The English Reaction Object ConstructionA Case of Syntactic constructional Contamination

  1. Tamara Bouso Rivas 1
  1. 1 Universitat de les Illes Balears
    info

    Universitat de les Illes Balears

    Palma, España

    ROR https://ror.org/03e10x626

Revista:
Miscelánea: A journal of english and american studies

ISSN: 1137-6368,  2386-4834

Ano de publicación: 2022

Número: 65

Páxinas: 13-36

Tipo: Artigo

DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDialnet editor

Outras publicacións en: Miscelánea: A journal of english and american studies

Resumo

This paper discusses a case of constructional contamination (Pijpops and Van de Velde 2016; Pijpops et al. 2018), a phenomenon which describes the relation between two or more constructions such that usage frequencies of one construction influence the patterns of variation in another (Hilpert and Flach 2022). Specifically, I investigate the influence of structures of the type she gave a nod of intelligence or she nodded with satisfaction on the variation in the object slot of the so-called English Reaction Object Construction (ROC; Levin 1993), as in she nodded intelligence and she nodded satisfaction. Using the British Sentimental Novel Corpus (Ruano San Segundo and Bouso 2019) and the method of distinctive collexeme analysis (Gries and Stefanowitsch 2004; Hilpert 2006, 2014), it is argued that early and frequent structures superficially similar to the ROC, like those just mentioned, partly explain the lexical diversity found in the object slot of the nineteenth-century ROC (Bouso 2020b). The results thus corroborate findings on the pervasiveness of constructional contamination in English syntax, confirm the claim put forward in Bouso (2021) that the ROC can be treated as an example of a multiple source construction, and provide evidence of the large-scale transitivisation process experienced by the English language since Old English times.

