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The Functional Perspective on Language and Discourse: Applications and implications
Edited by María de los Ángeles Gómez González, Francisco José Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, Francisco Gonzálvez-García and Angela Downing
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 247] 2014
► pp. 133–148

A lexico-paradigmatic approach to English setting-constructions

| University of Cordoba, Spain

In this paper I will explore the relationship between constructional and verbal semantics in a two-participant construction exemplified by expressions like I broke my arm (when I fell) (Talmy 2000, 518), where the Subject is described as a mere circumstantial setting for the process (Davidse 1992, 128). Drawing on corpus data with change-of-state verbs, I will illustrate the syntactic contexts where this construction occurs in English, analysing how the particular uses of these verbs interact with the semantico-pragmatic value of the construction. Along the lines of Lemmens (2006), and building on previous work of mine (Guerrero Medina 2010), I will adopt a lexico-paradigmatic view and argue that the paradigmatic behaviour of a verb is actually determined by the entire construction.

Published online: 16 May 2014
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https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.247.07gue
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