Colloquial Language in The Wakefield PlaysComposite Predicates

Abstract

The present study of colloquial language in the Wakefield Plays focuses on the idiomatic phrases known as ‘composite predicates’ of the type ‘have a drink’, used instead of the equivalent single verb ‘drink’. These exhibit the structure verb + noun, where the verb is ‘do, give, have, make, take’ and the noun is a deverbal noun, functioning as an eventive object. After an overview of types and frequency, together with a description of the syntactic behaviour of each verb, the process of idiomatization of such structures is dealt with, in terms of nominal modification, verbal transformations and word order. Thus, we are enabled to draw conclusions as to the stage of fixity of these structures at the end of the 15th century