Collocational and Idiomatic Aspects of Composite Predicates in the History of English

Editors

Laurel J. Brinton | University of British Columbia

Minoji Akimoto | Aoyama Gakuin University

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027230508 (Eur) | EUR 110.00

ISBN 9781556199332 (USA) | USD 165.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027298751 | EUR 110.00 | USD 165.00

The focus of this carefully selected volume concerns the existence, frequency, and form of composite/complex predicates (the “take a look” construction) in earlier periods of the English language, an area of scholarship which has been virtually neglected. The various contributions seek to understand the collocational and idiomatic aspects of these structures, as well as of related structures such as complex prepositions (e.g., “on account of”) and phrasal verbs (e.g., “look up”), in their earliest manifestations. Moreover, study of these constructions at the individual stages of English leads to diachronic questions concerning their development, raising issues pertaining to grammaticalization, lexicalization, and idiomaticization-processes which are not always clearly differentiated nor fully understood.

[Studies in Language Companion Series, 47] 1999. xiv, 283 pp.

Publishing status: Available
Published online on 21 October 2008

https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.47

Table of Contents

Table of Contents | p. v

List of Tables | p. xi

Preface | p. xiii

Chapter 1: Introduction

Laurel J. Brinton and Minoji Akimoto | p. 1

1.1 Introduction
1.2 Description of the structures studied in this volume
1.3 Definition of “idiom” and “collocation”
1.4 Problems in the diachronic development of the structures
1.5 Conclusion
Notes

Chapter 2: The Origin of the Composite Predicate in Old English

Minoji Akimoto and Laurel J. Brinton | p. 21

2.1 Introduction
2.2 A note on previous studies
2.3 Problems for the study of composite predicates in Old English
2.4 Rivalry of verbs and the classification of collocations
2.5 Collocations of (ge)don and (ge)macian
2.6 Collocations of sellan and giefan
2.7 Collocations of (ge)niman and tacan
2.8 Collocations of habban
2.9 Discussion
2.10 Conclusion
Notes
Texts

Chapter 3: Composite Predicates in Middle English

Meiko Matsumoto | p. 59

3.1 Introduction
3.2 Definition of a CP
3.3 Form of the CP in ME
3.4 Verbs taking the same agentive object
3.5 CPs and corresponding simple verbs
3.6 Modification of CPs
3.7 Passivization
3.8 Figurative meaning
3.9 Conclusion
Notes
Texts

Chapter 4: Composite Predicates and Phrasal Verbs in The Paston Letters

Harumi Tanabe | p. 97

4.1 Introduction
4.2 Composite predicates in The Paston Letters
4.3 Composite predicates versus simple verbs
4.4 Idiomatization
4.5 Phrasal verbs in The Paston Letters
4.6 Conclusion
Notes
Texts

Chapter 5: Verbal Phrases and Phrasal Verbs in Early Modern English

Risto Hiltunen | p. 133

5.1 Introduction
5.2 Data and sampling method
5.3 Verbal phrases
5.4 Phrasal verbs
5.5 Conclusion
Appendix: The Corpus
Notes

Chapter 6: Collocational and Idiomatic Aspects of Verbs in Early Modern English

Merja Kytö | p. 167

6.1 Aims and approach
6.2 The properties and development of the verb + deverbal noun constructions
6.3 The selectional criteria adopted
6.4 The data: an overall view of the types and tokens
6.5 Isomorphic and non-isomorphic forms
6.6 Extralinguistic patterning
6.7 Collocational and idiomatic characteristics of the uses
6.8 Simple verb vs. verb + noun construction: USE vs. MAKE/HAVE USE and CARE vs. TAKE/HAVE CARE
6.9 Conclusion
Appendix: The verb + noun constructions excerpted from the Early Modern English section of the Helsinki Corpus included in this study
Notes

Chapter 7: Collocations and Idioms in Late Modern English

Minoji Akimoto | p. 207

7.1 Introduction
7.2 Verbo-nominal structures
7.3 Preposition + NP + prepositional phrases
7.4 Phrasal verbs
7.5 How does idiomatization take place?
7.6 Concluding remarks
Notes
Texts

Chapter 8: A Historical Overview of Complex Predicate Types

Elizabeth Closs Traugott | p. 239

8.1 Introduction
8.2 Stability in the structure of complex predicates
8.3 Changes in the set of strings defined as complex predicates
8.4 Changes in degree of compositionality
8.5 Complex predicates, lexicalization, and idiomatization
8.6 Summary
Notes

Subject Index | p. 275

Name Index | p. 281

List of Tables

Table 2.1: Composite predicates with simplex counterparts in Old English | p. 44

Table 4.1: Frequencies of composite predicates in The Paston Letters | p. 101

Table 4.2: Frequencies of composite predicates by decades | p. 101

Table 4.3: Nominal modifiers of composite predicates | p. 114

Table 4.4: Nouns with zero-article or a/an | p. 117

Table 4.5: Verbal substitution in composite predicates | p. 121

Table 4.6: Prepositions occurring with composite predicates | p. 122

Table 4.7: Frequency of phrasal verbs according to particles | p. 123

Table 5.1: The distribution of the patterns according to types | p. 144

Table 5.2: The distribution of the patterns according to tokens | p. 145

Table 5.3: Verbal phrases containing suffixed and etymologically related nouns | p. 145

Table 5.4: Verbal phrases in EModE poetic texts | p. 154

Table 5.5: Verbal phrases in EModE prose texts | p. 156

Table 5.6: Verbal phrases in Shakespeare's comedies and tragedies | p. 157

Table 6.1: Types, tokens, and type/token ratios | p. 171

Table 6.2: The occurrence of types | p. 172

Table 6.3: The occurrence of tokens | p. 173

Table 6.4a: Isomorphic and non-isomorphic forms: types | p. 174

Table 6.4b: Isomorphic and non-isomorphic forms: tokens | p. 174

Table 6.5: The occurrence of tokens per each subperiod | p. 175

Table 6.6: The distribution of occurrences across text types | p. 176

Table 6.7: Singular vs. plural nouns | p. 180

Table 6.8: Pre- and postmodification in the constructions studied | p. 183

Table 6.9a: The use of a deverbal noun with more than one verb in the data | p. 194

Table 6.9b: The use of a deverbal noun with three or four verbs | p. 197

“This carefully and attractively produced volume promises to be a valuable resource to scholars with a particular interest in the growth and enrichment of the English language through complex verb development.

”

Karen Steffen Chung in Language78:1, 2002

“This collection contributes usefully to teaching as well as scholarship.

”

Carol, Percy in Journal of the Humanities 70:1

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