover, I cannot thank enough my husband Detlef Faulhaber, who patiently accompanied me through all the ups and downs of writing a dissertation and finalizing a manuscript for publication, always encouraging me, always helping me with unforeseen formatting intricacies and always being my source of ener- gy whenever I seemed to be running out of it. Without their loving and consistent support, I would never have been able to stick to this path and to finish this book. It is dedicated to them. Erlangen, February 2011 Susen Faulhaber Contents Preface .......................................................................................................... v Figures .......................................................................................................... x Tables ......................................................................................................... xii Abbreviations ............................................................................................. xv 1 Introduction .......................................................................................... 1 1.1 Major questions.............................................................................. 1 1.2 The model of analysis – overview and important concepts ........... 3 1.2.1 Valency models – a brief overview ..................................... 3 1.2.2 Valency carriers, complements and adjuncts, and different types of valency ................................................................... 4 1.2.3 Valency patterns .................................................................. 6 1.2.4 Optionality of complements ................................................ 8 1.2.5 Subject complement unit (SCU) and predicate complement units (PCUs) ...................................................................... 10 1.2.6 Levels of valency and the use of semantic roles................ 11 1.2.7 Valency constructions........................................................ 15 1.2.8 Complement types ............................................................. 16 1.2.9 Participant roles ................................................................. 17 1.3 Design of the study ...................................................................... 20 2 The meaning of complements ............................................................ 23 2.1 Complement types as part of a verb’s valency structure ............. 23 2.1.1 Overview ........................................................................... 23 2.1.2 Complement types ............................................................. 23 2.1.3 Valency structures – introducing the model used .............. 29 2.2 Alternative realizations of participants ........................................ 32 2.2.1 Semantic specialization vs. synonymy of complement types .. 32 2.2.1.1 AGENT + talk + TOPIC ........................................... 32 2.2.1.2 AGENT + agree + TOPIC/REFERENCE .................... 36 2.2.1.3 AGENT + forget + ÆFFECTED ................................ 47 2.2.2 Polysemous complement types .......................................... 49 2.2.2.1 AGENT + cheat + REFERENCE ............................... 49 2.2.2.2 AGENT + argue + TOPIC/REFERENCE .................... 55 2.2.2.3 AGENT + inform + TOPIC ...................................... 60 2.2.3 Blocked patterns ................................................................ 64 viii Contents 2.3 Conclusion ................................................................................... 67 2.3.1 No stable semantic properties ............................................ 68 2.3.2 Synonymous and polysemous complement types ............. 78 3 Pattern choice and verb meaning ..................................................... 82 3.1 Assessing the role of verb meaning – theoretical assumptions .... 82 3.2 A comparison of semantically similar verbs ................................ 86 3.2.1 The database – introduction and description of methodo- logy .................................................................................... 86 3.2.2 Semantically similar verbs and their pattern inventories ... 92 3.2.3 Results of the analysis – quantitative evaluation ............. 114 3.3 Phenomena identified in the analysis ......................................... 124 3.3.1 Complementation options in a valency framework – an overview .......................................................................... 124 3.3.2 Same valency pattern but different participant pattern .... 128 3.3.3 Same pattern restricted to a very specific context ........... 134 3.3.4 Different formal realizations of the same participant ...... 141 3.3.4.1 Differences in optionality ................................... 141 3.3.4.2 Different formal realizations of the same parti- cipant – an overview .......................................... 145 3.3.4.3 Different formal realizations of BENREC ............ 155 3.3.4.4 Different formal realizations of PREDICATIVE ... 159 3.3.4.5 Different formal