Referencias bibliográficas

  • Bouso, Tamara. 2017. “Muttering Contempt and Smiling Appreciation: Disentangling the History of the Reaction Object Construction in English”. English Studies 98 (2): 194-215. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0013838X.2016.1210358
  • Bouso, Tamara. 2020a. “The Growth of the Transitivising Reaction Object Construction”. Constructions and Frames 12 (2): 239-271. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/cf.00041.bou
  • Bouso, Tamara. 2020b. “The Shaping of the Late Modern English Reaction Object Construction”. In López Ropero, Lourdes, Sara Prieto García-Cañedo and José Antonio Sánchez Fajardo (eds.) Thresholds and Ways forward in English Studies. Alicante: Publicaciones de la Universidad de Alicante: 179-191.
  • Bouso, Tamara. 2021. Changes in Argument Structure. The Transitivizing Reaction Object Construction. Bern: Peter Lang.
  • Bouso, Tamara and Pablo Ruano San Segundo. 2021a. “Another Turn of the Screw on the History of the Reaction Object Construction”. Functions of Language 28 (2): 208-231. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.20026.bou
  • Bouso, Tamara and Pablo Ruano San Segundo. 2021b. “The British Sentimental Novel Corpus (BSNC) and the ROC-DDC Alternation at the Level of the Individual”. Nordic Journal of English Studies 20 (1): 215-257. DOI: https://doi.org/10.35360/njes.659
  • Boyd, Jeremy K. and Adele E. Goldberg. 2011. “Learning What Not to Say: The Role of Statistical Preemption and Categorization in A-adjective Production”. Language 1 (87): 55-83. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2011.0012
  • Davies, Mark. 2008. “The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA)”. . Accessed May 28, 2021.
  • Davies, Mark. 2010. “The Corpus of Historical American English (COHA)”. . Accessed May 28, 2021.
  • De Smet, Hendrik, Frauke D’hoedt, Lauren Fonteyn and Kristel Van Goethem. 2018. “The Changing Functions of Competing Forms: Attraction and Differentiation”. Cognitive Linguistics 29 (2) 197-234. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2016-0025
  • De Smet, Hendrik, Lobke Ghesquière and Freek Van de Velde. (eds.) 2013. On Multiple Source Constructions in Language Change. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • do Rosário, Ivo da Costa. 2019. “Interview with Graeme Trousdale / Entrevista com Graeme Trousdale”. Soletras 37 (19): 10-19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12957/soletras.2019.36451
  • Felser, Claudia and Anja Wanner. 2001. “The Syntax of Cognate and Other Unselected Objects”. In Dehé, Nicole and Anja Wanner (eds.) Structural Aspects of Semantically Complex Verbs. Bern: Peter Lang: 105-130.
  • Goldberg, Adele E. 1995. Constructions: A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Goldberg, Adele E. 2006. Constructions at Work: The Nature of Generalization in Language. Oxford: Oxford U.P.
  • Goldberg, Adele E. 2019. Explain me This: Creativity, Competition, and the Partial Productivity of Constructions. Princeton: Princeton U.P.
  • Gries, Stefan Th. 2014. “Coll.analysis 3.5. A Script for R to Compute Perform Collostructional Analyses”. . Accessed May 28, 2021.
  • Gries, Stefan Th. and Anatol Stefanowitsch. 2004. “Extending Collostructional Analysis: A Corpus-based Perspective on Alternations”. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 1 (9): 97-129. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.9.1.06gri
  • Hilpert, Martin. 2006. “Distinctive Collexeme Analysis and Diachrony”. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory 2 (2): 243-256. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/CLLT.2006.012
  • Hilpert, Martin. 2014. “Collostructional Analysis: Measuring Associations between Constructions and Lexical Elements”. In Glynn, Dylan and Justyna A. Robinson (eds.) Corpus Methods for Semantics: Quantitative Studies in Polysemy and Synonymy. Amsterdam: John Benjamins: 391-404. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.43.15hil
  • Hilpert, Martin. 2018. “Three Open Questions in Diachronic Construction Grammar”. In Coussé, Evie and Joel Olofsson (eds.) Grammaticalization Meets Construction Grammar. Amsterdam: John Benjamins: 21-39. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.21.c2
  • Hilpert, Martin. (2014) 2019. Construction Grammar and its Application to English. Edinburgh: Edinburgh U.P.
  • Hilpert, Martin. 2021. “Variable Adverb Placement in the English Passive: It has to be Analyzed Carefully / Carefully Analysed”. VI Setmana del Postgrau, Palma de Mallorca (online), Universitat de les Illes Balears, April 23.
  • Hilpert, Martin and Holger Diessel. 2017. “Entrenchment in Construction Grammar”. In Schmid, Hans-Jörg (ed.) Entrenchment and the Psychology of Language Learning: How We Reorganize and Adapt Linguistic Knowledge. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton: 57-74. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/15969-004
  • Hilpert, Martin and Susanne Flach. 2022. “A Case of Constructional Contamination in English: Modified Noun Phrases Influence Adverb Placement in the Passive”. In Grygiel, Marcin (ed.) Contrast and Analogy in Language: Perspectives from Cognitive Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins: 1-24.
  • Kogusuri, Tetsuya. 2009. “The Syntax and Semantics of Reaction Object Constructions in English”. Tsukuba English Studies 28: 33-53.
