Way expressions

The objective of this book is to provide a more accurate conceptualization of way expressions (e.g. He fought his way through the crowd) by addressing a number of problems that have faced previous analyses. It is shown that way expressions are to be analyzed as consisting of the complex verb [V one’s way] and an argument structure construction, rather than as a phrasal construction. It is also shown that there are five types of way expressions, of which the prototypical ‘Enabling’ type can be revealingly analyzed in terms of force dynamics. Contrary to the accepted wisdom, therefore, way expressions are far from a monolithic phenomenon, and they are far more analyzable than might appear at first sight. This book is of interest not only to practitioners of Construction Grammar but also to everyone interested in lexical semantics.