LITHUANIAN UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES FACULTY OF HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH PHILOLOGY AND DIDACTICS

EGLĖ BALČIŪTĖ

A CORPUS-BASED ANALYSIS OF LIGHT CONSTRUCTIONS WITH DEVERBAL CHAT, TALK, AND CONVERSATION IN BRITISH ENGLISH

MA THESIS

Academic advisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Judita Giparaitė

Vilnius, 2018 LIETUVOS EDUKOLOGIJOS UNIVERSITETAS HUMANITARINIO UGDYMO FAKULTETAS ANGLŲ FILOLOGIJOS IR DIDAKTIKOS KATEDRA

TEKSTYNO DUOMENIMIS PAGRĮSTAS BRITŲ ANGLŲ KALBOS KONSTRUKCIJŲ SU DEVERBATYVINIAIS DAIKTAVARDŽIAIS CHAT, TALK IR CONVERSATION TYRIMAS

Magistro darbas

Magistro darbo autorė Eglė Balčiūtė Patvirtinu, kad darbas atliktas savarankiškai, naudojant tik darbe nurodytus šaltinius ______(Parašas, data)

Vadovas doc. dr. Judita Giparaitė ______(Parašas, data)

CONTENTS ABSTRACT ...... 4 INTRODUCTION ...... 5 1. ON THE LIGHT VERB CONSTRUCTIONS ...... 9 1.1. PROPERTIES OF LIGHT VERB CONSTRUCTIONS ...... 9 1.2. THE PROTOTYPE THEORY ...... 12 1.3. TYPES OF LIGHT VERB CONSTRUCTIONS ...... 14 2. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ...... 16 2.1. COMBINABILITY WITH LIGHT ...... 19 2.1.1. Variety of light verbs ...... 19 2.1.2. Productivity of light verb constructions ...... 24 2.3.1. Frequency analysis of complemented light verb constructions ...... 26 2.3.2. Variety of complementation patterns ...... 27 2.3. ADJECTIVAL MODIFICATION ...... 35 2.3.1. Frequency analysis of modified light verb constructions ...... 35 2.3.2. Semantic types of immediate adjectival modifiers ...... 36 2.3.3. Use of the most frequent adjectival modifiers ...... 41 2.4. THE USE ACROSS DIFFERENT REGISTERS ...... 44 CONCLUSIONS ...... 47 SUMMARY ...... 50 REFERENCES ...... 52 SOURCES ...... 55 APPENDICES ...... 56

ABSTRACT

The present study aims at giving a quantitative and qualitative analysis of syntactic and semantic properties of light verb constructions of type 1 and type 2 with the synonymous deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation in British English. The constructions under investigation are analysed in terms of light verbs with which they can combine, their productivity, complementation patterns, adjectival modification, and the use across different registers. The data for analysis were collected from the British National Corpus (BNC). The study revealed that the constructions under investigation behave in a similar way in terms of the use across different registers but contain some differences in their combinability with different light verbs, complementation patterns and adjectival modification; however, the differences are mostly related to the semantic differences between the light verbs constructions used in the constructions rather than are construction-type- dependent.

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INTRODUCTION

Light verb constructions, henceforth LVCs, such as have a talk, take a walk, give a kiss are described as combinations that consist of a verbal component having little semantic content of its own which in the given examples refers to have, take, give and forming a with a nominal component derived from a verb which in the given examples refers to talk, walk, and kiss (Kearns, 2002; Butt, 2010; Tu, Roth, 2011; Plante, 2014; Giparaitė, 2015). The verbal component is called a light verb while the nominal one – a deverbal . The LVC differs from other V+NP combinations in that the meaning of the construction is not a sum of the separate meanings of its components as is the case in the combinations have a house, take a sweet, give him the book but rather derived from the thus the meaning of the LVC have a talk is similar to the verb talk. However, some authors1 claim that LVCs do not form a unified group. Bergs (2005, 210) introduces four different types of these constructions. Type 1 includes combinations that consist of a light verb and an eventive deverbal noun derived from a verb through total conversion, for example, have a talk. LVCs of type 2 have the same structure as the ones of type 1 except for the deverbal noun that is derived from a verb not through total conversion but through suffixation, stress shifts or changes on the stem, for instance, have an agreement, make a protest, give a thought. Type 3 includes combinations of a light verb and a deverbal noun which may be compounded such as have a heart-attack or be not of eventive nature as in have a resemblance. LVCs of type 4 include combinations of the light verb have, a noun or a functioning as an indirect object and a prepositional phrase carrying the main semantic content, the noun in which can be derived from a verb through different processes, for example, have somebody in command. LVCs of type 1, type 2 and type 4 are normally substitutable by a simple verb while the ones of type 3 are usually not. Bergs (2005, 213) believes that all the types of LVCs presented above are organised in a prototypical order in the English language, i.e. they all belong to the class of LVCs but to different degrees. LVCs of type 1 represent the prototype having all or most characteristic morphological, syntactic, and semantic properties while LVCs of type 2, type 3, and type 4 gradually become more distant from the prototype and carry fewer of its features at the same time having less clear

1 Höche (2009, 231) claims that there is a family of types of LVCs where each type has unique features. The distinction among the types is based on the syntactic structure of LVCs (Stevenson et al., 2004, 2), morphological (Kearns, 2002, 1) or semantic (Wierzbicka, 1982, 755) nature of the deverbal noun. 5 association with the main pattern. The present study focuses on two types of LVCs being closest to the prototype, type 1 and type 2. Regardless of type, there are some restrictions on the acceptability of LVCs, which light verb can occur with which complement to form these constructions. Wierzbicka (1982, 754) claims that these constraints on the constituents are of semantic nature and the acceptability of LVCs depends on the semantic features of the complement. While searching for a computational means to quantify the acceptability of LVCs, Stevenson et al. (2004, 7) conclude that different light verbs show distinct patterns with different verb classes2 each containing semantically similar verbs thus semantically similar complements tend to be used with the same light verb. In order to check this tendency, the present thesis investigates the properties of LVCs of type 1 and type 2 with the partially synonymous3 deverbal nouns.

The research question

This study focuses on LVCs of type 1 and type 2 with the partially synonymous deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation. Taking into account the potential of the constructions of type 1 and type 2 to differ in a number of aspects and the tendency of semantically similar complements to combine with the same light verbs, the following research questions were raised: 1) What are syntactic and semantic differences between the LVCs of type 1 with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and the constructions of type 2 with the deverbal noun conversation? 2) How do LVCs behave in general when combined with the synonymous deverbal nouns?

The aims and objectives

The aim of the research is to study syntactic and semantic properties of LVCs of type 1 and type 2 with the synonymous deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation in British English. In order to achieve the aim of the research, the following objectives were formulated:

2 In their research, Stevenson et al. consider the complement of a light verb in a LVC to be a verb stem. 3 Synonymy is a semantic relation between two language units (usually words) that are identical or similar in meaning. Synonyms can be divided into two main groups: absolute (full) and partial (sense). Lyons (1981, 50) introduces the following criteria for absolute synonyms: synonyms are absolute if and only if: a) all their meanings are identical, b) they are synonymous in all contexts, c) they are identical on all relevant dimensions of meaning. Absolute (full) synonyms have to meet all the above mentioned criteria while partial (sense) ones – only one. Partial (sense) synonyms share one or more meanings but differ in other meanings. 6

 To describe light verbs of the constructions of type 1 and type 2 that can combine with the deverbal nouns chat, talk and conversation;  To describe the productivity of LVCs of type 1 and type 2 with the deverbal nouns under investigation;  To investigate complementation patterns of LVCs o type 1 and type 2 with the deverbal nouns under investigation;  To describe immediate adjectival modifiers of LVCs of type 1 and type 2 with the deverbal nouns under investigation;  To study the use of LVCs of type 1 and type 2 with the deverbal nouns under investigation across different registers.

The scope of the research and research methods

LVCs of type 1 with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and the constructions of type 2 with the deverbal noun conversation were chosen for analysis since they are frequently used in everyday English. Due to the limited scope of the thesis, LVCs with only three synonymous deverbal nouns were selected for analysis. The data were collected from the British National Corpus (BNC) which is a representative electronic database of spoken and written British English. For the analysis, mixed methods consisting of qualitative and quantitative methods were applied. The qualitative method was adopted to examine syntactic and semantic properties of LVCs of type 1 and type 2 with the synonymous deverbal nouns under investigation. The quantitative method was employed to reveal the most frequent syntactic and semantic patterns of the LVCs under investigation using corpus-based frequency data.

Relevance and significance of the research

LVCs are important for speakers due to their potential to achieve different communicative aims. Halliday and Matthiesen (2004, 193) claim that the deverbal noun in a LVC has a greater modification potential in contrast to the corresponding verb and sometimes it is impossible to convey the same message by the verb even with the help of as the one expressed by LVC, for example, to bath vs. have a hot bath; to mistake seriously vs. make three serious mistakes. Also, LVCs can be employed to create different stylistic effects. As Downing and Locke explain (2006,

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159), modification of the deverbal noun in a LVC allows to make the nominal longer and heavier than the light verb preceding it what enables the message to be built up to a culmination. Therefore, using LVCs opens many communicative possibilities and contributes to the native-like character of the English language. However, language learners might find LVCs problematic to acquire due to their dynamic properties. There are some restrictions in the substitutability of the components of LVCs, i.e. light verbs are used only with a certain type of deverbal nouns and the same deverbal noun can be taken as a complement of a few light verbs (Grefenstette, Teufel, 1995, 98). Since different types of LVCs might possess syntactic and semantic differences causing even more confusion to learners, they must be researched. In addition, if confirmed, the theory of semantically similar complements in LVCs occurring with the same light verbs could facilitate the learning process of these constructions. Little previous research has been carried out on the types of LVCs, and LVCs with the synonymous deverbal nouns in particular; therefore, this study contributes to the analysis and description of LVCs. The findings of the study might be beneficial for language learners, teachers, and translators.

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1. ON THE LIGHT VERB CONSTRUCTIONS

This chapter reviews academic literature on light verb constructions. The review discusses their syntactic and semantic properties, presents the prototype theory, and comments on the differences between prototypically distinct types of light verb constructions.

1.1.PROPERTIES OF LIGHT VERB CONSTRUCTIONS

In LVCs, a light verb and a deverbal noun are dependent on each other syntactically and semantically. There are different approaches towards the structure and syntactic status of LVCs. Many linguists describe a light verb and a deverbal noun in a LVC as forming some kind of complex predicate. For example, Goldberg (2003) analyses LVCs where the V+NP forms a V. Culicover and Jackendoff (2005) believe that the light verb functions as a syntactic frame and the meaning of the deverbal noun unifies it with V. According to Butt (2010, 3), both the light verb and the deverbal noun contribute to the joint predication, a light verb as a verbal licenser for nouns and the noun as a predicate together appearing in a syntactically monoclausal structure. According to Francis et al. (1996) the light verb and the deverbal noun cannot be entirely separated from each other, and the deverbal noun cannot be replaced by the pronoun. It means that the attention is focused not on how the object is affected as in other verb+noun combinations such as kick the ball or eat the sandwich but rather on the subject’s activity, what one does or what happens to one as in the sentences He gave a scream or We made conversation. The actions in the constructions gave a scream and made conversation performed by the subjects are described by both the light verbs and their objects. Giparaitė (2014, 77) calls it some kind of idiomaticity of these constructions. Both the light verb and the deverbal noun contribute to a number of syntactic and semantic properties of LVCs. To start with the argument structure of the constructions, both the light verb and the deverbal noun can determine it. Huddleston and Pullum (2010, 292) claim that the light verbs give, make, and do are ditransitive and they often retain their ditrasitivity when used as light verbs by incorporating an indirect object as in the example He gave me a description of the thief. On the other hand, the light verbs have and take tend to combine with intransitive simple verbs (Dixon, 2005, 467), thus LVCs with these light verbs do not contain an indirect object, for example, I had/took a ride or I had/took a walk. Deverbal nouns are usually responsible for the post-nominal complements of the LVCs (Huddleston, Pullum, 2010, 292), the latter are often the same as those 9 of the deverbal noun as is seen in the sentences He made an appeal for clemency and His appeal for clemency failed. The example illustrates that the deverbal noun has the same complement when used in the LVC and separately from the light verb. The light verb also determines the assignment of thematic roles. According to Williams (as cited in Choi and Wechsler, 2001, 109), different heavy verbs can change the role of the subject. For example: 1. John perfomed an operation. 2. John underwent an operation. In the examples, the verb performed makes its controlled subject John to take the role of the Agent. John's role is active in sentence 1, John himself carries out the action of operating. However, in sentence 2, the verb underwent changes John's role in the subject position from the active Agent to the passive Affected. John is no longer the one who carried out the action of operating but the one who was affected by the action of operating performed by somebody else. Choi and Wechsler (2001, 109) expanded Williams' example using light verbs. According to them, light verbs can be used instead of heavy verbs with nouns to form light verb constructions, and light verbs control the thematic roles of the subjects as well as heavy verbs. For example: 3. John did an operation. 4. John had an operation. In sentence 3, the light verb did makes John the Agent of the action of operating while, in sentence 4, the light verb had makes John the Affected participant of the action of operating. One more property of the light verb is that it imposes semantic constraints on which deverbal nouns it co-occurs to form LVCs. Light verbs cannot freely combine with deverbal nouns, for example, the light verb give can be used with the deverbal noun kiss as in the sentence She gave him a kiss but cannot with kill; the light verb have can be found with the deverbal noun drink as in the sentence He had a drink but cannot combine with eat (Wierzbicka 1982, 753). Wierzbicka states that these restrictions are not idiosyncratic but depend on the semantic properties of the complement of the light verb. The light verb have is used with deverbal nouns expressing volitional non-iterative states or activities which are not necessarily complete and without time or space limitations (Wierzbicka, 1982, 793; Dixon, 2005, 469; Plante, 2014, 84)4 as in I had a stroll for an hour or two/I had a walk

4 Wierzbicka (1982) and Dixon (2005) consider the complement of the light verb in LVCs to be a verb stem while Plante – a deverbal noun. This thesis adopts Plante’s interpretation (2014). 10 in the forest. In the first sentence, the word stroll indicates that the action was performed for pleasure without any external purpose, it took place for some time but the time of the activity is not defined while in the second sentence, the location in the forest is indicated but not defined. The light verb have in LVCs often contributes the meaning aspect of doing something for some time. The light verb take as described by Wierzbicka (1982, 795) and Dixon (2005, 473) can combine with deverbal nouns that express controllable volitional actions triggered by initial momentary impulse and necessarily involving physical effort such as take a walk, take a swim. The activities denoted by the deverbal nouns in constructions with take are spatially and temporally defined, for instance, take a walk around the pond. The example shows that the route of the activity of walking around the pond is clear and definite. Thus the light verb take brings the meaning aspect of some definiteness in the LVCs. Dixon (2005, 470), in addition, discusses the deverbal nouns which can be found in LVCs with the light verb give. These deverbal nouns refer to volitional actions being performed for a certain period by the subject, for example, I gave the child a carry while going up that hill on the way to town. The example illustrates that the action taking place is limited in time. However, the core meaning aspect of the light verb give brought to LVCs is that of metaphorical transfer, the subject transfers the activity or action expressed by the deverbal noun to the indirect object that is affected by that activity as in the example with the child who was affected by the activity of carrying, one’s spatial position has changed. The light verb give when used in LVCs can also add the meaning aspect of singleness of the action denoted by the deverbal noun, for instance, the construction give a laugh means to release only one ha. The combinability of the light verbs do and make with deverbal nouns is little researched. Plante (2014, 84) analyses the light verb do in terms of telicity and concludes that do combines with deverbal nouns only with telic meanings in LVCs which means that the actions expressed by the deverbal nouns in such constructions are goal-oriented and usually complete. For example, in the sentence I did a fix in a minute, the accomplishment of the action denoted by the deverbal noun fix is emphasised, not the duration. Dixon (2005, 461) makes only a few observations on the complements of the light verb make in LVCs, and comments that the actions expressed by the complements are usually related to thinking, deciding, speaking, attention and comparing. The light verb make mostly combines with the derived nominals such as make a statement, make a complaint, make a decision.

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The action, activity or state expressed by the deverbal noun in LVCs allows a great variety of modification possibilities. Firstly, the deverbal noun can be modified by multiple describing different qualities of the action (Leech et al., 2009, 169; Giparaitė, 2014, 86), for example, We had a good heart-to-heart talk, as in Kress and I were having our little friendly talk, and noun phrases as in I like to eat supper alone and have a couple of hour’s quiet talk together. Leech et al. also claim that the deverbal nouns can be pre- and post-modified by the relative clauses, for instance, Mary gave John her “I told you so” look./She gave me a look that was coquettish in a naive sort of way. The activity or action expressed by the deverbal noun can also be quantified (Downing, Locke, 2006, 159; Huddleston, Pullum, 2010, 290; Giparaitė, 2014, 86) as in They played two strenuous games of tennis. Halliday and Mathiesen (2004, 193) add that the ability of the deverbal noun in LVCs to be used with articles allows to make the actions more specific as in the example The jewellers hadn’t done the evaluation yet where the speaker means the specific case of evaluating. All these qualities enable more detailed descriptions of the actions. These modification possibilities of deverbal nouns considerably surpass the ones of the verbs. When the actions are expressed by simple verbs, they can be modified by adverbs that indicate some qualities of the actions. However, according to Leech et al. (2009, 169), Giparaitė (2014, 89 ), and Huddleston and Pullum (2010, 290), not all adjectives have equivalent adverbs, for example, the good in the sentence Wilson had a good look at him is not the same as well in the sentence Wilson looked well at him. Therefore, sometimes it is impossible to express the identical meaning of the adjective describing the action by the .

