Constructional networks and the development of benefactive ditransitives in English

Eva Zehentner | University of York

Elizabeth Closs Traugott | Stanford University

In this paper, we address the question of how to model syntactic alternations in Diachronic Construction Grammar terms. We argue that positing horizontal links between constructions in addition to vertical ones is particularly beneficial in accounting for change. Our case study is the emergence of the English “benefactive alternation”, with focus on its relation to the more pervasive and more thoroughly studied “dative alternation”. Based on a quantitative investigation of ditransitive benefactive verbs in Early English Books Online (EEBO), we locate the emergence of the benefactive alternation in Early Modern English later than the dative alternation, which arose in Middle English. We conclude that the benefactive alternation can be modelled as complex networks featuring both horizontal and vertical links on various levels of schematicity.

Keywords: ditransitives, benefactives, syntactic alternations, constructional networks, allostructions, horizontal links, Early Modern English

Published online: 13 May 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.27.05zeh

Cited by

Cited by 4 other publications

Pijpops, Dirk

2021. What is an alternation?. Belgian Journal of Linguistics 34

Traugott, Elizabeth Closs

2020. The intertwining of differentiation and attraction as exemplified by the history of recipient transfer and benefactive alternations. Cognitive Linguistics 31:4 ► pp. 549 ff.

Zehentner, Eva

2021. Alternations emerge and disappear: the network of dispossession constructions in the history of English. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory 0:0

Zehentner, Eva

2021. Cognitive reality of constructions as a theoretical and methodological challenge in historical linguistics. Belgian Journal of Linguistics 34

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