GIVE frames and constructions in French

This paper presents a corpus-based study of the French verb donner ‘give’. Even though the central meaning of the verb relies on a three-place predicate profiling, a concrete GIVING frame with an agent, an object and a recipient, the frequencies in our different corpora show that it is not the most frequent usage. We follow construction grammar in regarding grammatical constructions and idioms as having equal status. This paper considers the French verb from a construction grammar and frame semantics perspective (Fillmore, 1982, 1985). The particular case of [X donner (Y) à + infinitive (‘X give (Y) to be V-ed’)] is analyzed: donner à connaître ‘give to know’, donner à manger ‘feed’, donner sa voiture à réparer ‘give one’s car to repair’, donner du grain à moudre ‘give material for conversation’, donner du fil à retordre ‘give a hard time’.

Published online: 19 December 2012
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.13.06bou