1.2.THE PROTOTYPE THEORY

Categorisation is an important usually unconscious and sometimes conscious activity inherent in human mind that, according to Lakoff (1987, 5), is employed in thought, perception and speech. For example, when someone asks to pass an apple, one naturally ascribes the features of a round object that has red or green skin and firm white flesh to the category of apples, while the adressee understands the request only by knowing which objects belong to the category of apples. The classical view on categorisation offered by Aristotle (1990) describes categories as having clear boundaries defined by characteristic features, and the candidates to a particular category are characterised by these features or they do not. However, Rosch (1975) challenged this

12 view by pioneering a more complex categorisation model called the Prototype theory according to which as summarised by Maumevičienė (2010, 14):

1. Each category has a prototypical structure; 2. The prototype is a member carrying properties which are the most characteristic of a particular category. It is possible to recognise a category from the prototype; 3. Members of the category are of unequal status. Some members possess more properties of the category, some have less characteristic features, thus they are more or less prototypical. 4. All members of the category are related by the family resemblance. 5. The boundaries of a category are fuzzy and merge with the boundaries of another category.

To illustrate this categorisation model, the category of mammals can be ascribed such features as living on land, warm-bloodedness, possession of a spine and hair, reproduction through giving birth and feeding the young on milk. The prototypical mammal could be a dog, for example, that pocesses all these properties. However, the category of mammals also includes such species as whales that are not characteristic of hairiness and they are not terrestial animals, but they are warm-blooded, they reproduce by giving birth and feed the young on milk, thus they are members of the category although less prototypical. At the same time they have some features characteristic of fish that shows the fuzziness of the categories of mammals and fish. According to Lakoff (1987, 58), since language depends on cognition, the prototype theory works in linguistic categorisation as well as in other categorisations in human conceptual system. The prototypical structure that is characteristic of asymmetry between members within a linguistic category and their gradation away from the prototype (the central member) can be found in all areas of language from phonology, morphology to syntax and . As well as in other categorisations, the linguistic categories are characterised by the fuzziness of boundaries as described by Taylor (1998,192) where central members of the category possess only properties typical of the category while marginal members can additionally have some properties typical of other categories. Taylor presents the relation between centrality of members within a linguistic category and their productivity. According to Taylor, central members within a linguistic category are more

13 productive than marginal members. High productivity of central members means that they are freely acceptable while marginal members need specific conditions to be acceptable. For example, the central subjects are noun phrases, and the subject expressed by the locative prepositional phrase as in By the fire is a good place to sit is a marginal member within the category of subjects. The locative preposition phrase can occur in the subject position only when it refers to a certain kind of place while it cannot appear in the sentences such as By the fire is filled up with smoke where something happend in the place, for example. If by the fire in this sentence is substituted with the the room, it becomes acceptable. In Berg's classification of LVCs (2005, 210) presented in the Introduction, the category of LVCs represents a prototypical structure where type 1 is the prototype of LVCs that has most characteristic features of the category and is most associated with LVCs while type 4 is least prototypical. All four types have differences, however, they all are related by the fact that they consist of a semantically bleached light verb and derive the meaning of the construction from the complement.

1.3.TYPES OF LIGHT VERB CONSTRUCTIONS

Being the prototype, LVCs of type 1 have been extensively researched from different aspects, however, other types of LVCs that are often not considered as LVCs at all have not attracted scholars' attention. There are only a few researches analysing different types of LVCs. Bergs (2005) analyses all four types of LVCs in the collection of Paston letters and papers written in the late Middle English in terms of their frequency, variety of light verbs with which they combine to form LVCs, number of deverbal nouns and syntactic configurations. The study reveals that distinct types differ in frequency and variety of light verbs which they take to form LVCs, more prototypical types have higher frequencies and combine with a greater variety of light verbs while less prototypical constructions gradually decrease in these aspects. However, the types do not show distinct patterns in the number of deverbal nouns and syntactic configurations. Kearns (2002, 2), on the other hand, focuses on the first two types of LVCs in Modern English, which she calls true light verbs (TLVs) and vague action verbs (VAVs), and claims their syntactic differences. LVCs of type 1 (TLVs) are described as syntactically more fixed than the constructions of type 2 (VAVs5). The complement of a TLV cannot be passivised (5a),

5 Kearns (2002) does not consider VAVs to be light verb constructions. 14 pronominalised (6a) and does not allow wh-movement (7a). Also, the complement of a TLV when refers to an action rather than an attribute or ability does not allow argument-denoting NPs within their maximal projection (8a). VAVs can participate in different syntactic transformations (5-8b).

5. a) *A groan was given by the man on the right. b) An inspection was made some time last week.

6. a) *I gave the soup a heat and then Bill gave it one too. b) The Health Department made an inspection on Monday and may make another one before prosecuting.

7. a) *Which groan did John give? b) Which explanation did the second witness give for the delay?

8. a) *John’s laugh at the chairman’s joke eased the tension. b) John’s inspection of the plant was rather cursory.

Samardžic (2008) in search of a measure which would automatically distinguish between light and heavy verbs and between the constructions of type 1 and type 2 tests the hypothesis that the same verb can be found in the constructions of both types but when used in the constructions of type 1, the verb is more light than in the constructions of type 2. The relation between the lightness of the verb and the nature of its complement has been confirmed but only when the complement and the whole construction are used infrequently.

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2. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter discusses the results of the present study which focuses on two types of LVCs, type 1 and type 2, with the synonymous deverbal nouns in British English. Due to the limited scope of the thesis, LVCs with only three synonymous deverbal nouns chat, talk and conversation were selected for analysis. The synonyms chat, talk and conversation were chosen as deverbal nouns due to their frequent use in the English language. The constructions with the above mentioned synonymous deverbal nouns were extracted from the British National Corpus (BNC) which is a 100 million word representative electronic database of spoken and written text samples produced by native speakers of British English. The data for analysis were collected on the basis of certain criteria. Firstly, the LVCs under analysis included constructions that did not participate in syntactic modification operations such as passivisation or wh-movement. As it is generally accepted in corpus studies, low frequencies (lower than five occurrences) in the BNC do not indicate typical uses, thus only constructions that occurred in the corpus five and more than five times were included in the study. The sample for the research consisted of 968 constructions drawn from the BNC, of which 282 were with the deverbal noun chat, 332 with the deverbal noun talk, and 354 with the deverbal noun conversation. The research into syntactic and semantic features of LVCs with the synonymous deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation applied mixed methods consisting of qualitative and quantitative analyses. The qualitative method was used to examine the similarities and differences in the behaviour of the LVCs under investigation in terms of the combinability of the synonymous deverbal nouns under investigation with different light verbs, productivity, complementation patterns, immediate adjectival modifiers of the deverbal nouns, and the use across different registers6. The quantitative method was employed in the research to perform frequency analysis of the LVCs under investigation in terms of the above mentioned aspects using corpus-based frequency data.

6 Lee (2001, 47) explains that register typically refers to situational parameters of language use having certain linguistic features. The groups of texts in the BNC, however, are very broad and include many internal variations, thus the author offers to use genre to describe them. Genre refers to a conventionally recognisable text category, which, as Lee (2001, 47) puts it, is associated with typical configurations of power, ideology, and social purposes, which are dynamic/negotiated aspects of situated language use. Nevertheless register is more widely used in Corpus (Gimenez-Moreno and Skorczynska, 2013, 404); therefore, the present thesis will use this term to refer to the text groups in the BNC.

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The analysis of the data included a number of research procedural steps. The first step was to retrieve LVCs with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation in combination with different light verbs from the corpus. Each deverbal noun under investigation was separately tagged with all verbs to learn with which light verbs they occur. Combinations where the deverbal nouns under investigation combined with verbs having general meaning, i.e. do, get, take, make, have, and give were searched. After that, each deverbal noun was tagged with a lemmatised form of each selected light verb individually within the span from +1 to +5 to include LVCs with the modified deverbal noun. The concordances in the corpus were studied and LVCs that met the set criteria mentioned above were manually selected (see Appendix 1). The second step was to analyse the combinability of the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation with different light verbs. The analysis was performed by describing the variety of light verbs with which each deverbal noun under investigation can combine and semantic differences between the constructions. Then, the LVCs under investigation combined with different light verbs were examined in terms of productivity to check Taylor's claim (1998, 192) that the more prototypical construction is, the more productive it is. The productivity of the constructions was analysed by comparing their normalised frequencies7. As the concordances in the corpus also included cases where the searched light verb and deverbal noun do not form a LVC and are unrelated in the sentence, normalised frequencies of the constructions were calculated manually to get more precise results. They were calculated by dividing the raw frequency of each combination by the number of words in the corpus and multiplying by 1000 000. The calculated frequencies were rounded to the tenths. The third step was to analyse the LVCs under investigation in terms of their complementation. For the analysis, complementation patterns of LVCs with each deverbal noun under investigation in their combination with different light verbs were identified. Complements are obligatory constituents required to have a grammatically correct clause with a completed meaning. In the identification process, it was important to distinguish them from adjuncts that are optional constituents contributing additional information. For example, in the sentence I had a conversation with Con the other day (the BNC), conversation in its definition requires not only the speaker but also another person who could listen to the speaker’s ideas and respond, thus with Con is a complement while the other day gives only the details of time when the action happened, thus

7 Normalised frequency indicates a certain proportion of the constructions within the whole corpus (McEnery, Wilson, 2001, 83), thus more reliable generalisations can be made about the productivity of the constructions. 17 it is an adjunct. The identified complementation patterns were counted and statistics of LVCs having complements were produced in percentage terms. Then, the complements of the LVCs under investigation were analysed in terms of the semantic roles which they perform using Halliday's classification (1994, 140), and the variety of complementation patterns selected by the constructions was described in relation to these semantic roles8. The next step was to analyse the immediate adjectival modifiers of the deverbal nouns in the LVCs. Firstly, relative frequencies of the LVCs with the modified deverbal nouns were counted to compare the extent of modification among the constructions under investigation. Then the adjectives that combine with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation were grouped according to Biber et al.’s classification (1999, 508) into descriptive and classifying adjectives, the former of which describes different characteristics of the noun while the latter restricts the noun and delimits it from other nouns. Descriptive adjectives were further grouped9 according to the property they describe into evaluative/emotive, cognitive, duration, speed, frequency, volume, tone (manner), and structure (see Appendix 2). The constructions under investigation were described in terms of these semantic groups of adjectives, their frequency, and the use of five most frequent adjectival modifiers in order to compare modification patterns between LVCs of type 1 and type 2 with the synonymous deverbal nouns under investigation. The final step was to analyse the LVCs under investigation in terms of their use across different registers10. The analysis was based on normalised frequency data because different registers in the BNC corpus are of unequal size. The normalised frequencies of the constructions were calculated manually and were obtained by dividing the raw frequency of the combination by the number of words in the register and multiplying by 1000 000. The calculated frequencies of the constructions across different registers were rounded to the tenths and compared.

8 The variety of complementation patterns selected by the constructions under investigation was described in relation to the semantic roles of the complements because of the tendency revealed by the data that the complements selected by different constructions but performing the same semantic roles contain some similarities. 9 Some semantic groups of the descriptive adjectives were adapted from Biber et al.’ classification of adjectives (1999, 508), and some were created by the author of the thesis.

10 The BNC corpus includes the spoken, fiction, newspaper, magazine, academic, non-academic and miscellaneous registers. Reference Guide for the British National Corpus (2007) describes the composition of its registers. The spoken register consists of transcribed speech produced in different contexts varying in degree of formality and written texts meant to be spoken such as television news broadcasts etc. The fiction genre consists of drama, poetry and prose texts. The academic genre is mainly composed of a variety of scientific articles and books while the non- academic genre covers leaflets, newsletters, fact sheets, popular articles, handbooks. The miscellaneous genre consists of brochures, advertisments, letters, memos, minutes, school and university essays. 18

The results of the research in this chapter are discussed in the following order: the combinability of the deverbal nouns under investigation with different light verbs, the complementation patterns of LVCs under investigation, their adjectival modification and use across different registers.

2.1. COMBINABILITY WITH LIGHT VERBS

This subchapter investigates the differences between the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation in the combinability with different light verbs. The analysis includes the variety of light verbs with which each deverbal noun under investigation combines, and discusses differences and similarities between chat, talk, and conversation in this respect. In addition, this subchapter studies the differences in the productivity between the LVCs with the deverbal nouns in general and when combined with different light verbs.

2.1.1. Variety of light verbs

Table 1. The use of the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation with different light verbs Light verb Deverbal nouns Chat Talk Conversation Give - + - Have + + + Get - - + Do - + - Make - - + Take - - -

The LVCs with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation differ in the variety of light verbs with which they can combine (see Table 1). The deverbal nouns talk and conversation combine with a greater variety of light verbs than the deverbal noun chat. The deverbal noun chat can typically11 combine only with one light verb have (9) while talk and conversation can be used with three light verbs each. The deverbal noun talk can combine with give (10a), have (10b), and

11 Untypically, chat combines with get (1 occurrence) and conversation with do (2 occurrences). 19 do (10c) while conversation allows combinability with have (11a), make (11b), and get (11c). The reasons why the deverbal nouns can join with some light verbs and cannot with others are of semantic nature.

9. I was talking to him briefly this afternoon and we agreed we'd have a chat <...>. (BNC) She gave me a cup of French coffee and we had a chat. (BNC) 10. a) G. Anderson is to give a talk on 27 October on 'how to give a talk'. (BNC) <...> invite a speaker from Scottish Nuclear to give a talk and slide presentation <...>. (BNC) b) My mother had a talk with Louis. She was worried about my future. (BNC) <...> and if possible have a talk with the photographers in person. (BNC) c) Although I am still nervous at the thought of doing a talk in front of strangers, <...>. (BNC) Thank you for doing a talk I did not feel up to. (BNC) 11. a) We can't have a conversation in the hallway, I walk him in backwards. (BNC) We simply wish to have a conversation with you and you have agreed. (BNC) b) To make conversation now, we asked him about Asyut. (BNC) <...> and perhaps just to make conversation I mentioned my trip to the Haida reservation <...>. (BNC) c) Ann'll get plenty conversation today <...>. (BNC) Just talk to her get some conversation <...>. (BNC)

The analysis of the definitions of chat, talk, and conversation in three dictionaries12 and the analysis of the data from the BNC reveal that the synonymous deverbal nouns have some semantic differences in the meanings in which they are used in the LVCs (see Table 2). The table shows that chat and conversation each has only one meaning in which they are used in LVCs. Both deverbal nouns refer to some sequences of informal language exchanged between the interlocutors; however, they differ in that chat carries a tone of friendliness, familiarity and usually does not have a particular purpose (only the one to socialise, to have a good time) while conversation usually has one. Unlike the deverbal nouns chat and conversation, talk is used in two meanings in LVCs. In its first meaning, talk differs from chat and conversation in that it is neutral in formality and often carries a tone of seriousness and importance. In its second meaning, talk denotes a speech; neither

12 The meanings of the nouns chat, talk, conversation were analysed in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary (2018), Cambridge English Dictionary (2018), and Macmillan English Dictionary (2009). 20 the noun chat, nor conversation has a similar meaning. The differences in the number of meanings carried by the deverbal nouns in the LVCs and the peculiarities of the meanings may influence the variety of light verbs with which chat, talk, and conversation can combine to create different meaning aspects.

Table 2. The meanings of the nouns chat, talk, conversation used in LVCs CHAT TALK CONVERSATION A friendly informal, Conversation or An informal, usually purposeful usually aimless discussion, usually talk; conversation; serious and important; Examples: Example: Example: He had a long conversation with <...> another Let's have a talk about a Russian passenger, who talked neighbour always the primary school about magic and' hidden powers' drops in budgets <...>. (BNC) <...>. (BNC) to have a chat with Speech; his wife on a Friday It's too hot Examples: evening <...>. (BNC) to make conversation with such <...> we give them stupid ones as you are this a talk about rainforest afternoon. (BNC) <...>. (BNC)

It's not a bad idea, it's, get quite a <...> who's coming good conversation in there. to do a talk there. (BNC) (BNC)

The sense of the deverbal noun conversation of having a particular purpose allows it combine with make (12a) and get (12b). Make in its full semantic meaning can mean to force somebody do something, and it is reflected to some extent in the light meaning. The construction make conversation denotes to converse with someone not naturally because the speaker is interested but only to appear polite, thus the light verb make contributes the meaning aspect of some force directed to the subject oneself. This aspect is illustrated in the examples (12a) where the construction is often used with the modals denoting obligation. Make cannot be used in combination with chat and talk to create this meaning aspect because chat carrying the tone of familiarity and talk carrying the tone of seriousness and importance imply some interest. Get in its full semantic meaning denotes to receive something, and when it is used in the light meaning in a LVC, it becomes a metaphorical extension of receiving something making the subject the Beneficiary of the activity. When get combines with conversation (12b), the construction means 21 to converse with someone for the benefit of the subject. According to the data from the BNC (also see examples 12b), the subject Beneficiary of the conversing is usually the initiator of the activity as well. Thus the light verb get contributes the meaning aspect of the Beneficiary and initiator of the activity. It is possible that this LVC appeared from the phrase get into conversation with someone which has a similar meaning, to start conversation with someone, and is more productive in the British English. That would explain why get is used only with the deverbal noun conversation.

