Chapter published in:
Late Modern English: Novel encounters
Edited by Merja Kytö and Erik Smitterberg
[Studies in Language Companion Series 214] 2020
► pp. 144–163

A diachronic constructional analysis of locative alternation in English, with particular attention to load and spray

| Nanzan University
This paper is devoted to explaining the historical development of constructions of the representative locative alternation verbs load and spray from a diachronic construction grammar perspective. These verbs can occur in at least two syntactic frames: the location-as-object variant (e.g., load the wagon with hay) and the locatum-as-object variant (e.g., load hay onto the wagon). These two variants have undergone different historical developments. This paper proposes that the prototype of the constructions with load/spray was the adjectival “[location] (be) loaded/sprayed with [locatum]” construction, from which the location-as-object variant developed. The locatum-as-object variants for load and spray, in contrast, developed in the Present-day English period, independently of the location-as-object variants or, at most, the two variants are linked metonymically.
Published online: 18 March 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.214.06ish
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