  • Langacker, Ronald W. 1987. Foundations of Cognitive Grammar: Theoretical Prerequisites. Stanford: Stanford U.P.
  • Levin, Beth. 1993. English Verb Classes and Alternations: A Preliminary Investigation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Luiz Wiedemer, Marcos, Marcia Machado Vieira and Maria Maura Cezario. 2019. “A Discussion on the Relationship between Variation and Change in Construction Grammar: Interview with Martin Hilpert”. Diadorim 21 (2): 30-43. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12957/cadsem.2018.36724
  • Martínez-Vázquez, Montserrat. 2010. “Reaction Object Constructions in English: A Corpus-based Study”. In Moskowich, Isabel, Begoña Crespo-García and Inés Lareo (eds.) Language Windowing through Corpora. A Coruña: SP da Universidade de A Coruña: 551-556.
  • Martínez-Vázquez, Montserrat. 2014. “Reaction Object Constructions in English and Spanish”. ES. Revista de Filología Inglesa 3: 193-217.
  • Martínez-Vázquez, Montserrat. 2015. “Nominalized Expressive Acts in English”. Verbum 37 (1): 147-170.
  • Martínez-Vázquez, Montserrat. 2016. “La construcción llorar las penas: Un nuevo caso de tipología germánica en una lengua romance”. Verba. Anuario Galego de Filoloxía 43: 107-128. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15304/verba.43.2051
  • Martínez-Vázquez, Montserrat. 2020. “Trump tuiteó su malestar: English Argument Structure Borrowing in Spanish”. Revista Electrónica de Lingüística Aplicada 19 (2): 126-144.
  • Mirto, Ignazio Mauro. 2007. “Dream a Little Dream of Me: Cognate Predicates in English”. 26th International Conference on Lexis and Grammar, Bonifacio, France, October 2-6. . Accessed May 28, 2021.
  • Mondorf, Britta. 2016. “Snake Legs It to Freedom: Dummy It as Pseudo-object”. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory 1 (12): 73-102. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/cllt-2015-0071
  • Mondorf, Britta and Ulrike Schneider. 2016. “Detransitivisation as a Support Strategy for Causative Bring”. English Language and Linguistics 3 (20): 439-462. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674316000290
  • Perek, Florent. 2020. “Productivity and Schematicity in Constructional Change”. In Sommerer, Lotte and Elena Smirnova (eds.) Nodes and Networks in Diachronic Construction Grammar. Amsterdam: John Benjamins: 142-166. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.27.04per
  • Pijpops, Dirk, Isabeau De Smet and Freek Van de Velde. 2018. “Constructional Contamination in Morphology and Syntax: Four Case Studies”. Constructions and Frames 2 (10): 269-305. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/cf.00021.pij
  • Pijpops, Dirk, Isabeau De Smet and Freek Van de Velde. 2021. “Attraction through Formal Resemblance. Five Case Studies on Constructional Contamination”. 5th Usage-based Linguistic Conference, Tel Aviv (online), Israel, July 5-7. . Accessed September 28, 2021.
  • Pijpops, Dirk and Freek Van de Velde. 2016. “Constructional Contamination: How Does it Work and how do we Measure it?” Folia Linguistica 2 (50): 543-581. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/cf.00021.pij
  • Ross, John Robert. 1970. “On Declarative Sentences”. In Jacobs, Roderick A. and Peter S. Rosenbaum (eds.) Readings in English Transformational Grammar. Waltham, MA: Ginn and Company: 222-277.
  • Rowland, Ann. 2008. “Sentimental Fiction”. In Maxwell, Richard and Katie Trumpener (eds.) The Cambridge Companion to Fiction in the Romantic Period. Cambridge: Cambridge U.P.: 191-206. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL9780521862523.012
  • Ruano San Segundo, Pablo and Tamara Bouso. 2019. British Sentimental Novel Corpus (BSNC). Cáceres: Departamento de Filología Inglesa, Universidad de Extremadura.
  • Sommerer, Lotte and Elena Smirnova. (eds.) 2020. Nodes and Networks in Diachronic Construction Grammar. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.27
  • Torrent, Tiago Timponi. 2015. “On the Relation between Inheritance and Change: The Constructional Convergence and the Construction Network Reconfiguration Hypotheses”. In Barðdal, Jòhanna, Elena Smirnova, Lotte Sommerer and Spike Gildea (eds.) Diachronic Construction Grammar. Amsterdam: John Benjamins: 173-212. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.18.06tor
  • Traugott, Elizabeth C. 2018. “Modeling Language Change with Constructional Networks”. In Pons Bordería, Salvador and Óscar Loureda Lamas (eds.) Beyond Grammaticalization and Discourse Makers. Leiden: E.J. Brill: 17-50.
  • Traugott, Elizabeth C. and Graeme Trousdale. 2013. Constructionalization and Constructional Changes. Oxford: Oxford U.P. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199679898.001.0001
  • Van de Velde, Freek. 2014. “Degeneracy: The Maintenance of Constructional Networks”. In Boogaart, Ronny, Timothy Colleman and Gijsbert Rutten (eds.) Extending the Scope of Construction Grammar. Berlin: De Gruyter: 141-180. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110366273.141
  • Visser, Frederikus T. 1963-1973. An Historical Syntax of the English Language. Volume I: Syntactical Units with One Verb. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
  • Zwicky, Arnold M. 1971. “In a Manner of Speaking”. Linguistic Inquiry 2 (2): 223-233.
Fonte de datos: Dialnet