12. a) Obliged to make polite conversation all the time oh! (BNC) <...> I had to make conversation then I said erm so how are the old Colts B doing <...>. (BNC) <…> and I just have to sit there and we had to make conversation. (BNC) <…> No. I was just trying to make conversation <…>. (BNC) b) Just talk to her get some conversation <…>. (BNC) But you got conversation with him and his family <…>. (BNC) <…> Ann'll get plenty conversation today. (BNC) Okay, where else can we get some conversation! (BNC)

In addition, only the deverbal noun talk in its second meaning denoting a speech can combine with the light verbs give (13a) and do (13b). The light verb give in its full semantic meaning denotes a transfer of possession from the subject to the object. When give is used in a LVC, it becomes a metaphorical extension of the transfer of possession (Dixon, 2005, 471), the object is affected by the action or activity denoted by the deverbal noun. Thus the construction give a talk (13a) describes a metaphorical transfer of the Sayer’s speech to the Recipient even though the Recipient is not mentioned in the sentence but it is implied; the Recipient is affected by the Sayer’s activity of speaking. On the other hand, the light verb do does not contribute the meaning aspect of transfer but the one of performing some action/activity. When used in a LVC with talk (13b), the light verb do means to perform the activity of speaking, thus do is more neutral13 than give in combination with talk. Both light verbs give and do can combine with the deverbal noun talk in its second meaning (speech) that differs from chat and conversation in that the activity of speaking denoted

13 Although Plante (2014, 84) claims that do takes deverbal nouns with telic meanings in LVCs and brings telic meanings to the whole construction, it is not the case in the construction do a talk as can be see from the examples in 5b where the construction is used in continuous tense. 22 by talk is one-way, only the subject has an active role in this activity while the activity of speaking denoted by the deverbal nouns chat and conversation is two-way, the subject and the object continuously swap the active and passive roles.

13. a) <…> a young lady, who went to give er a talk like this to group of adults <…>. (BNC) <…> come and give us a talk on anything unrestricted that you think would be of interest. (BNC) <…> Hilary Robarts had given a short preliminary talk. (BNC) <…> if you're gon na give a talk or something and it's a talk that's well rehearsed and well known <…>. (BNC) b) <…> she popped in to ask me would I do this er talk for you this afternoon. (BNC) <…> I'm doing this talk here for erm Stanley's daughter <…>. (BNC) <…> I do a talk erm I call it a story rather than a talk, and <…> (BNC) <…> for each conference, or whoever is doing the introductory talk <…> (BNC)

The deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation also have some similarities in their combinability with light verbs. Although Plante (2014, 82) states that the light verb take is often interchangeable with have in LVCs, Table 1 shows that neither of the deverbal nouns can combine with take. The tendency can be explained by Dixon’s claim (2005, 474) that the subject of the constructions with the light verb take expends physical effort to perform the action denoted by the deverbal noun; however, the actions denoted by the deverbal nouns chat, talk, conversation do not require much physical effort. Another similarity is that all three deverbal nouns can combine with the light verb have (14a-c) that can be accounted for by the fact that chat, talk in its first meaning, and conversation fall into Wierzbicka’s semantic classification of complements in constructions with have (1982, 755). According to her, a chat refers to an aimless, non-serious joint activity which could cause the people involved to feel pleasure, a semantic subtype of the type have + a complement14 implying a subjective and experiential perspective. Since conversation and talk does not imply aimlessness and enjoyability, Wierzbicka considers have a conversation and have a talk to belong to the type have + complement implying continuous purposeful reciprocal actions.

14 Wierzbicka considers the complement in this type of constructions to be a verb ; however, regardless of type, this research considers the complements of light verbs in LVCs to be deverbal nouns. 23

14. a) <…> we'll have a chat with them and we'll find them out what they think <…>. (BNC) <…> I've had a right good chat to David. (BNC) b) <…> we had a long talk and we discussed it at length for two weeks <…>. (BNC) <…> We'll just have a talk about the Bicester side, are you going to be at full strength? (BNC) c) <…> I had a fascinating conversation with Professor Max Clues on just this subject. (BNC) So can you imagine if you had a conversation with somebody from er er another country <…>. (BNC)

2.1.2. Productivity of light verb constructions

The data in Table 3 show that the LVCs with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation have similar total normalised frequencies (see Table 3). The LVCs with the deverbal noun chat have the normalised frequency of 2.91 occurrences per million words while the constructions with the deverbal nouns talk have the normalised frequency of 3.4, and the constructions with the deverbal noun conversation have the normalised frequency of 3.69. Similar normalised frequencies of the LVCs of type 1 and type 2 suggest that both types are similarly productive that opposes Berg’s findings (2005, 222) that different types of LVCs differ in their productivity.

Table 3. The normalised frequencies of the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation in combination with different light verbs15 Light verb Deverbal nouns Chat Talk Conversation Give - 1.3 (129) - Have 2.916 (281) 1.9 (186) 2.6 (249) Get - - 0.07 (7) Do - 0.2 (17) - Make - - 1 (96) Take - - - Total number 2.91 (282) 3.4 (332) 3.69 (354)

15 Table 3 shows only typical cases (constructions with the raw frequency of 5 and more than 5 cases). 16 The number outside brackets denotes the normalised frequency of the constructions (occurrences per million words) while the number in brackets refers to the raw frequency (tokens). 24

However, the LVCs with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation vary in frequency when combined with different light verbs. The LVCs with the deverbal noun talk occur most frequently when combined with have (1.9) leaving give (1.3) in the second place. However, the normalised frequency of the construction do a talk is about nine times lower than have a talk and about six times lower than give a talk; it reaches the frequency of only 0.2 occurrences per million words. The deverbal noun conversation is most frequent in combination with have (2.6); it is more than two times higher than the construction make conversation (1). The normalised frequency of the construction is very low when conversation combines with get (0.07). Thus the LVCs with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation are most productive when combined with have. It is not a surprising result for the most productive light verb in British English is have (Leech et al., 2009, 176). The light verb have has a wide range of use (Huddleston, Pullum, 2010, 295). It can be used in both stative and dynamic meanings, and therefore is favoured in LVCs. Summing up, the analysis revealed that the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation differ in the variety of light verbs with which they can combine. Talk and conversation have a greater variety of light verbs since they typically combine with three light verbs, while chat can be used only with one light verb. These differences between the deverbal nouns in the variety of light verbs are not the construction-type-dependent but may be influenced by the number and peculiarities of meanings which the deverbal noun carries in LVCs, and the meaning aspects carried by the light verbs. The analysis also showed that all three deverbal nouns can be found with have and cannot with take. However, only conversation can occur with make and get, and only talk can combine with give and do. Therefore, Stevenson et al. (2004, 7) were only partly right about the tendency of the deverbal nouns with similar meanings to combine with the same light verbs. The analysis of meaning aspects contributed by different light verbs showed that light verbs differ in the degree of lightness. While have has a bleached meaning, do, make, get, and give have retained their meanings to some extent. Finally, the examination of the data revealed that the LVCs with chat, talk, and conversation are similar in productivity, though their productivity differs when they are analysed in combination with different light verbs. All LVCs under investigation are most productive when combined with the light verb have.

2.2. COMPLEMENTATION

25

This subchapter focuses on the complementation of LVCs with the synonymous deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation in combination with different light verbs in British English. It includes the frequency analysis covering the frequencies of complemented LVCs in general with the deverbal nouns under investigation and when they combine with different light verbs. In addition, the subchapter discusses the variety of complementation patterns between the LVCs with the deverbal nouns under investigation in combination with different light verbs and in general. 2.3.1. Frequency analysis of complemented light verb constructions

Table 4. Relative frequency data on the complementation of LVCs with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation in combination with different light verbs (%) Deverbal CHAT TALK CONVERSATION noun Light verb have Total give have do Total have get make Total Frequency 63% 63% 56% 56% 29% 55% 47% 14% 25% 40% (179)17 (179) (71) (105) (5) (181) (117) (1) (24) (142)

Table 4 presents the percentages of LVCs with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation containing complements. As the table shows, the LVCs with the deverbal noun chat are similarly complemented when compared to the LVCs with the deverbal noun talk. The former constructions with a complement comprise 63% while the latter - 55%. The LVCs with the deverbal noun conversation are slightly less complemented than the constructions with chat and talk since the complemented cases comprise 40% of the constructions with conversation. Thus, the LVCs of type 1 have slightly greater extent of complementation than the constructions of type 2. The analysis of the frequencies of complemented constructions in combination with different light verbs showed that the LVCs with the deverbal nouns talk, and conversation differ in the extent of complementation when they combine with different light verbs. The constructions with talk have the highest relative frequencies of complemented cases when they combine with the light verbs give and have, both constructions give a talk and have a talk have the same relative frequency of the complemented cases - 56%. When talk combines with the light verb do, the construction is twice less complemented as its relative frequency of the complemented cases is only 29%. The constructions with conversation have the highest relative frequencies of complemented cases when they combine with the light verb have, the relative frequency of the complemented construction have a conversation is 47% (which is similar to the relative frequencies of have a chat

17 The bracketed number refers to the raw frequency of the complemented constructions. 26 and have a talk). When conversation combines with make, it becomes twice less complemented than the construction have a conversation since the relative frequency of the complemented construction make conversation is 25%. When conversation combines with get, its complementation becomes very low, the construction get a conversation has only 1 case with a complement. Thus the lower frequency of the complemented cases in the LVC with conversation could be said to be influenced by the low frequencies of the constructions make conversation and get a conversation. It also means that light verbs with which the deverbal nouns combine to form LVCs influence the frequency of complementation. The results show that the light verbs give and have have the greatest complementation.

2.3.2. Variety of complementation patterns

Table 5. Complementation patterns of the LVCs with the deverbal noun talk in combination with different light verbs Semantic GIVE A TALK HAVE A TALK DO A TALK role Complementation patterns Recipient to (818) - for (2) IO (3) - to (1) Second - with (67) - Participant - to (11) - 19 on (38) about (17) - Matter about (7) of (2) on (2) - on (2) - IO+on (7) - - Mixed IO+about (4) - - (R.+M.) to+on (3) - - on+to (1) - - Mixed - to+about (3) - (S.P. + M.) - with+about (2) - - on+with (1) -

Table 5 presents the variety of complementation patterns of the constructions with the deverbal noun talk. As the table shows, the constructions differ in the variety of complementation

18 The number in brackets indicates the raw frequency of the complementation patterns in a particular semantic group. 19 In the sentence She had a talk with John, she is the Sayer and the Recipient while John is the second Sayer and the second Recipient , during the activity of having a talk she and John continuously switch their roles from the Sayer to the Recipient and vice verse. However, for the convenience, the roles of the second Sayer and the second Recipient were named the second Participant. 27 patterns when combined with different light verbs. When talk combines with give and have, the constructions have the same number of complementation patterns, both give a talk and have a talk, have eight complementation patterns each. However, the LVC do a talk has a nearly three times lower number of complementation patterns. The limited variety of complementation of the LVC do a talk can be explained by the meaning of this construction which refers to performing the activity of speaking. The attention in the construction do a talk is focused on the activity itself; therefore, the complementation of this LVC is very poor20. The constructions give a talk, have a talk, and do a talk have both similarities and differences in the complements they take. Table 5 reveals that their complements which perform the same semantic roles21 in the sentences tend to to be similar in a few respects. All three constructions have complements in the semantic role of Matter that indicates the topic of the verbal processes of speaking. In this semantic role, the complement on is selected by all three constructions (15a-c); however, with have a talk and do a talk it is used infrequently. The constructions give a talk and have a talk take the complement about (16a-b); only have a talk, in addition, has the complement of (17) which is quite rare.

15. a) Schools minister and Darlington MP Michael Fallon is giving a talk on dyslexia next week <...>. (BNC) I gave a talk on the British monarchy at an astrological conference in Oslo. (BNC) b) <...> say you had a talk on it <...>. (BNC) We will then have a 30-minute illustrated talk on English Furniture <...>. (BNC) c) My teacher, Mr Taylor, did tell us to do our talk on something we knew about <...>. (BNC) <...> it seemed obvious that I should do my talk on the owl. (BNC) 16. a) Helen gave a talk about her work, but <...>. (BNC) He even gave us a talk about his love of birds at the Tory Party Conference. (BNC) b) <...> but did not renew attempts to have a talk about the situation. (BNC) We must have a talk about the computerisation of the archive <...>. (BNC) 17. <...> we are having all this talk of lawsuits and resignations. (BNC) So let us have no talk of building on the existing legislation. (BNC)

20 The construction not only has a limited variety of complementation patterns but also all its complements of the construction do a talk are very rare as indicated in Table 5. 21 All LVCs under investigation express verbal processes; however, due to their meaning differences, some processes of diferrent LVCs require different semantic roles to be performed (see Table 5 and Table 6). 28

The constructions give a talk and do a talk both referring to one-way speaking activity have some complements in the semantic role of the Recipient. The complements in this role refer to somebody to whom the speech is directed. In this semantic role, both constructions select the complement to22 (18a-b) that is an indirect object expressed by the prepositional phrase, although the complement is very rare in the LVC do a talk, this construction has only one token. The constructions differ in that only give a talk has the indirect object as a complement (19), and only do a talk takes the complement for (20), the latter is rare.

18. a) He gave a wonderful talk to all the students who were starting at the university. (BNC) <...> was to give a talk to the Bishop's Stortford club <...>. (BNC) b) Can I have a talk to you afterwards? (BNC) And I know they are hoping to have a talk to you, too, because <...>. (BNC) 19. <...> Rob gave them a pep talk and <...>. (BNC) <...> to arrange for Mr Breeze to give us a further talk. (BNC) 20. <...> she popped in to ask me would I do this talk for you this afternoon. (BNC)

However, only the construction give a talk selects complex complementation patterns composed of the complements in the Recipient semantic role and the complements in the Matter semantic role making the Mixed semantic group. The construction has the greatest variety of complementation patterns in this group, and includes the patterns IO + on (21), IO + about (22), to + on (23), on + to (24). All these patterns are quite rare.

21. <...> give us a talk on anything unrestricted that you think would be of interest. (BNC) <...> and offered to give us a talk on it. (BNC) 22. <...> to give us a pep talk about the war effort and all that <...>. (BNC) <...> we give them a talk about rainforest <...>. (BNC) 23. <...> and give the talk to the kids on Easter and the religious side of it <...>. (BNC) 24. <...> they gave a talk on physical fitness to an Essex joggers' club. (BNC)

22 Although Dixon (2005, 468) claims that the indirect object cannot be expressed by the prepositional phrase to in the LVCs with give, Huddleston, Pullum (2010, 294) comments that it concerns only those constructions whose deverbal nouns denote some physical action and the indirect object is the patient of that action. Table 5 shows that the indirect object expressed by the prepositional phrase to is even more frequent. 29

When the deverbal noun talk combines with have, the construction denotes a two-way speaking activity which requires some semantic roles different from the give a talk and do a talk. The construction selects complements in the Second Participant role including with (25) and to (26). It also takes complementation patterns in the Mixed group composed of the complements in the Second Participant role and the complements in the Matter role: to + about (27), with + about (28), and on + with (29); however, all complementation patterns in this group are very rare.

25. I had a talk with John Heminges, and he said <...>. (BNC) I spent most of Friday morning having a long talk with Paul Seddon <...>. (BNC) 26. Can I have a talk to you afterwards? (BNC) And I know they are hoping to have a talk to you, too, because <...>. (BNC) 27. Matron has asked me to have a little talk to you about your temporary position <...>. (BNC) I'd like to have a long talk to you about her. (BNC) 28. <...> he went to see Eden to have a talk with him about new appointments <...>. (BNC) She would have to have a stern talk with Debbie about including extraneous information <...>. (BNC) 29. I also had a good talk on international topics with Mr. Kozyrev <...>. (BNC)

Table 6 presents the variety of complementation patterns which the deverbal noun conversation selects when combined with different light verbs. As the table shows, the LVCs with conversation in combination with different light verbs differ in the number of complementation patterns which they take. When conversation combines with the light verb have, the construction takes the greatest variety of complementation patterns. When the deverbal noun is used with the light verb make, the construction selects twice fewer complementation patterns. The LVC have a conversation takes six different complementation patterns while make conversation - only three. When conversation combines with get, the construction has very poor complementation, it selects only one complementation pattern.

Table 6. Complementation patterns of the LVCs with the deverbal noun conversation in combination with different light verbs

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Semantic HAVE A MAKE GET A role CONVERSATION CONVERSATION CONVERSATION Complementation patterns Second with (91) with (19) - Participant - to (1) - Matter about (16) about (4) - on (3) - - with+about (4) - - Mixed about+with (2) - - (S. P.+M.) with+on (1) - - Source - - with (1)

The LVCs with conversation in combination with different light verbs have both similarities and differences in the complements they take. The constructions have a conversation and make conversation are similar in that both denote a two-way speaking activity, and consequently, both select complementation patterns in the Second Participant and the Matter roles. In the Second Participant role, both constructions select the complement with (30a-b). Make conversation, in addition, takes the complement to (31) in this role; however, it is very rare. In the Matter group, both have a conversation and make conversation take the complement about (32a-b); however, only the former, in addition, can select the complement on (33).

30. a) <...> Aitken had a conversation with him shortly after the publication of the report <...>. (BNC) I would suggest that we have a conversation with these four people <...>. (BNC) b) Carolyn was aware that the woman was making conversation with her. (BNC) <...> all father's secretaries drink champagne and try to make conversation with hoards of people <...>. (BNC) 31. <...> in the way, she made conversation at parties to people she hadn't met before. (BNC) 32. a) <...> we went to the bar and had a proper conversation about cars. (BNC) <...> the two men had had a particularly difficult conversation about the matter <...>. (BNC) b) <...> shuffle, wriggle and avert her eyes while we made stilted conversation about our lives. (BNC) <...> afterwards, making intelligent conversation about his home in Canada <...>. (BNC) 33. The two brothers had conversation after conversation on the theme of religion <...>. (BNC) <...> she stated, shying away from having the conversation on her. (BNC) 31

The LVC have a conversation differs from the constructions make conversation and get a conversation in that it alone takes complex complementation patterns composed of the complements in the Second Participant role and the complements in the Matter role. These include the complementation patterns with + about (34), about + with (35) and with + on (36).

