Original scientific paper
Constructional meaning of verbo–nominal constructions in English and Croatian
Tanja Gradečak-Erdeljić
orcid.org/0000-0001-6328-6120
; Faculty of Philosophy, Osijek
Mario Brdar
orcid.org/0000-0002-9582-4285
; Faculty of Philosophy, Osijek
Abstract
The research of the use of complex lexical and syntactic structures in English which contain
the so–called light verbs such as have, take, give and make and deverbal nouns has
shown some evidence of a network of meanings. This network is a result of combining
the syntactic functions of intransitive verbs into a prototypical transitive construction by
introducing the conceptual metaphor EVENTS ARE THINGS (look v. → (take) a look n.) and
the process of schematization of light verbs.
This process of the so–called predicate decomposition has been recorded in Croatian,
too, as well as in many other languages. There is, however, an obvious detachment from
the prototypical English structure, which points at the usage based value of Croatian
constructions. It is derived from their contextually determined pragmatic meaning, which
is particularly evident in functional styles such as administrative and journalese.
Our approach to studying this type of constructions is based on the model of constructional
meaning which proposes that the grammatical organization of language systematized
by specific construction types forms a continuum of causal links. In that model the
constructions are studied within a specific ecological niche (Taylor 2004) in which there is
a mutual interaction of several construction types. They are the product of specific characteristics
of the lexicon and the language typology. The stress is put on the usage–based
model of language (Barlow and Kemmer 2000) which serves as a framework to compare
the usage value of verbo–nominal constructions in the two languages. The principal goal
of the study is to stress their constructional meaning at the expense of flouting the traditional
division of syntactic and pragmatic meaning.
Keywords
verbo–nominal constructions; light verb; nominalization; contrastive analysis; English; Croatian
Hrčak ID:
83036
URI
Publication date:
11.6.2012.
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