34. I had a long conversation the other day with one of the UK's major guitar distributors about how explicit <...>. (BNC) <...> I had a conversation with Gillian about reading <...>. (BNC) 35. I had a very enlightening conversation about the whole subject with a young man <...>. (BNC) I had a most interesting conversation about Italian opera with a waiter <...>. (BNC) 36. A couple of years ago I had a fascinating conversation with Professor Max Clues on just this subject. (BNC)

The LVC get a conversation differs from the constructions have a conversation and make conversation in that it is the only construction which does not share any complements with them. Get a conversation selects only the complement with (37)23 which due to the specific meaning of the construction performs not the Second Participant role as in the constructions have a conversation and make conversation but the Source. The source indicates someone from whom the subject (Beneficiary and, usually, the initiator of the activity of conversing) seeks the benefit while conversing. Get a conversation has only one token of this complement which means that complementation is not typical of this construction.

37. But you got conversation with him and his family <...>. (BNC)

Table 7. Complementation patterns of the LVCs with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation Semantic LV + A CHAT LV + A TALK LV + A role CONVERSATION Complementation patterns

23 More context is needed for the complement with to illustrate its semantic role of the Source. In the example, the subject conversed with him and his family in order to record their speech for linguistic purposes. 32

Recipient - to (9) - - IO (3) - for (2) - Second with (124) with (67) with (110) Participant to (12) to (11) to (1) about (31) on (42) about (20) Matter - about (24) on (3) - of (2) - - IO+on (7) - Mixed - IO+about (4) - (R.+M.) - to+on (3) - - on+to (1) - Mixed with+about (7) to+about (3) with+about (4) (S.P. + M.) about+with (2) with+about (2) about+with (2) to+about (2) on+with (1) with+on (1) with+on (1) - - Source - - with (1)

Table 7 presents complementation patterns selected by the LVCs with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation in general. As the table shows, the LVCs with the deverbal noun talk takes the greatest variety of complementation patterns, with the number of fifteen different patterns the construction has a twice greater variety than the constructions with chat and conversation. The constructions with chat and conversation are similar in the variety of complementation patterns which they select, the former select seven different patterns while the latter take eight patterns. Thus the differences between the LVCs in the variety of complementation patterns are not construction-type-dependent. The differences in the variety of complementation patterns are influenced by the differences in the meanings of the constructions. The LVCs with the deverbal noun talk denoting both a two- way communication and a one-way speech require more different semantic roles to be performed than the constructions with chat and conversation which denote only a two-way communication (see Table 7). Since different semantic roles are associated with particular complements, the constructions with talk that require more diverse semantic roles to be performed to fulfil all their meanings select a greater variety of complementation patterns than the constructions with chat and conversation. As Table 7 shows, the constructions with all three deverbal nouns have similar complementation patterns in the Second Participant (38a-c), Matter (39a-c) and Mixed (composed of the complements in the Second Participant and the Matter) roles (40a-c). However, only the

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LVCs with talk have complementation patterns in the Recipient (41) and the Mixed (composed of the complements in the Recipient and the Matter) roles (42).

38. a) Look, why don't you have a chat with Philip? (BNC) I'll have another chat to Niall <...>. (BNC) b) I want to have a talk with Hayley <...>. (BNC) I think I should have a talk to Mary, she's got so many problems <...>. (BNC) c) Have you ever tried having a conversation with someone who is holding a hanky over their face? (BNC) <...> she made conversation at parties to people she hadn't met before. (BNC) 39. a) Perhaps we could have a chat on the' phone about it. (BNC) I'm glad you've had such a cosy chat about me! (BNC) b) We must have a talk about the computerisation of the archive <...>. (BNC) <...> gave a short talk on the changes in the region since the merger. (BNC) c) <...> they seem to be having a conversation about the university matters <...>. (BNC) <...> she stated, shying away from having the conversation on her. (BNC) 40. a) <...> had a long chat with Dad about which service we should attend. (BNC) Just time to have a little chat about greyhounds with our greyhound man <...>. (BNC) <...> have a chat to him about what you could do <...>. (BNC) b) <...> he went to see Eden to have a talk with him about new appointments <...>. (BNC) <...> we had a right good talk to them about it <...>. (BNC) c) <...> had a conversation with one of the cooks about Beirut. (BNC) I had a most interesting conversation about Italian opera with a waiter <...>. (BNC) 41. <...> she popped in to ask me would I do this er talk for you <...>. (BNC) <...> the next morning, Steve started giving me a pep talk, all this advice <...>. (BNC) <...> a young lady, who went to give er a talk like this to group of adults <...>. (BNC) 42. They came in today to give us this talk about kind of er money <...>. (BNC) <...> give the talk to the kids on Easter and the religious side of it <...>. (BNC) Ms Evans gave us an interesting talk on the company personnel <...>. (BNC)

Summing up, the frequency analysis revealed that the LVCs of type 1 have slightly greater extent of complementation than the constructions of type 2. When the frequencies of complemented

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LVCs in combination with different light verbs were analysed, it appeared that the lower frequency of complementation in the constructions with conversation was influenced by the very low frequencies of complemented make conversation and get a conversation. It also revealed that the constructions with the light verbs have and give have the greatest extent of complementation. The constructions with chat, talk, and conversation also differ in the variety of complementation patterns, the LVCs with talk having twice greater variety of complementation patterns than the constructions with chat and talk. The differences, however, are not construction-type-dependent but are related to the meanings of constructions. The LVCs with talk having more diverse meanings require more different semantic roles to be fulfilled which are associated with particular complements. The examination of the LVCs in combination with different light verbs showed that the LVCs that require the same semantic roles to be performed have similar complements. The constructions give a talk and do a talk both requiring the semantic roles of the Recipient have similar complementation patterns, and the constructions have a conversation and make conversation both requiring the semantic roles of the Second Participant take similar complements.

2.3. ADJECTIVAL MODIFICATION

The present subchapter focuses on the adjectival modification of the LVCs of type 1 and type 2 with the synonymous deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation. It discusses the frequency and semantic types of adjectives immediately combining with these deverbal nouns in the LVCs in general and when they are used with different light verbs. The subchapter also discusses the most frequent adjectives present in the LVCs with chat, talk, conversation in general and when the deverbal nouns combine with different light verbs. The analysis will demonstrate the differences in modification possibilities of the LVCs under investigation.

2.3.1. Frequency analysis of modified light verb constructions

Table 8 shows the relative frequencies of LVCs with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation where the deverbal noun is immediately modified by one or two adjectives. The table reveals that despite the fact that LVCs have greater modification possibilities than their verbal equivalents, the data contain more unmodified constructions than modified ones. The constructions with the synonymous deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation have similar frequencies of

35 modified cases. In the constructions with the deverbal noun chat, modified cases comprise 32%, in the constructions with the deverbal noun talk, modified cases make up 39%, and in the constructions with the deverbal noun conversation, they comprise 36 %. Similarity in frequencies indicates that modification does not depend on the type of LVCs.

Table 8. Relative frequency data on the LVCs with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation modified by immediate adjectives (%) Deverbal CHAT TALK CONVERSATION noun Light verb have Total give have do Total have get make Total Frequency 32% 32% 28% 49% 12% 39% 40% 29% 24% 36%

However, there are some differences in the frequencies of the modified deverbal nouns in the LVCs under investigation when the deverbal nouns talk, and conversation are analysed separately in combination with different light verbs. The constructions have the highest frequency of modified cases when combined with the light verb have. The frequency of the modified construction have a talk is about two times higher than the frequency of the modified give a talk. The frequency of the modified construction have a conversation is also about two times higher than the frequency of the modified construction make a conversation. This tendency can be explained by the fact that have has an ability to occur in a wide range of uses as was mentioned in the first chapter, and this ability attracts greater modification. The modified cases in the construction do a talk comprise 12% and they make up 29% in the construction get a conversation although these LVCs have only two modified tokens each indicating that their modification possibilities are very poor. However, since these constructions are very infrequent, the modified cases resulted in higher relative frequencies in these LVCs as presented in Table 8.

2.3.2. Semantic types of immediate adjectival modifiers

Table 9. Frequency data on the classifying and descriptive adjectives immediately modifying chat, talk, conversation in LVCs Deverbal CHAT TALK CONVERSATION noun Light verb have Total give have do Total have get make Total Descriptive 83 83 24 87 1 112 70 2 27 99 adjectives 89% 89% 62% 90% 50% 81% 69% 100% 96% 75% Classifying 10 10 15 10 1 26 32 - 1 33 36

adjectives 11% 11% 38% 10% 50% 19% 31% 4% 25% Total 93 93 39 97 2 138 102 2 28 132

The analysis of adjectives immediately combining with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, conversation in LVCs shows that descriptive adjectives (43a-c) form the majority as is seen in Table 9. The data in the table reveal that the relative frequencies of descriptive adjectives are similar in the constructions with all three deverbal nouns. In the constructions with the deverbal noun chat, descriptive adjectives form 89%, in the constructions with the deverbal noun talk, descriptive adjectives comprise 81%, and in the constructions with the deverbal noun conversation, they constitute 75%. Thus the synonymous deverbal nouns chat, talk, conversation tend to combine with descriptive adjectives far more frequently than classifying ones (44a-c) independently of the type of LVCs.

43. a) <...> where it is possible to take a tea-break, have a relaxing chat <...>. (BNC) b) I also had a useful talk with U Ba Pe, an old politician who was critical of <...>. (BNC) c) <...> she would eat her supper, make pleasant conversation with her landlady and then return to her room. (BNC) 44. a) <...> I mean I'm just having a general chat with you <...>. (BNC) b) Alan commented that his branch had only had one political talk in the previous year, and <...>. (BNC) c) When you are having a telephone conversation you are more likely to be distracted <...>. (BNC)

The LVCs with the deverbal nouns talk and conversation contain about two times more classifying adjectives than the constructions with the deverbal noun chat do. Classifying adjectives comprise 11% in the constructions with the deverbal noun chat while they constitute 19% in the constructions with the deverbal noun talk, and they comprise 25% in the constructions with the deverbal noun conversation. The examination of the relative frequencies of descriptive and classifying adjectives in the LVCs with talk and conversation combined with different light verbs shows that the higher proportions of classifying adjectives in the LVCs with talk and conversation are influenced by a more frequent use of classifying adjectives in the constructions give a talk and have a conversation in comparison with the constructions when talk and conversation combine

37 with other light verbs24. Classifying adjectives in the former construction comprise 38% and in the latter - 31% although descriptive adjectives remain prevailing. Classifying adjectives in other constructions comprise about 10% and less.

Table 10. Semantic types of descriptive adjectives immediately modifying the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation CHAT TALK CONVERSATION Semantic Type have Total give have do Total have make get Total Evaluative/emotive 825 8 5 9 1 15 12 4 1 18 Tone 7 7 1 6 - 7 9 7 - 16 Cognitive 2 2 1 1 - 2 4 2 1 7 Duration 5 5 4 5 - 9 7 - - 7 Speed 1 1 1 - - 1 3 - - 3 Frequency ------1 - - 1 Volume 1 1 - 1 - 1 2 - - 2 Structure - - 2 - - 2 1 1 - 2

Table 10 presents semantic types of descriptive adjectives found in the LVCs with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation including evaluative/emotive, tone, cognitive, duration, speed, frequency, volume and structure types. The first four types of descriptive adjectives dominate in these constructions since they are widely used and have a great diversity of adjectives in the LVCs with all three deverbal nouns in combination with nearly all light verbs, while the descriptive adjectives of speed, frequency, volume, and structure semantic types are more rarely used and with less diversity of adjectives in the constructions (see Table 10). As Table 10 shows, the LVCs with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation are similar in their use of different semantic types of adjectives, except for a few slight differences. The constructions with all three deverbal nouns contain descriptive adjectives of evaluative/emotive, tone, cognitive, duration, speed, and volume types. However, the LVCs with the deverbal nouns chat and talk do not combine with adjectives of frequency and the former, in addition, cannot be

24 The proportions of descriptive and classifying adjectives in the constructions do a talk and get a conversation were not taken into account because the constructions contain only two adjectives each, thus the distributions of different types of modifying adjectives in these constructions are insignificant. 25 The numbers in the table indicate different adjectives found within each semantic type. 38 found with adjectives of structure type, whereas the deverbal noun conversation tends to be used with both adjective types. Thus the LVCs with the deverbal noun conversation contain adjectives with a slightly greater variety of semantic types than the LVCs with the deverbal nouns chat and talk. While analysing semantic types of modifying descriptive adjectives in the LVCs with the deverbal nouns talk and conversation when they are used with different light verbs, more differences occur. Talk in combination with give and have is used with adjectives of a similar number of semantic types, while in combination with do it can combine with adjectives of only one semantic type. Talk in combination with all three light verbs can be found with only descriptive adjectives of evaluative/emotive type (45a-c). Talk in combination with give and have can additionally be used with descriptive adjectives of tone (46a-b), cognitive (47a-b), duration (48a- b) types, while the construction do a talk cannot. The constructions give a talk and have a talk differ in that only give a talk can combine with descriptive adjectives of speed (49) and structure (50) types, and only have a talk can contain adjectives of volume type (51). The data reveal that despite similarities in the meanings of give a talk and do a talk, the construction give a talk is more similar to have a talk in terms of adjectival modifiers rather than the construction do a talk since the construction do a talk allows very limited adjectival modification.

45. a) <...> listening to Danny cos I think he gives a good talk. (BNC) <...> He gave a wonderful talk to all the students who were starting at the university. (BNC) b) <...> Oh yes, she's got the house, and had a good talk to me <...>. (BNC) <...> I had a fine talk with these girls. They are great girls. (BNC) c) <...> Erm but we didn't do a little talk before. (BNC) 46. a) <...> men over in the tanks to give us a pep talk about the war effort and all that <...>. (BNC) b) As soon as she could she had a serious talk with her mother. (BNC) <...> Sheila back for coffee after the next meeting, to have a friendly talk <...>. (BNC) 47. a) <...> Ruth, he gave a reasonable talk didn't he <...>. (BNC) b) <...> it is increasingly impossible to have a sensible talk about sensitive matters <...>. (BNC)

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48. a) <...> the Membership Services Committee gave a 15 minute talk to QTs <...>. (BNC) <...> Nigel Lockley gave a short talk on the work of his department <...>. (BNC) b) He's certainly had a long talk with me since you left the team <...>. (BNC) <...> a television reporter and I had a brief talk. (BNC) 49. <...> we were given a quick talk on safety procedure <...>. (BNC) 50. <...> somebody from Marketing gave an in-depth talk on selling skills <...>. (BNC) The broadcaster who gave a complicated radio talk on a technical subject was wasting his time <...>. (BNC) 51. So I had a quiet talk with young Murchie <...>. (BNC)

Conversation is the only deverbal noun which can be found with adjectives of all semantic types when combined with have as seen in Table 10. When it combines with the light verb make, conversation can be used with adjectives of twice fewer semantic types while in combination with get, it combines with adjectives of only two semantic types. All three constructions have a conversation, make conversation, and get a conversation are similar only in that all can contain descriptive adjectives of evaluative/emotive (52a-c) and cognitive (53a-c) types. Conversation in combination with have and make can additionally be used with descriptive adjectives of tone (54a- b) and structure (55a-b), while the construction get a conversation cannot. When conversation combines with have, it can also be found with descriptive adjectives of duration (56), speed (57), frequency (58) and volume (59) while the constructions make a conversation and get a conversation cannot. The differences in the semantic types of adjectival modifiers combining with the deverbal nouns in combination with different light verbs may be related to the semantic differences between the constructions discussed in the first chapter.

52. a) <...> she stood to have the same unsatisfactory conversation with the lady <...>. (BNC) Surelyshe couldn't really be having this ridiculous conversation? (BNC) b) He spent a few minutes making polite, nondescript conversation <...>. (BNC) You were making some interesting conversation about me killing somebody <...>. (BNC) c) <...> It's not a bad idea, it's, get quite a good conversation in there. (BNC) 53. a) I had a very enlightening conversation about the whole subject with the young man <...>. (BNC)

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You're never in early enough to have an intelligent conversation. (BNC) b) He did not play tennis, or sing, or make intelligent conversation. (BNC) <...> knowing each other well enough by then not to have to make bright conversation <...>. (BNC) c) Just talking to myself, it's the only way I can get any sensible conversation round here. (BNC) 54. a) We had a very friendly conversation and he is 100 per cent behind Lennox Lewis <...>. (BNC) <...> they had a cheery conversation with me as interpreter. (BNC) b) There weren't many people sitting near us, so I tried to make polite conversation <...>. (BNC) <...> good meal in the prosecutor's house, crack jokes and make amiable conversation <...>. (BNC) 55. a) <...> she had had a strangled conversation at some social gathering. (BNC) b) <...> racist humour is used to make simple conversation and reactions <...>. (BNC) 56. Usually we ring them up, have a short conversation with them <...>. (BNC) You telephoned me at the hotel and had that long conversation with me. (BNC) 57. Jack and Alison were having a hasty conversation on the landing. (BNC) Search out somebody that talks slowly, and deliberately have a slow conversation <...>. (BNC) 58. I can have the occasional shouted conversation with Tony <...>. (BNC) 59. David and Janet are having a muttered conversation as they examine the bulbs. (BNC) I can have the occasional shouted conversation with Tony <...>. (BNC)

2.3.3. Use of the most frequent adjectival modifiers

Table 11 presents five most frequently used adjectival modifiers in the LVCs with the synonymous deverbal nouns chat, talk, conversation in combination with different light verbs, and their frequencies. The most frequent adjectival modifiers are of different semantic types which are most prevailing in the LVCs under investigation. Good and little26 are descriptive adjectives of

26The adjective little is ascribed to the semantic group of evaluative/emotive descriptive adjectives when used in the LVCs with the deverbal nouns chat and talk because little does not describe the duration of the interaction but the adjective is used to minimise the importance of the interaction. Thus it can refer to a casual chat, talk as it can be seen in the examples I had a little chat with an old man today about his flowers/ then we had a little talk, but it did not end there. Chance acquaintance like this ripened into friendship; or sometimes it can indicate some negative emotions 41 evaluative/emotive type, long is a descriptive adjective of duration, polite is a descriptive adjective of tone, and private is a classifying adjective.

Table 11. Most frequently used adjectival modifiers in the LVCs with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversationin combination with different light verbs Modifier CHAT TALK CONVERSATION have Total give have do Total have get make Total Little 2427 24 - 23 1 24 - - - - Long 13 13 1 26 - 27 14 - - 14 Polite ------12 12 Good 9 9 2 11 - 13 1 1 - 3 Private - - - 4 - 4 8 - - 8

Table 11 shows that the LVCs with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, conversation have both similarities and differences in terms of the most frequent adjectives which they take. To start with similarities, all three deverbal nouns are similar in that they all frequently combine with the adjective long (60a-c). Secondly, they all can be used with good (61a-c), but the adjective is frequent28 only in combination with chat and talk. The deverbal nouns chat and talk behave in the same way in the combinability with the most frequent adjectives, but they differ from conversation in this respect. Only chat and talk frequently combine with little (62a-b), while the adjective is not used with conversation at all. In addition, both deverbal nouns chat and talk cannot be found with the adjective polite while conversation frequently occurs with it (63). On the other hand, talk is similar with conversation in that both can be used with the adjective private (64a-b), but the adjective is frequent only when combined with conversation.

60. a) I closed the car door for her and remarked that she'd had a long chat with Harry that afternoon on the telephone. (BNC) b) Before I left, she gave me a long talk on the re-wiring of her flat <...>. (BNC) We had a long talk when we had dinner together. (BNC) c) You telephoned me at the hotel and had that long conversation with me. (BNC) included;have a little chat or talk can imply that chat or talk will involve some criticism or bad news as it can be seen in the examples and then we'll have a little talk to Mr Harris. About my 'harem'.../ time for us to have a little chat, sir,' Hatchard said to me. I was afraid of that too.

27 The number refers to the raw frequency of the adjective modifying a particular deverbal noun in the LVCs. 28 The occurrence of the deverbal noun with an adjective is considered frequent if they occur together not less than five times. 42

61. a) <...> Joe his partner was there so I had a really good chat to him. (BNC) b) <...> listening to Danny cos I think he gives a good talk. (BNC) I want to have a good talk with Mr Makepeace and Mr Farraday... (BNC) c) I like to have a good conversation with a boy. (BNC) It's not a bad idea, it's, get quite a good conversation in there. (BNC) 62. a) I want to have a little chat with you sometime, Bob <...>. (BNC) b) Hewas turning over in his mind the best way to have a little talk with Pickerage. (BNC) 63. <...> could she hide her resentment and make polite conversation? (BNC) 64. a) <...> I'll get her on her own and have a private talk. (BNC) b) <...> you've put them on hold, you're going to have a private conversation, and the call is still held at your handsets. (BNC)

When talk and conversation combined with different light verbs are analysed in terms of the most frequent adjectival modifiers, it appears that the constructions have some internal differences. The adjectives little, long and good modifying talk are most frequent only when talk combines with the light verb have. When it combines with give and do, these adjectives are not frequent or cannot be found in the constructions at all (see Table 11). When talk is used with give, it can be found with the adjectives long and good but not little. When talk combines with do, it can occur only with the adjective little. These differences indicate that talk behaves in the same way as chat in terms of the most frequent adjectival modifiers only when it is used with the light verb have. The deverbal noun conversation is frequently modified by the adjectives long and private only when it is used with the light verb have. When conversation combines with make and get, the deverbal noun does not occur with these adjectives at all. The adjective polite frequently modifies conversation only in its combination with the light verb make. When the deverbal noun is used with the light verbs get and have, it does not combine with polite at all. The adjective good can modify conversation in combination with have and get, although infrequently. The differences between the constructions when they combine with different light verbs in terms of the most frequent adjectival modifiers are related to the differences between the constructions in the meaning aspects brought by different light verbs. Summing up, the analysis revealed that the frequency of adjectival modification does not depend on the type of LVCs but more on the light verb with which they combine since the constructions with all three deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation have similar frequencies

43 of the modified cases but the constructions have the highest frequencies of modified cases when they combine with have. The analysis also showed that descriptive adjectives dominate in the constructions independently of the type of LVCs and light verbs with which they combine. The LVCs with the synonymous deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation are similar in terms of semantic types of descriptive adjectival modifiers with a slight difference in the variety, the constructions with conversation containing adjectives with the greatest variety of semantic types. The constructions have greater differences in the variety of semantic types of adjectival modifiers when they combine with different light verbs. The examination of the most frequent adjectives immediately modifying chat, talk, and conversation revealed that although the synonymous deverbal nouns show some similarity by combining with the adjective long, the LVCs of type 1 share the same most frequent adjectival modifiers and differ from the LVCs of type 2. The constructions also differ in the modifiers when they combine with different light verbs, these differences may be influenced by the semantic differences between the constructions.

2.4. THE USE ACROSS DIFFERENT REGISTERS

This subchapter investigates the use of the LVCs with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation across different registers, and their distribution when they are combined with different light verbs. The section reveals distributional differences between the constuctions under investigation. Table 12 shows that the constructions with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation are used in all registers. The constructions with three deverbal nouns are similar in their use across them, except for a few slight differences. These constructions are most frequent in the spoken and fiction registers. The LVCs with the deverbal noun chat are most frequently used in the spoken register (12.7) leaving the fiction genre in the second place (4.8), while the constructions with the nouns talk and conversation most frequently occur in both registers (see Table 12). The constructions with the deverbal noun talk, in addition, have a rather high normalised frequency in the miscellaneous register (4.2). The LVCs with all three deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation least frequently occur in the academic register, and the constructions with the latter deverbal noun, in addition, are very rarely used in the non-academic register, they do not reach even 1 occurrence per million words in these registers. In other registers, the LVCs with the deverbal nouns under investigation do not vary much. The distributional similarity between the

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LVCs with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation suggests that different types of LVCs do not influence their use across different registers.

Table 12. Normalised frequencies of the LVCs with the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation distributed across different registers Register V + A V + A TALK V + A CHAT Total Total CONVERSATION Total have have give do have get make Spoken 12.7 12.7 2.8 2.5 1.1 6.4 9.6 0.6 1.2 11.4 Fiction 4.8 4.8 6.7 0.6 - 7.3 4.4 0.1 4.1 8.6 Newspaper 1.9 1.9 0.5 1.8 - 2.3 1.7 - 0.2 1.9 Magazine 1.2 1.2 1.1 0.8 - 1.9 1.5 - 0.3 1.8 Academic 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 - 0.6 0.5 - 0.1 0.6 Non-acad. 1 1 0.4 0.7 - 1.1 0.5 - 0.2 0.7 Miscel. 1.2 1.2 1.3 2.6 0.3 4.2 1.8 - 0.4 2.2

Table 12 also shows the distribution of the LVCs with the deverbal nouns talk and conversation across registers when they are combined with different light verbs. The constructions in combination with different light verbs occur in all registers except for do a talk and get a conversation which have a more restricted use and are present only in two registers. The data in the table reveal that talk and conversation have some distributional differences when combined with different light verbs. The deverbal noun talk in combination with the light verb have is most frequent in the fiction register. When talk combines with do, it is most frequently used in the spoken register, and it occurs most frequently in the spoken and miscellaneous registers when combined with give. The same tendency can be observed in the LVCs with the deverbal noun conversation. When conversation combines with have and get, the construction is most frequently found in the spoken register; however, in combination with make it occurs most frequently in the fiction register. Thus most constructions tend to be most frequent in the spoken register with the exception of the constructions have a talk and make conversation which are found most frequently in the fiction register. The light verb have, however, does not remain frequent in the same register when combined with different deverbal nouns. When it combines with talk, it is most frequent in the fiction register as was mentioned before, but in combination with the deverbal nouns chat and conversation, it occurs most frequently in the spoken register. The dominance of have in different registers when combined with different deverbal nouns suggests that the distributional differences between the constructions across registers are not influenced by the light verbs. 45

Summing up, the analysis revealed that the LVCs with the synonymous deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation are similarly used across different registers which means that the distribution across registers is not construction-type-dependent. The constructions are used most frequently in the spoken and fiction registers. The examination of these constructions in combination with different light verbs showed that most of them tend to dominate in the spoken register with the exception of the constructions have a talk and make conversation which are found most frequently in the fiction register; however, these differences are not influenced by the light verbs.

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CONCLUSIONS

The present research has analysed the LVCs of type 1 and type 2 with the synonymous deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation in tems of the combinability with different light verbs, productivity, complementation patterns, adjectival modification, and the use across different registers. The study revealed that the LVCs under investigation have both similarities and differences in terms of the researched aspects. Regarding the combinability with different light verbs, the constructions with the synonymous deverbal nouns combine with the light verb have; however, they differ in their choice of other light verbs. While talk, in addition, combines with give and do, and conversation combines with make and get, the deverbal noun chat cannot be used with any other light verbs. The analysis showed that the choices of light verbs are influenced by the meanings of the deverbal nouns and the meaning aspects which the light verbs bring to the constructions. The analysis also revealed that light verbs differ in their lightness, have carrying the most light meaning. The LVCs with all three deverbal nouns are similarly productive; however, the constructions differ in productivity when combined with different light verbs, constructions with have being most productive. As for the complementation patterns, the LVCs with chat and talk have slightly higher frequencies of complemented cases than the constructions with conversation. The frequencies of complemented cases differ significantly in the constructions combined with different light verbs, the constructions combined with have and give being most complemented. It can be explained by the facts that have has the most general meaning of all light verbs and therefore attracts different complementation patterns more easily, whereas give inherits complementation features from its heavy counterpart which is often found in ditransitive constructions. The constructions with the synonymous deverbal nouns also differ in the variety of complementation patterns. The LVCs with talk have twice more complementation patterns than the constructions with chat and conversation that is related to the fact that the deverbal noun talk when used with different light verbs requires a greater variety of semantic roles than chat and conversation. The examination of complementation patterns of the LVCs when combined with different light verbs showed that talk in combination with give have similar complements as the construction do a talk but in combination with have, talk gains different complementation; the complementation patterns of conversation when combined with have are similar to the ones carried by the construction make conversation. Regarding the adjectival modification, the LVCs with the synonymous deverbal nouns have similar frequencies of the modified cases; however, they become different in combination with 47 different light verbs, the constructions have the highest frequencies of modified cases when they combine with have, the lightest light verb. The analysis showed that descriptive adjectives dominate in the constructions with all three deverbal nouns irrespective of which light verbs they take. The LVCs with chat, talk, and conversation slightly differ in the semantic types of modifying descriptive adjectives, where conversation combines with adjectives of greatest variety of semantic types. However, more differences in semantic types of adjectives occur when they combine with different light verbs. The examination of the most frequent adjectives immediately modifying chat, talk, and conversation revealed that, although the synonymous deverbal nouns show some similarity by combining with the adjective long, chat is more similar to talk rather than to conversation in terms of the most frequent adjectival modifiers; however, the differences between them are mostly related to the light verbs the deverbal nouns take. The analysis of the LVCs under investigation in terms of their use across different registers showed that the constructions are similarly distributed across registers. The constructions with all three deverbal nouns are most frequent in the spoken and fiction registers. The behaviour of the constructions combined with different light verbs in this respect was similar, most combinations were most frequently used in the spoken register except for have a talk and make conversation which were most frequent in the fiction register. The analysis showed that the differences between the LVCs with the synonymous deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation are mostly related to the light verbs the deverbal nouns combine with. The combinability of the constructions under investigation with different light verbs is determined by the deverbal nouns; however, the light verbs are responsible for the differences between the constructions in terms of productivity, complementation patterns and adjectival modification. Such behaviour is characteristic only of light verbs that are less light, whereas have, the lightest light verb, does not differ much in all these parameters. The differences between the LVCs with chat, talk, and conversation in different parameters when combined with different light verbs suggest that the constructions differ in the degree of prototypicality depending not on the morphological nature of the deverbal nouns but on the light verbs which they take. The light verb have being most frequent and widely used forms the prototype in combination with deverbal nouns, while constructions with other light verbs gradually decrease from the prototype. Do a talk and get a conversation while having a very restricted use across the parameters and occurring in low frequencies are marginal members of the category of LVCs.

48

The research focuses only on two types of LVCs that are close in prototypicality and with only three synonymous deverbal nouns, thus further investigation is needed. The future reseach could include the constructions of more different types and with more synonymous deverbal nouns. The present study did not analyse LVCs participating in syntactic modification operations such as passivisation or wh-movement that could also be the focus of future investigation.

49

SUMMARY

Tekstyno duomenimis pagrįstas britų anglų kalbos konstrukcijų su veiksmažodiniais daiktavardžiais chat, talk ir conversation tyrimas

Paprastai konstrukcijomis su veiksmažodinės kilmės daiktavardžiais (angliškai light verb constructions) vadinami junginiai, susidedantys iš veiksmažodžio, turinčio mažą semantinį svorį, ir kartu su veiksmažodinės kilmės daiktavardžiu sudarantys tarinį sakinyje. Šios konstrukcijos yra skirtingų tipų. Bergs (2005, 210) pristato keturis pagrindinius tipus ir pritaiko prototipų teoriją šių konstrukcijų klasifikacijoje. Pasak jo, visi šie tipai priklauso konstrukcijų su veiksmažodinės kilmės daiktavardžiais klasei, tačiau skirtingais lygmenimis. Pirmojo tipo konstrukcijos sudaro prototipą, pasižymintį visomis šioms konstrukcijoms būdingomis morfologinėmis, sintaksinėmis ir semantinėmis savybėmis, tuo tarpu antrojo, trečiojo ir ketvirtojo tipo konstrukcijos palaipsniui tolsta nuo prototipo ir pasižymi vis mažesne įvairove būdingų savybių. Šis tyrimas nagrinėja pirmojo tipo konstrukcijas, susidarančias iš veiksmažodžio su mažu semantiniu svoriu ir daiktavardžio, konversijos būdu išvestu iš veiksmažodžio (have a chat, have a talk); ir antrojo tipo konstrukcijas, pasižyminčias ta pačia struktūra kaip ir pirmojo tipo konstrukcijos, išskyrus daiktavardis išvestas iš veiksmažodžio ne konversijos būdu, o pridedant priešdėlį (have a conversation). Nepriklausomai nuo tipo, šios konstrukcijos turi junglumo apribojimų, nulemiančių, kuris veiksmažodis su mažu semantiniu svoriu gali jungtis su kuriuo veiksmažodiniu daiktavardžiu. Wierzbicka (1982, 754) teigia, kad šie apribojimai yra semantinės kilmės ir konstrukcijų taisyklingumas priklauso nuo veiksmažodinio daiktavardžio semantinių savybių. Ieškodami kompiuterinių būdų tekstynuose kiekybiškai įvertinti konstrukcijų taisyklingumą, Stevenson ir kt. (2004, 7) pastebi tendenciją, kad semantiškai panašūs komplementai yra vartojami su tuo pačiu veiksmažodžiu, turinčiu mažą semantinį svorį. Siekiant patikrinti šią tendenciją, šis tyrimas analizuoja pirmojo ir antrojo tipo konstrukcijų su iš dalies sinonimiškais veiksmažodiniais daiktavardžiais savybes. Šiuo tyrimu bandoma atsakyti į klausimą, kokie sintaksiniai ir semantiniai skirtumai egzistuoja tarp pirmojo tipo konstrukcijų su veiksmažodiniais daiktavardžiais chat ir talk, ir antrojo tipo konstrukcijų su veiksmažodiniu daiktavardžiu conversation. Taip pat bandoma ištirti, kokiomis sintaksinėmis ir semantinėmis savybėmis pasižymi konstrukcijos, kai jungiasi su sinonimiškais veiksmažodiniais daiktavardžiais. Šiuo tyrimu siekiama išstudijuoti sintaksines ir 50 semantines konstrukcijų su sinonimiškais veiksmažodiniais daiktavardžiais chat, talk ir conversation savybes britų anglų kalboje. Siekiant įgyvendinti užsibrėžtą tikslą, tyrime buvo nagrinėjamas šių konstrukcijų junglumas su veiksmažodžiais, turinčiais mažą semantinį svorį, produktyvumas, komplementacija, būdvardiniai modifikatoriai bei pasiskirstymas registruose. Visi tyrimui reikalingi duomenys buvo surinkti iš BNC tekstyno, reprezentuojančio sakytinę ir rašytinę britų anglų kalbą. Tyrimui atlikti buvo naudojami mišrūs metodai, kokybinis ir kiekybinis. Kokybinis metodas buvo naudojamas siekiant ištirti pirmojo ir antrojo tipų konstrukcijų su sinonimiškais veiksmažodiniais daiktavardžiais chat, talk ir conversation sintaksines ir semantines savybes. Kiekybinis metodas buvo naudojamas atskleisti, kurie sintaksiniai ir semantiniai šių konstrukcijų modeliai yra dažniausi. Tyrimo rezultatai parodė, kad konstrukcijos su veiksmažodiniais daiktavardžiais chat, talk ir conversation yra panašiai vartojamos skirtinguose registruose, bet skiriasi jų junglumas su veiksmažodžiais, turinčiais mažą semantinį svorį, produktyvumas, komplementacija ir būdvardiniai modifikatoriai. Tačiau šie skirtumai yra susiję ne su priklausymu tam tikram konstrukcijų tipui, bet daugiausiai su semantiniais skirtumais tarp veiksmažodžių, turinčių mažą semantinį svorį, kurie vartojami konstrukcijose.

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SOURCES

BNC. British National Corpus [online]. University of Oxford, 2001 (second edition). Accessed on 2nd June, 2017, available from: http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/

55

APPENDICES APPENDIX 1

Light Verb Constructions Extracted from the BNC

HAVE A CHAT she was intending to go and have a chat with her neighbour at the next house; You can go in a pub and have a chat with your mates; I want to meet someone to have a chat; it is possible to take a tea-break, have a relaxing chat; We had a chat after the Head of House appointment about the Head of House role; your boyfriend takes the time to have a chat with them; get yourself a CD, sort out some back issues or just have a chat; There's one person you meet sitting in a restaurant having a chat; it. We find winter is the time when most people come and have a chat to us; if you've ever sat down to have a chat with a shepherd on the windy fellsides; When I had a chat with him he had just celebrated Gala's triumph at Heriot's; they see their friends and have a chat, and they meet people they'd never work with; Perhaps Madonna should have a chat about the pop ethics with these young hopefuls; We drink tea, eat biscuits # and have a good chat #; We had a band chat; having a quick chat on the phone with a friend; Any reputable hypnotherapist should be quite prepared to have a ten-minute' chat' with you; If you call and have a chat at your Midland branch before you start car hunting, we; Had a long chat with Dad about which service we should attend; Afterwards, Lady Mary Wilson, Sir Harold's wife, came and had a chat; and make yer way to the back shop and we can all have a wee chat; at Thames Valley, I am sure Iain McLennan would be delighted to have a chat; The police had been round to have a supportive chat; (-----) will be happy to have an informal chat with anyone interested; when it's convenient just to pop in to have a quiet little chat; So I strode up there to have this man-to-man chat with Nick; we had quite an informal chat, mostly about boats of course; you have an initiative which could quality contact your representative and have a chat; At our next meeting we were able to have a long chat, I found very frank and easy to talk to; Perhaps we could have a chat on the' phone about it; to find anyone with whom I can have a knowledgeable chat about day and night netting; I had a long chat with (-----) during the trip; It would be nice to have a chat sometime; I have also had a chat with my friends Holly Harries from the Dyfed Wildlife Trust; I had a quite reasonable chat with a manager of Texas Home Care; They had a long chat in Afrikaans; I'd gone across to the old folks' home to have a chat with Maureen; have tea or coffee, buy a paper and have a friendly chat; the Leader of the Oppositon went to Barrow and had a chat with the work force; So had the cheerful chat and bustle; I had a chat with manager Billy Bonds and he said that, with all my problems; I JUST potter and have a chat to people passing by. It is a wonderful waste of time; It was nice to sit there and have a chat for a while with someone like him; I don't like to comment on referees, but I had a chat with him -- and he was an amiable chap; I've only come to have a little chat; David and I have had a chat about the goal drought which has suddenly hit the team; anyone who visits or telephones the college can have a confidential chat with adult education experts; ‘I've had a long chat with Vinnie,' said Kinnear; we had a chat on the phone last week and I told Nigel it would be a new adventure;

56 then go to the bar and have a chat. Then next morning you feel a bit better; I have had a long chat with Stephen and told him I know that he is knocking at the door; We have had a chat about what has gone wrong this summer; Props Grant Wilson and Peter Wright have not yet had a chat about any possible switch; After classes I would buy her a drink and have a little chat about things; I've had a chat with both of them and am hopeful that we can come to an agreement; So I contacted them and was told to come down and have a chat; We might send an official to have a chat with Mr Cackett; He had an' affable chat' with Graveney and other members of the Gloucestershire team; I'll have a chat with Jonathan to see if there are any problems; We had a very good chat; a man had got into Buckingham Palace and had a chat with the Queen; Why don't we go out and have a quiet chat over lunch tomorrow; Mariella Frostrup having a cosy chat with the singer Kim Mazelle about her clothes and make-up; We had a little chat with Unix System Labs president Roel Pieper last week; Meeting others in the same position, having a chat with friends about dieting endeavours; Army officers who had been with him at the conference, had " a short chat " with Gen McCreery; We had a chat with SunSelect; A man might go off his beat to have a chat on the Docks; If not, sit down and have a chat with your child; could we have a little confidential chat about product B?; a speechreader was having a perfectly ordinary chat about an art exhibition; Be prepared to have a chat, offer a cup of tea or biscuit or to help people to the toilet; It's not just a question of having a good old chat about the wild 30's; The factory owners and shopkeepers would come and have a chat with you; On arrival I have a chat with the Duty Sergeant, who hands me a map; we were back in the cell, sitting down, having a chat and a roll-up; Having a chat #; we've had a cha-- chat for about ten minutes; we'd had a chat for a long, long time; well we went into Henry and Norman's and they were having a chat; when Carole finishes in this session I'm gon na go and have a chat with her; Who, who's had a chat with Mary?; Sorry I'm late So I had a long chat with the, with the cleansing officer; have a chat to him about what you could do; the police stopped them the other morning and one of the lads had a chat with the driver; Simply ring us on Nottingham three four three four three four to have a chat; Okay. Well we'll have a chat about what you're like then; if you wish to have a chat with me, then you can send in this; we can have a little chat about any areas which we can discuss; waiting in the shop, talking and having a little chat; he had a quick chat with me for about three hours; So maybe if you had a chat to the admissions person; give us a ring on that number if you'd like to have a chat on the air this afternoon about anything; had a real good chat with them all Sunday night; I'd maybe have a chat chat with them you know, personal like; we're going to change sports now and have a little chat about speedway; Ben had been in the shop and we'd had a chat hadn't we? And you'll have a chat with him; Just had a very interested chat with Chris last night; I'll have a chat with some of the…; people want a drink after work and have a chat; Have to have a chat with (unclear); you can er perhaps break for coffee, and we'll have a chat about it; I mean, I've, I've had a long chat with Anne yesterday; you'd like to have a chat…; the number to ring it you'd like to have a chat on the air; I had a chat with; 57 so I had a chat to him. He drew me a little plan of how to get to W; now ideally what I'd like to do is to have a chat with somebody; I had a chat with him last night. And er he sort of admitted that…; He says I'll get her to come over and have a chat with you; you mean colleagues who have gone outside and they're having a chat and a smoke; if you'd like to have a chat on the air that's the number to ring; I just had a chat this morning. I think you have to appreciate here that; about six o'clock I'd quite like to go and have a chat to Bob; She's had a cha-- had a chat with Mary. I had a little chat with an old man today about his flowers; in New York they sort of like they have a chat; I had quite a good chat with Ray the other day; Joe his partner was there so I had a really good chat to him; you want to pop in and have a chat with me in between that's fine; We'll have a chat about the old dealers later; so me and Jim had a chat the other day; Anyway, I phoned her up the other day to have a little chat with her; And we have a chat there, you know?; on the night we have a chat with that area being; I have a chat with him; there's a phone-in and you can take part and have a chat on the air; Sort out to have a chat; we had a long chat and actually I mean it; and he spent the last day up there perhaps with his friends, have a chat; and then the came in and said can you go and have a chat to her; they could ring in and we could have a chat; let's have a chat with him. We were just going to ask him about this; I'll perhaps have a chat with you while you're in bed this morning; have a chat with you, cos there might be something; perhaps I could ring a few of erm those people just to have a chat with them; you all had a chat with each other at the end of the referred lead session didn't you. don't have to send er professional speaker or anything just somebody to have a chat with ya; meeting up with your mates every day or your colleagues and having a good chat about business; Found out he knew all this area and had a right chat with him on the way; all I'm here to really do today is to have a chat with you, find out what you're interested in; going back a bit it was quite the accepted thing to stand and have a chat for ten, twenty minutes; yeah I feel the skin cream is really good, they just had a chat; I've just had a, a chat with Gillian who erm rang me up; another neighbour always drops in to have a chat with his wife on a Friday evening; Supposed to have a chat you know; I erm I meet him to have a chat with him again; And then we'll have a chat about that, as I said; Yeah, have a chat with Norman; oh well I'll come and have a chat; But if Lisa er would be plain and have a chat; Had a chat with Dickie Bird on the way back; Yeah, er, have a chat with these; If you'd like to have a chat on the air call us on; I managed to go in and have a chat with the signalman; have a chat with erm Phil's people or Jackie's peo-- see if there's any differences; we all had a chat but I didn't see the girl from Norwich; Just time to have a little chat about greyhounds with our greyhound man, Mick Weeble; if you could have a chat with me in the corridor, I may be able to do something; he could decide whether or not he would like to have a chat with me; you know and er you had a chat with them; I got on very well with them, have a chat and I used to help them when they came in; I just had a chat with Christine; he just sat there talking to himself, having a good chat to somebody; 58

I'm just having a wee chat with you on it; I had a chat with Iris obviously, but it just wasn't on, with other commitments; And also we can have a little chat, providing it doesn't upset any concentration; where you feel secure, but you can have a chat with other people; Want wrote to us and asked us to affiliate and we had a brief chat about it; Does anyone else want to er come and have a chat; the other one's just sort of having a chat with him about; having a little chat about one thing and another; if you'd like to call us and have a chat on the air Nottingham three four three four three four is the number to ring; phone to be convinced that it was a erm right for you to have a chat with; I said, do have a chat with you; Just had a chat with Mickey Stewart and erm; so we'll have a chat; then have another chat; we do those and then we'll have a chat; so we sort of finished off having a chat, he said; just popped in to see how I was and we had a long chat about; afterwards when we were all sort of getting together and having a chat; have a chat with him between then and now; And he's going to have a chat with erm one of the blokes tomorrow; the station inspector's office you know, have a chat with him; we'll have a chat with them and we'll find them out what they think; We had a good chat last night; I'd better come round and have a chat; you can take part and have a chat on the air; three four three four the number to ring if you'd like to have a chat on the air; he may still want to have a chat about the weather or whatever you know; perhaps have another chat with your adviser, and then at that stage you're ready to go ahead; Now if you'd like to call us t-- have a chat, the number to ring; you come and have a chat with me about the course, or we can show the video; I've had a right good chat to David; I mean I like dancing and music but I like to have a chat with; So I think we ought to have a chat about the sort of things he's putting you on; alright well I'll have a I'll have another chat with (-----) when I get the flipping chance; I mean I'm just having a general chat with you; I really (unclear) a word, and they had a little chat to us; whenever I, we meet in the village shop, we always have a chat don't we? I always have them in and have a chat, you know; had the opportunity of having a chat with her; Later we can have a chat about this business over a few drinks; I should ask him. It's time you and he had a chat; ''Tim Hargreaves said that you'd like to have a chat with me about some things; 'In the meantime,' Blanche said,' I want to have another chat with our prime suspect; I thought I'd have a chat with you.' Lindsey rose to her feet; I've just had a rather intriguing chat with Irene Charial; 'Have a nice little chat with Phena, did you?'' No, just apologised for causing her; I had a chat with him earlier. I gather he's a keen footballer; Come back with me in the car, and we'll have a chat; We had quite a chat about the Lakes. He was asking for a fell-walking guide; 'Someone would like to have a chat with you, Chief Inspector,' he stated with a sniff; 'Gone to have a little chat with a friend, has she, son?'' Er... yes...; I wonder if your father would like to come and have a chat with me, possibly about your future?; I think Sister Hennessy and I need to have a chat. We'll be in my office; I'll engineer it myself after we've had a little chat; Why don't you clear away while me and Martin have a chat?; He went back to your hotel and had a very interesting chat with the switchboard operator; Now you'll be able to have a nice chat; 59

Mrs Ross and I had quite a long chat the other afternoon. She has had a very interesting life; I'll get a couple of coffees and we'll have a chat, OK?; I've also had a chat with her, and it seems she didn't think it necessary to let us; He had expected to have a little chat with his boy; Nice to be able to have a proper chat with someone; I had a chat with the Prince's grandmother; There'd be time to read, have a chat with people; many of you are anxious to have a chat to the -- ah -- instructors of your boys; After the bath, we can have a good old chat. That's what you really need, you know; Time for us to have a little chat, sir,' Hatchard said to me. I was afraid of that too; Let's go and have a chat with him and see if we can put his mind at rest; So you get round to his house at one. Have a chat. Stop a while; It's been nice having a chat; we may as well have another chat with Mrs Hatton; anyone you've made a phone call to, or had a confidential chat with; Was that before or after you'd had your chat?; I had a very interesting chat with Nightingale,' Rachel said softly; “Perhaps I'll have a chat with him, " said Alice vaguely; One of' em left his post to have a chat; Have a little chat with this... Frulein Hubert; you'd like an orange juice while Mr Oakley and the Doctor have a chat. Yes?; We had a long chat. Really? Did you tell her anything?; I'll have another chat to Niall and set everything up; ''I'm glad you've had such a cosy chat about me!'' Rex is sleeping like a babe. Could we have that chat you promised me?; And if you get depressed at all, come downstairs and have a chat; Now, let's have a chat about what we're going to do when this snow clears; It seemed best to have a friendly chat with one of the family not, perhaps, so emotionally involved; Sit down, my dear, I'd like to have a little chat with you. I noticed how well you did yesterday.' she'd had a long chat with Harry that afternoon on the telephone; I thought we'd go and have a chat with her now; I was talking to him briefly this afternoon and we agreed we'd have a chat some time; Look, why don't you have a chat with Philip? He's just your type; Amiss thought they might have a sensible chat about cricket; We could have come round and had a chat; Said he wanted to have a chat to her about her son's murder; So yesterday we had our chat and today you go social calling on Mrs Edna Scamp; She gave me a cup of French coffee and we had a chat; I was going to have a chat with Angy, you see, at this week's art class; Oh Jim, " we can say, " we are just having a little chat about the I.R.A.; Oh, it was a good mix last night -- we all had a nice chat; 'You seemed to be having quite a chat,' said Hugh's mother, waiting on the steps; Ah'd like to have a wee chat with those two, find out a bit more about them; I think I'll go across and have a chat with that young fallow who came in the other day; She's living up here now. So we had a nice chat. Oh -- and this'll interest you; You have a nice chat with Stok?; He can have a chat wi' you next time he comes; We had a very interesting chat and he was as normal as could be; After that, she spoke to Dominic while I had a chat with the prof. and Meryl Armitage; You see, I had a chat with Nicola at the party and Maggie became hysterical; ' Yes, we had quite a little chat about the place. I couldn't help asking him if the waitresses; having a chat with the young woman who was resting her sprained ankle on his bed?; 'I want to have a little chat with you sometime, Bob,' he said. Bob was numbed with fear; No thank you, Sergeant. I'll have a chat. Tonight. You'll be out yourself, won't you?; It was hard to imagine him having a casual chat with anyone; Harvey said,' You were having a nice chat about Turgenev’; Why shouldn't he, if he wanted to, drop in to have a chat with the landlord?; 'You and I should have a little chat.' He swung on his heel then and strode across the hall; 60 his goats grazed and they would always stop and have a chat; GET A CHAT Get a chat with him, you never know what comes out of them do you; GIVE A TALK what are my credentials for giving this talk? prepare a report, give a talk or write an essay; Charles will give a talk on the village green; The nursery nurses were initially given a talk on the nature of a pilot scheme; Middle East guru gave a talk on the Clinton administration's thinking on the Gulf; At one point she'd given a talk on Sky TV about all the signs to look for; on October 2 he gives a talk at the National Theatre; The headmaster at the school gave a talk to all the children; she'd given a talk called' Bringing Spirituality into Organizations'; Chris will give an illustrated talk on his expedition this summer; Inspector of Ancient Monuments will give an illustrated talk on the 18th-century British soldier at home; You are requested to give a talk to the members of your group on a topic of your choice; she gave me a long talk on the re-wiring of her flat; " It is bad enough to have to give a talk at 9.00 am; in February 1937 he gave a radio talk on " The Church's Message to the World "; Mr R Mulford has kindly offered to give a talk and slideshow; he gave a talk about his travels, organised by Blackwells in December; a former Chairman of the Tal-y-Llyn Railway gave a talk and slide show; Mr and Mrs Preshous of the S.W.S.H.A.S. gave a talk and slide show; we had to give a talk in class; Perhaps you would like me to give a talk on S &; T. P.S.; # Giving a Talk #; Bernstein gives his illustrated talk fluently in four languages; Mr John Mulholland gave a talk entitled' Our Neighbours in Brazil' to the Circle; when I give my talk, that your members are more likely to be informatively amused; you will be asked to give at least one talk; NW regional direction gave a short talk on the changes in the region; he had agreed to give a talk on behalf of the Episcopal Fellowship; Mr Sydney Breeze returned to give a further talk on this subject; When giving a talk or making a speech you must be aware of…; Janet Preshous, who has already given a joint talk with her husband; Cameron McPhail gave a talk on the current position and future targets of Columbus; Savill has also agreed to give this talk at a future date; Anne Marie will gladly give a talk and show slides to any interested; I will arrange for a specialist consultant to give a talk; offered to give us a talk on it; (-----) will give an illustrated talk on stillwater fishing for rainbow trout; After lunch, AEs are given a sales motivational talk; the Membership Services Committee gave a 15 minute talk to QTs; we were given a quick talk on safety procedure; For many of you, giving a talk may be a nerve-wracking experience; I had just given a talk on regression therapy; BISHOP Gray celebrated Mass and gave a brief talk; I was going to give a talk; somebody from Marketing' gave an in-depth talk on selling skills; Ms Evans gave us an interesting talk on the company personnel and training policies; Mid-Wales Philatelic Society will give a talk and display on a philatelic theme; Wales Line Travellers' Association gave an excellent talk on the Central Wales Line; He will give the talk at the AGM; Mr Percy H Graham gave an entertaining talk; Principal Inspector of Ancient Monuments will give an illustrated talk; G Anderson is to give a talk on 27 October on' how to give a talk'; Pat Keen gave a short talk on the history and work of MRM;

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Studies at the University of Birmingham to give a special talk in his memory; talk on 27 October on' how to give a talk'; the British ambassador gave a talk on' Russia in Transition'; Steve started giving me a pep talk, all this advice on how to fuck; Last week I gave a talk to a parents' committee on how to make…; to arrange for Mr Breeze to give us a further talk; to invite a speaker from Scottish Nuclear to give a talk; John Horsley Denton will give us a talk on railways further afield; when giving a talk on his career at the Royal College of Art…; give a short talk, followed by a question-and-answer session; When you give a talk you become the focus of attention; use notes, and other aids, when giving your talk; a writer will give a talk on where he considers the world is heading; Nigel Lockley gave a short talk on the work of his department; Wales's director of development services will give a talk on' The Future of Sport'; Peter Sloyan will give a talk Tourism A Candy Floss Industry?; they gave a talk on physical fitness to an Essex joggers' club; John Harper then gave a talk on the various lead minerals; Mrs Brett from Essanelle at Binns gave a talk on aromatherapy; Darlington MP Michael Fallon is giving a talk on dyslexia next week; He even gave us a talk about his love of birds at the Tory Party Conference; The children were given a talk on Swan Lake and a demonstration of the ballet; the group were given a talk on' The Siege of Derry'; to give a talk on' a day in the life of an actor'; SOMEONE from our organisation gave a talk at a primary school; Helen gave a talk about her work; Each bank representative will give brief talk on their policy towards small businesses; Wearing senior warden is soon to give a talk to the group; Mr. H. Ward, who gave a talk on Wild Flowers Abroad; Miss D. Gil will give a talk on pressed flower pictures; I gave a talk on the British monarchy at an astrological conference in Oslo; he once gave a talk to an audience of psychiatrists; the American Physical Society had invited him to give the talk; gave a most interesting talk with accompanying slides on the upper reaches of the river; included a women firefighter giving a talk on her personal experience; who had prepared the main conference document and gave the keynote talk; he decided to give a talk about it in the departmental weekly colloquium; The broadcaster who gave a complicated radio talk on a technical subject; listening to a man in a leather jacket giving an introductory talk; or giving a talk to a tutor group; Peterson suggested strongly his hope that Jones would not give the talk; it is for recording one person giving a talk; and give the talk to the kids on Easter and the religious side of it; I've heard you give that same talk so many times; They're not giving the talk aimed at telling you how best to invest your money; a young lady, who went to give er a talk like this to group of adults; I'm gon na give my talk about cats; a chap was giving a talk on design express lifts; Rob gave them a pep talk and there's a booklet; he gave a reasonable talk didn't he; as you'll have noticed I give the talk on income tax; you're paid to come here to give a talk; it that that speaker can't give such a good talk, why is he giving a talk?; Ken Balding gave a talk at the university on the subject…; listening to Danny cos I think he gives a good talk; she's never given me a talk on (unclear); men over in the tanks to give us a pep talk about the war effort; we give them a talk about rainforest; 62 the (unclear) was to give a talk to the Bishop's Stortford club; Oh, I see she hasn't actually given a talk, but she's going to; who will giving the talk for them; somebody who might be able to come and give a talk; we can't all be giving a public talk at the district assembly can we? such a good talk, why is he giving a talk? They came in today to give us this talk about kind of er, kind of erm, money; ask speakers when they can come to give their talk; if you're gon na give a talk or something; Why not come along? You could give a talk -- perhaps -- on atheism; grand lady who's going to give you a talk all about people what are worse off than you; come and give us a talk on anything unrestricted that you think would be of interest; He gave a wonderful talk to all the students who were starting at the university; She listened while Silas gave them a talk on safety measures; Officer, Hilary Robarts, had given a short preliminary talk; she was giving a talk in Newcastle; Aird, from the Patent Office, was giving a talk; The Commissioner's giving a pep talk this afternoon about all the progress he's making; HAVE A TALK the conversation flows much more like two people with a common interest having a talk together; she should' have a talk' with her son; There's a bit to talk about there... we might have a little talk about industrial justice; Alan commented that his branch had only had one political talk in the previous year; he was annoyed and he had an animated talk with Tshwete in the corner of the room'; Well, we had a talk and she invited me to come back in a few days' time; ' We've already had a talk about the year ahead and what the aims and goals are; We will then have a 30-minute illustrated talk on English Furniture; Around the time of the Yugoslavia match, we had an important talk with him; I shall no longer go around promising to have a good talk with the kids; before we play a concert, just to make sure we have a talk and a laugh; He has no small talk, except about politics and, possibly, cricket; if possible have a talk with the photographers in person; she told him' Come this way, your auntie wants to have a talk with you; Then I was in the corridor, having an intimate talk with an old friend who could no longer stand; Then we had a little talk, but it did not end there. Chance acquaintance like this ripened into friendship Nor did we have a talk beforehand because he was on the stage doing a turn with somebody else -- I So I had a quiet talk with young Murchie, and we came to a business arrangement; He lacked social graces and had no small talk; He is nice. But he has no small talk. He can talk about the Atonement. But; he was in good enough spirits when I had my talk with him; I had a long talk once with the very bright lady who accompanied him in his early days; I also had a useful talk with U Ba Pe, an old politician who was critical of the composition of I think I should have a talk to Mary, she's got so many problems with her marriage; My mother had a talk with Louis. She was worried about my future; ' We must have a talk about the computerisation of the archive,' I said; Yes, I know, but if you call early we can have a long talk; If you are interested, have a talk with your teacher, or phone; When I returned to Moose Jaw about mid-August I had a long talk with Fred Workman; it is increasingly impossible to have a sensible talk about sensitive matters; Never mind, I know how you feel. But we must have one last talk, " said the Shah; office of Lord James Douglas-Hamilton to see when it might be possible to have a talk with him; Soon after all this was agreed, he went to see Eden to have a talk with him about new appointments; he'd gone to have one last talk to the relief officer; she and Albert had had a talk and that she was going to stay with his parents for a bit; I also had a good talk on international topics with Mr. Kozyrev, the Russian Foreign Minister; I suggested that he might like to go and have a talk with his crew; I had not expected having this intimate talk; He came to two of my concerts and afterwards we had a long talk; 63

I like to get together with them to have a talk, teach them how to put on socks; So let us have no talk of building on the existing legislation; I'll have to have a talk with Winters Quins' Winterbottom; On December 16, I had a long talk with Kevin and Ian. They asked me for more money; outside Conservative Central Office, a television reporter and I had a brief talk; if you want to have a talk I will meet you at Annecy at lunch any day; If there was a night-watchman, you could stop and have a little talk with him; I have a talk with her and she talks to me and it helps me to talk to somebody; I had an hour's talk with him, he impressed me very much; we had a good heart-to-heart talk, it was really nice; if anyone wished to have any private talk he would be available; The time has come,' the Sergeant said #' To have a little talk # About Inspector Crabface; I'll have to have a talk with her. Put your daughter straight!; Stand here look in the queue. Have a li-- have a little talk to Bob look; ah here he comes, hold on then, the dogs gon na have a talk; you'd better come down and we'll have a talk about it, I've learnt a bit more about; have a talk and a laugh; we'll have a talk first and then he's going to have a walk; then to have a little bit of fun, we're going to have a talk and a guided tour; well, well we'll have a talk about it later on okay?; well you'll have to ask your doctor and get him to have a talk with your husband; Can I have a talk to you afterwards?; let's have a talk about the primary school budgets; it would be nice just to see it and have a talk and a demonstration; we might as well talk to, have a talk about them the problems; We'll just have a talk about the Bicester side, are you going to be at full strength?; and then talked about that at tea, and you can have a talk about it then; we know we had a right good talk to them about, it were half an hour weren't we?; But er, he he hopped on one day and er had a talk with him; he said after she'd seen the Solicitor and er had a good talk to me; Oh yes, she's got the house, and had a good talk to me; I had a very interesting talk in my French oral about they have erm Prince car industry; Mary came back. And er had a good talk; I was talking to her and she said that she'd had a talk with Foxy; Tell you what she'd had a talk with him; say you had a talk on it; you had a talk on drugs, you know, about things; she had a right talk to him and he said, Well that's it; we had a long talk and we discussed it at length for two weeks at Christmas; somebody has a talk with them so look here; ' He thought: I'll get her on her own and have a private talk; ' How about the Monument? We could have a talk.''; I had a talk with John Heminges, and he said they need a new man to help with; I know they are hoping to have a talk to you, too; ' You have achieved your objective, Mr Wyatt, so can we have this talk you insist upon; Ruff! Get up, you lazy sod! You'd better have a talk to it, then; I SPENT most of Friday morning having a long talk with Paul Seddon; And then we'll have a little talk to Mr Harris. About my' harem'...'; It's time we had a talk,' Otley said the next morning; Anne and Millie were both in the kitchen and they were having a serious talk as well; I want to have a talk with Hayley, get to the bottom of this glue-sniffing business; Her first loyalty was to him -- at least until they could have a talk and straighten things out; I think we'd better have a talk. Would you like some tea?; Look -- if you're upset -- go and have a good talk with our social worker; She was upset. Naturally, she was. We've had a good talk now; Well, he said when he left me he was going to have a talk with you; I had to have a talk with Mrs Rumney and a few days later I called; she would go herself and have a secret talk with Matilda's mother and father as soon as possible; 64 but did not renew attempts to have a talk about the' situation'; Now would you like me to have a talk with her, or to listen?; could you come up here? I mean we could have a talk; She came back as a ghost.'' I'll have no talk of ghosts in this house,' said Bernard; Sir, could I come round to have a talk? I've got on to something.'; After we've had a talk you're welcome to go back home to the wife and kids; ' Can I meet you later and have a talk?''; ' Aye, Ah'd best have a wee talk with her myself.'; I am glad we had that little talk before dinner, even if it made me a trifle nervous; Mr Wood had a quiet talk with him later; ' When we've had our talk, we'll come round and join you; get past Gog and Magog, and we can have a little talk; to invite Sheila to have a friendly talk, away from the hothouse of the group; We'll go up to the house and have a talk.'; Let's have some fighting talk.''; ' I really think we should have a talk if you want to get adopted by our lot,' he said.'; And this morning I had a long talk with my mother.''; She would have to have a stern talk with Debbie about including extraneous information; he's having an affair with that Swedish girl. We even had a talk about it; ' let's stay out here. I'd like to have a little talk with you.'; ' I'm sure you want to have a private talk.'; Dalziel had had a long talk with Gwen. They were obviously telling the truth about themselves; I think we'd better have a talk; And any hope Laura might have had of at last having that' long talk; He was turning over in his mind the best way to have a little talk with Pickerage; ' Anyway, I want us to have a little talk now. -- I've got a proposition to put to you; I've had a talk with....' She hesitated, wondering whether to name the person; " I'm going to have a talk with my mother. "; ' We had a long talk about the future.'; a curiously exalted look on her face and asking if she could have a private talk; I had to have a talk with Mrs Rumney and a few days later I called in at The Laurels; '' You must have had quite a talk!' smiled Belinda.'; ' Why don't you have a little talk with Heavenly Father while you're waiting for me?; On our arrival in Scarborough we had a talk from our Flight Commander, Flt Lieut Barnes; Just a minute, Charlie. I want to have a talk with you.' Detective; If I can be of any help... since we had our talk, I too have begun to have doubts; Ross and his brother had had a long serious talk about what would be best for the children; ' We had a long talk when we had dinner together,' Haverford said; ' I'm so glad we've had this little talk; and it's so nice to think that she and Annabel are friends; Reggie remarked that they must have a talk about finance; And coming back I had a long talk with the nice shy boy, Jean-Louis; The headmaster said,' I think we'd better have a little talk. Young Moira McReady's parents have lodged a complaint; Oh, we had a long talk,' Sheila said airily; This morning I had a talk with him; And in the morning she would have to have a very long talk with Feargal's mother; I promise you that we will have a long talk -- and sort out everything between us, once and for all; found out about our affair. Think about it and let's have a proper talk; Franca, had been over to the flat at Victoria and had had a' talk' with Marcus; I'd like to have a long talk to you about her; Dawn has asked to have a talk with me. I don't know any more than that; I thought we should have a little talk.'' Yes, we can talk, Philippe, but; I had a fine talk with these girls. They are great girls; ' He didn't have small talk, not his way. Erlich said; If he brought her any more, then they would have to have a little talk; I had a long talk with Nora this morning. I didn't know how you'd feel about leaving; 'I must have a talk with Ferrand before I see Wolff again.'; And I'll have a talk with the bloke, all right? Make sure he leaves you alone in future; 65

I'll maybe get round to the harbour in the morning, and have a talk with Mrs McDougall; It feels good just to have had a talk; He's certainly had a long talk with me since you left the team; Kress and I were having our little friendly talk; Before they went off, Michel and I had a talk. He gave me the keys of the tower; ' I'm glad we've had this little talk, Mr O'Malley,' he said in a low voice; Perhaps we can have a talk some time?'; we'd better sit down and have a really good talk.'; I want to have a good talk with Mr Makepeace and Mr Farraday...'; we are having all this talk of lawsuits and resignations. I just do not understand at all; ' Then we'll go somewhere quiet and have a talk. I expect you're ready for a talk, aren't you?' he would find time to have a long talk with her when his present hectic spell of work came to an end; I'd take a ride out to Westminster Drive and have a long talk with Mrs. Laura Channing; Matron has asked me to have a little talk to you about your temporary position; ' I raised an eyebrow.' So he had a talk with you before I showed?' Mr Gordon doesn't want any money. I've had a talk with him; somewhere nice and quiet where we won't be disturbed while we have our little talk; I just came to have a little talk to you; As soon as she could she had a serious talk with her mother.'; “I had a long talk with Sir Geoffrey before you came, " said Mr. Henniker; the Doctor muttered darkly.' I think it's about time I had a talk with her.'; I think the three of us should sit down and have a little talk.'; Then perhaps we can have a talk and find out what I can give you as a reward; ‘Thought you and I should have a talk, Tod.''; It was embarrassing, having this talk again, and in public; No, circumstances make it very desirable that we should have this talk; ' I won't have this kind of talk. If you have no respect for me; He said:' Barbara, we should have that little talk I mentioned.' the specialist in charge of Celia wanted to have a talk with her the following weekend.'; I shall have to have a long talk with the Lord beforehand.''; ' We had the longest telephone talk ever known to the Lulling exchange last night; We'll have a longer talk when I'm home again; DO A TALK Thank you for doing a talk I did not feel up to; By the time I came to do my first talk, her feathers were a lovely tawny colour; it seemed obvious that I should do my talk on the owl; Although I am still nervous at the thought of doing a talk in front of strangers; Taylor asked me if I'd consider doing another talk -- to another class; Mr Taylor, did tell us to do our talk on something we knew about; she popped in to ask me would I do this er talk for you this afternoon; Erm but we didn't do a little talk before; To somebody at the Company who's coming to do a talk there; I'm doing this talk here for erm Stanley's daughter who's at er college; I was asked to come and do this talk; for each conference, or whoever is doing the introductory talk; Scott and Rebecca who were gon na do the talk; I will wander round town while he's doing his talk; mean you probably know we do, I do a talk erm I call it a story rather than a talk; I remember some chap came over to do the talk; And you having to do a talk; HAVE A CONVERSATION young British-born Caribbeans from London have a conversation lasting longer than a few turns; Search out somebody that talks slowly, and deliberately have a slow conversation; Thus, although anyone can have a conversation or write a poem; These girls had actually been requested to have a conversation in " Jamaican "; it is unusual to be asked to have a conversation in a particular language; it is unusual to be asked to have a conversation in the presence of a tape recorder at all;

66 the man who was now doubting his identity was having a conversation a moment ago; we went to the bar and had a proper conversation about cars; If you have a friend to work with, sit back-to-back and have a conversation; I was out of it sitting in this shop doorway having this conversation with myself; I had a long conversation the other day with one of the UK's major guitar distributors about; I had a conversation with Billy that didn't proceed in the usual question-answer form of an interview; We had a most uninteresting conversation but it was extremely illuminating; Paul Parker had the following conversation with Simon Hughes; Are we having this conversation so you can pitch rugby or so you can get my answers to your questions; I even get a chance to have a proper conversation with my husband!; had a pretend conversation in her undifferentiated monotone; we wouldn't have been having this conversation...; They had a short conversation in German and seemed to disagree about something; I like to have a good conversation with a boy; Andrew MacKenzie had a' phone conversation with Tim; Just before Christmas I had a telephone conversation with your factor, Mr. Findlay; ‘Frank would be having a conversation with someone,' said Allen; to the interviewer and talk as though the two of you are having a personal conversation; one of the few teachers I could have a conversation with about something more than homework or football; he' found Madame i.e. Tolkien's wife there, so could not have much conversation with him'; So the first time I had a conversation with Mr Wogan was live on television!; It was probably in 1937 that he and Tolkien had a conversation about their distaste; sat on the edge of a table having a conversation about their night out in Lille; drank the dregs from the glasses and bottles and had a conversation with one of the cooks about Beirut; an occasion to have meaningful conversation -- which should be an important part of married life; is having a highly excited conversation with his fellow passengers; Aitken had a conversation with him shortly after the publication of the report; an educated man with whom CD had a conversation aboard; I had a most interesting conversation about Italian opera with a waiter called Giovanni; felt like talking about it, which was almost every time he ever had a conversation; I had no conversation about me; I had a long conversation with James, of which I recall principally that it was about fate; we have a conversation with these four people; You're never in early enough to have an intelligent conversation; While you are having the conversation, concentrate: on what is being said on staying in role; they had a cheery conversation with me as interpreter; no one could have a satisfactory conversation; The two brothers had conversation after conversation on the theme of religion; Terry used his limited Arabic to have a long conversation with another visitor; I'll have a (-----) conversation please; I can have the occasional shouted conversation with Tony; When you are having a telephone conversation you are more likely to be distracted; (Have you ever tried having a conversation with someone who is holding a hanky over their face?); Morrissey has had a lengthy conversation with the mother of Lesley Ann Downey; We had quite a conversation; they had scant conversation with anyone; James renewed his long-standing contact with Teddy Mayer, had a brief conversation with Hogan; There I was to have a long conversation with young Middleton; The Lapp speaks no English and we have a stilted conversation through Odd-Knut; Well, while we were having this conversation, there was a lady in the office; having your first conversation with a taxi driver; Earlier we'd had coffee and conversation in Mary's tea room; he was taped having an intimate phone conversation with Diana; ' We had a very friendly conversation; having a long conversation with someone in the family who needs a bit of support; YOU'RE having a conversation about traffic problems; I was having a private conversation in the dugout with one of my staff; I remember dad running after me and having a long conversation trying to make me understand; 67 we have cursory conversation about Mozart and two piano performance; drivers think they can wind down the window, sing a song, have a conversation and it'll go away; Yesterday Erich Honecker, refused to have a telephone conversation with Helmut Kohl; leans back, crosses his legs, and looks like a man having an agreeable conversation in his club; On New Year's Eve the two are taped having an intimate conversation; Radio Four whose discussion programmes give the impression someone is having a conversation; he had a private conversation of his on a car telephone; I'm glad we had that conversation; Robyn arrives at the factory for the first time and goes and has a conversation with Wilcox; At the height of his troubles we had a similar conversation...; You can't believe that they can still say it, having had this conversation six hundred times; the two men had had a particularly difficult conversation about the matter; After the meal, Stirling had a private conversation with the Prime Minister, and put forward his views about the future of his; husbands complain that their wives are so tired that they can not have a decent conversation; Ten minutes before you might have been having quite a close conversation; You are more likely to have a useful conversation about safer sex if you don't leave it; Jean Coulter joined her there and they had a brief conversation; they need, toiletry-wise or anything else they might need. I'll have a conversation.' At the same time as having the conversation, the social worker should be observing behavior; it's funny because we, we were having this conversation before we came in weren't we? let us now have that conversation using erm, metres; She was literally having a two-way conversation, although, not in an odd way; we just had a fairly intelligent conversation I thought; they've had a conversation with you then it, it makes it easier; you're going to have a private conversation, and the call is still held at your handsets; they want you to have a normal conversation on; But it doesn't matter does it? I mean you'd have a conversation anyway; Yeah but don't talk bad you've just got ta have a normal conversation; I'm so glad you had this conversation with me while I've been miked up; when you have ordinary conversation when we're talking or anything; We're having a conversation though; Can't we have a big conversation, please; Cos nobody's gon na be having a conversation; if people are having a conversation; leave it on basically for about an hour as long as you're having a conversation; and I thought we had this conversation two weeks ago; I heard Brad having a conversation again today about; we had this conversation when I'd first got here; having had a conversation, proper conversation with my dad this weekend; ring Sarah and she said she'd already sent a gift, no have a conversation with her; Mr Hurd and Mr Levy had a long conversation afterwards in French; then someone else has a conversation with someone else; have a conversation with them; so that you can have a conversation; You'd have plenty of conversation; I had a conversation with (unclear); I can sit and have a conversation; well he apparently spoke to erm, he had quite a lengthy conversation with Ron Atkinson; When I have a conversation with you I have to write it down; I said erm I had a conversation with Gillian about reading, about little bits of reading; we erm tried to have a conversation and then we'd walk off; as you say I, I can never have a real conversation with her; But you've never had a conversation with him; you forgot to turn it off after you had a conversation with Honey or something; you were having an animated conversation with a friend nothing more, nothing less; Oh I'm gon na go and see her okay, have a conversation; you've had quite a lengthy conversation in; 68 if we're not there having the conversation we won't even know that; No go and have some more scintillating conversation with Ross; So can you imagine if you had a conversation with somebody from er er another country; Okay if you want a private conversation well go and have a private conversation; I might have a conversation for the person on the other end who listens to it; we had a conversation about it; at night cos there's nobody here to have a conversation with; We were having a conversation weren't we Graham?; She had a conversation with Jean the other day; they have this conversation, it was in that sense it was one of the strangest interviews; you'd like to come down and have conversation?; We're having a conversation now aren't you?; at the beginning of February we had a very similar conversation; So I don't really have much conversation with a lot of them; every time someone has a conversation; Why is everyone have a conversation; I must (unclear) had this conversation; Are you like you like having a conversation with yourself; I have to have it on I wan na have a conversation; I'll sit with them at lunch and have a perfectly normal conversation with them; gon na turn it off for a little while until everyone starts having a proper conversation; so I must have had another conversation with you last night; they actually spoke to each other and they had a conversation; Virginia, it's boiling! Let's have a conversation with Virginia; she knocked on the door had this crap conversation and then buggered off; I didn't have a lot of conversation with anybody in; you did it Daniel you'd like would be recording you and Honey having a conversation; the person have a private conversation and let someone say it to me; If we are not having that conversation at the initial design stage when the total…; isn't somebody going to say anything other than me? I'm having a conversation with myself; then someone has a conversation with someone else; We're having a conversation; what I like to do is have a conversation about the project and then get the designer to come up with an answer; meant to convey that Mr (-----) and Mr Wogan are sitting down and having a conversation; if you're not having a conversation yo-- you can use the radio; let's have a conversation; Oh dear. What time is it? I need to go and have a conversation with someone; the chap you're talking to in the studio, and just have a conversation with him; Perhaps have a conversation with someone up that end; A couple of years ago I had a fascinating conversation with Professor Max Clues on just this subject; we would invite them to have a conversation with a sales person; (unclear) had a conversation about this; he had a conversation about when my dog goes in my garden an-- and he does a doggy-do; right now there are computing systems in which, with which you can have a conversation; let's just hope we meet someone we know and have a decent conversation with them shall we?; I think we had the same conversation, didn't we?; did I have another conversation, Jess and Lucy; keep having a conversation!; I have also had a short conversation with her in court; they seem to be having a conversation about un-- the university matters; had no er conversation at all like, you know; so I had I had this long conversation not knowing who the hell he; Only when you're having a conversation; we can have er real time conversation with the doctors at the other end; they think you've got to have a conversation; to a pub and everything and erm, you know, had a really decent conversation with; I mean you'd have all the conversation anyway in there; Mr (-----) had a conversation with June on the telephone; 69 you like animals too,' she stated, shying away from having the conversation on her; ' Ronni was suddenly grateful that just a moment ago she'd already had this conversation; perhaps we'll be able to have a normal conversation without you snapping my head off!'; I had this conversation with Danny Bascombe the other day; They seldom had a conversation but they arranged things together; '' Simply to tell you that I've been having a most interesting conversation.'; ' I can't have this conversation with you, Tom; a fascinated confederacy of blood they were, for the first time, having a conversation; repaired to a pub and had a long and very friendly conversation; it was no use trying to have a conversation with him because his deaf-aid had fallen to pieces; I had a very enlightening conversation about the whole subject with the young man; with whom she had had a strangled conversation at some social gathering; I've just had a telephone conversation with the Great Zeno; ' Why I'm even bothering to have a conversation with you; ' We simply wish to have a conversation with you and you have agreed; Usually we ring them up, have a short conversation with them over the phone; with him around, they wouldn't have had that conversation; With neighbouring diners sitting too close to have a conversation without being overheard; I think we should all go now and have a nice conversation downstairs; They had a conversation of sorts with the two inebriates; Harry turned back to Sam, with whom he had been having a private conversation on a quite different subject; She had had a wickedly subtle conversation with him, a very enquiring one; We can't have a conversation in the hallway; He intended to spend the evening having intelligent conversation with his computer; Would we be having this conversation if we were still lovers?; he delivered some printing work I had ordered and we had a brief conversation; She didn't want to be having this conversation; The two Vehicle Examiners, who were reputed to have no conversation except about cars; I had a conversation the other day with Con that reminded me of what I used to be; she had had the conversation that she had just remembered so clearly; Jack and Alison were having a hasty conversation on the landing; Gregson said.' Then why are we having this conversation?''; In fact, she didn't want to be having any conversation with him; he had been having an earnest conversation with a black boy; she stood to have the same unsatisfactory conversation with the lady with a little English; he brought her back another drink he moved close to her trying to have a conversation; her godmother was having an animated conversation with him, albeit a somewhat one-sided one; No, I couldn't have this conversation; Ven Gajdusek didn't want her having any conversation at all with his secretary; Rainbow and I had a very interesting conversation, up at Alexandra Palace; It would be nice to have some conversation as well as sex; You telephoned me at the hotel and had that long conversation with me.'; Oh, for heaven's sake, why are we having this stupid conversation?'; '' We've had this conversation before; I was wrong to have a conversation with enemies of Lilliput; ' Last night we managed to have a reasonable conversation; Surely she couldn't really be having this ridiculous conversation?'; might meet again and have a longer conversation; where Wycliffe had had his memorable conversation with Emily Pascoe; ‘But I don't have general conversation with them.' He said; They had the same conversation the previous Friday afternoon, about the disappointing figures; her teacher had a long conversation above her head with her mother; Edward struck gold the first time he had a proper conversation with Frank Foley; waiting to have a conversation with you; DAVID and JANET are having a muttered conversation as they examine the bulbs; She tried to speak levelly and control her temper.' We had a normal conversation; It wasn't possible to have a conversation unless her earphones were connected; the interpreter, who'd been having a long conversation with one of the Indians; 70

'' We've had this conversation before,' she flared up.; it was not unnatural that he should have a conversation with Carrie; He had a long conversation with a Russian passenger, who talked about magic; They were as ugly as sin and they had no conversation; managed to have five minutes' conversation with him; Once they'd had a conversation on two levels, from street to first-floor window; But they had had this conversation so often and to such little purpose; ' We've had this conversation so many times; Mercer himself had had this conversation with Emil; we were having a private conversation in here; They had had this kind of conversation before and it always ended with her frustrated; They often had this sort of conversation; GET A CONVERSATION It's not a bad idea, it's, get quite a good conversation in there; rather just get the conversation, in, even though you don't do this; Ann'll get plenty conversation today; Okay, where else can we get some conversation!; But you got conversation with him and his family; talk to Tina. (unclear) like her. Just talk to her get some conversation; Just talking to myself, it's the only way I can get any sensible conversation round here; DO A CONVERSATION What, how you're doing, doing a conversation at home cooking dinner; Do everyone's conversation; MAKE CONVERSATION racist humour is used to make simple conversation and reactions; his gift of making conversation has already ebbed away; Pete Waterman is making animated conversation at the bar; He stepped forward, made polite conversation and said to the woman…; A colleague made cheerful conversation with Jan; "He could dance as well as fight, and he could make polite conversation; he controlled himself and tried to make polite conversation; They gave information and made conversation; you were shaking hands and making conversation rather than getting flustered; To make conversation now, we asked him about Asyut; perhaps just to make conversation I mentioned my trip to the Haida reservation; they would play verbal tennis, making conversation out of the spoken lyrics of Forties' songs; making intelligent conversation about his home in Canada; She was attempting to make conversation for more than half an hour; Jan still struggles to make conversation; teaching someone who has lived a rather isolated life how to begin to make conversation; I watched her avert her eyes while we made stilted conversation about our lives; we had to sort of make a conversation. It's quite hard really; to examine what native speakers do when they' make conversation'; Obliged to make polite conversation all the time oh!; I had to make conversation then I said erm so how are the old Colts B doing; Come on then make some conversation; So come on Jess, come and make some conversation with me; and I just have to sit there and we had to make conversation; I was just trying to make conversation; You made conversation with him!; It's too hot to make conversation with such stupid ones as you are this afternoon; I can't, you can't make conversation by yourself can ya?; He made conversation, why did you give Michelle the glass?; And all of that made the conversation; Go and make some conversation; You were making some interesting conversation about me killing somebody; she made conversation at parties to people she hadn't met before; 71

Benjamin tried his best to make light conversation; he would be required to make so much conversation at the Duchess's ball; Carolyn was aware that the woman was making conversation with her; he made polite conversation, avoiding any of the deeper, more important issues; I don't like trying to make conversation with silly people who have nothing to say; I am an archdeacon's son,' said Rupert trying to make conversation; are you one of these people who just feel compelled to make conversation?; making conversation while she secretly strained; Paula had no patience for making conversation with Gran; They drove along, d'Urberville making conversation; ' Why?'' No reason at all. I was just making conversation; could she hide her resentment and make polite conversation?; People made conversation with her, avoiding awkward topics; she would eat her supper, make pleasant conversation with her landlady; from one table to another for the purpose of making conversation; He spent a few minutes making polite, nondescript conversation; Nothing, " I said. " I am simply making conversation; He did not play tennis, or sing, or make intelligent conversation; his face was expressionless and she knew he was only making polite conversation; She made conversation with Bridget, who pressed more gin; then getting to the university and making polite conversation...; being the sort of man who makes more conversation than profit from his catches; Adam didn't make conversation -- just tended his garden and bees; Was he just making polite conversation with his uninvited guest; ' It's wonderful to be here,' I said, making conversation; like a proper grown-up man, making conversation; crack jokes and make amiable conversation; Wu Tsai sat and made pleasant conversation with Tsu Ma; Simply didn't have the time to make soap-opera conversation over the fence; It makes conversation rather a hit-or-miss affair,' says Robyn; he made conversation with the overdressed parents of one of the boarders; '' He was just making conversation.'' And I was just responding; time in the Army?' -- as if she were making conversation in a drawing-room; then as if making conversation.' How about you?; manifesting a disinclination to sit and make conversation with Lydia; All I was doing was making conversation; London a very wicked place?' I asked him, trying to make conversation as we walked; the doctor said, not really to make conversation but to find more time to see; As engaged couples used to make conversation and play parlour games; in a few days I was able to make conversation with the island people; we made conversation for a while, although he seemed to be thinking of something else; she was tired out with making conversation; I was only making conversation; feeling she must make conversation:' It's a beautiful morning,' she said; secretaries drink champagne and try to make conversation with hoards of people; The girl'll think you're thick. Talk to her. Make conversation; He tried to make conversation but I just smiled and went on reading my book; But I can't make the right conversation,' and it was true; Terrible day,' commented Charlie by way of making conversation; I tried to make conversation with the three silent people round the table; knowing each other well enough by then not to have to make bright conversation; I was just making conversation; making conversation with Tony and hoping that it would soon be time for bed; When he came back on deck she tried once more to make conversation; He turned into his house, thankful not to have had to make conversation with her; There weren't many people sitting near us, so I tried to make polite conversation; This is not the kind of guy who makes polite conversation; I tried to make conversation again.' I gather you've met both my predecessors; 72

He had not wanted to have to trouble himself making conversation; He was making light-hearted conversation and monopolizing Linda's attention; At first we just made conversation; he was making conversation about something so trivial as pouring himself a drink; practically unable to make any kind of conversation at all;

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APPENDIX 2

Immediate adjectival modifiers of the deverbal nouns chat, talk, and conversation combined with different light verbs HAVE A CHAT Descriptive Evaluative/emotive: nice (629), very Speed: quick (2) interesting (4), proper, good (9), good old (2), right (2), little (24), reasonable Frequency: - (meaning average) Volume: quiet (2) Cognitive: sensible, knowledgeable Tone (or manner): friendly (2), cosy Duration: long (13), wee (3), ten- (2), affable, relaxing, cheerful, minute', brief, short intriguing, supportive

Structure: - Classifying General, man-to-man, informal (2), band, ordinary, casual, confidential (3) GIVE A TALK HAVE A TALK DO A TALK Descriptive Evaluative/emotive: Evaluative/emotive: Evaluative/emotive: wonderful, good (2) little (23), small (4), little entertaining, good (11), proper, fine, excellent, interesting important, useful, right Cognitive: - (2) (2), very interesting Duration: - Cognitive: reasonable Cognitive: sensible Speed: - Duration: short (5), Duration: long (26), long, 15 minute, brief wee, 30-minute, brief, Frequency: - (2) hour's Volume: - Speed: quick Speed: - Tone (or manner): - Frequency: - Frequency:- Structure: - Volume: - Volume: quiet (2)

Tone (or manner): pep Tone (or manner): (4) serious (3), friendly (2), fighting, stern,

29 The number in the brackets indicates raw frequency of the immediate adjectival modifier occurring with the deverbal noun in a particular LVC. 74

Structure: in-depth, animated, heart-to- complicated heart

Structure: - Classifying Preliminary, illustrated (5), Political, private (4), secret, introductory radio (2), joint, motivational, telephone, illustrated, intimate sales, special, keynote, (2) introductory, public HAVE A CONVERSATION MAKE A CONVERSATION GET A CONVERSATION Descriptive Evaluative/emotive: Evaluative/emotive: Evaluative/emotive: interesting (4), nice, interesting, right, good (un)satisfactory (2), pleasant (2), nondescript proper (4), good, Cognitive: sensible meaningful, useful, Cognitive: intelligent scintillating, crap, (2), bright Duration: – fascinating, stupid, ridiculous Duration: – Speed: –

Cognitive: Speed: – Frequency: – enlightening, intelligent (3), Frequency: – Volume: – reasonable, difficult, memorable Volume: – Tone (or manner): –

Duration: long (14), Tone (or manner): light, Structure: – short (3), brief (3), polite (12), amiable, five minutes', lengthy light-hearted, animated, (3), big cheerful, stilted

Speed: slow, hasty, Structure: simple cursory

Frequency: occasional

Volume: muttered, shouted

Tone (or manner): friendly (2), subtle, earnest, animated (2), excited, cheery, stilted, agreeable, decent (3)

Structure: strangled 75

Classifying normal (5), telephone (6), soap-opera - private (8), general, pretend, memorable, personal, close, intimate (2), similar (2), two- way, ordinary, real, real time

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