English [V NP into V-ing] Construction: A Resultative Analysis

doi:10.18627/jslg.36.4.202102.565

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2021 Vol.36, Issue 4 Preview Page

Research Article

English [V NP into V-ing] Construction: A Resultative Analysis: Yook, Cheongmin and Kim, Yanghee

28 February 2021. pp. 565-576

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine English [V NP into V-ing] constructions. This construction shares quite a few properties with causative sentences. For example, both are to express transitivity relationship such as [cause X to do Y] between the participants. However, corpus data suggest that this transitivity relationship may not be established in some cases (e.g., idiomatic expressions) simply because there is no X to be posited. As an alternative analysis, this paper proposes a resultative construction analysis. In this analysis, the participant X in the form of [cause X to do Y] does not pose any problem because what is important in this analysis is the end-point result. All cases of [V NP into V-ing] investigated in this paper fall out under the presented analysis.

Keywords

corpus

[into V-ing] construction

resultative analysis

resultative construction

causative construction

References

Carrier, J. and J. Randall. 1992. The Argument Structure and Syntactic Structure of Resultatives. Linguistic Inquiry 23.2, 173-234.
Davies, M. 2013. Recent Shifts with Three Nonfinite Verbal Complements in English: Data from the 100 million word TIME Corpus (1920s-2000s). In B. Aarts, J. Close, G. Leech, and S. Wallis (eds.), The Verbal Phrase in English, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 46-67. 10.1017/CBO9781139060998.004 23376506
Francis, G., H. Susan, and M. Elizabeth (eds). 1996. Collins Cobuild Grammar Patterns 1: Verbs. London: HarperCollins.
Goldberg, A. 1995. Constructions: A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Goldberg, A. 1997. Making One’s Way Through the Data. In M. Shibatani and S. Thompson (eds.), Grammatical Constructions: Their Form and Meaning. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 29-53.
Goldberg, A. 2006. Constructions at Work: Constructionist Approaches in Context. New York: Oxford University Press.
Goldberg, A. and R. Jackendoff. 2004. The English Resultative As a Family of Constructions. Language 80, 532-68. 10.1353/lan.2004.0129
Hunston, S. and G. Francis. 2000. Pattern Grammar: A Corpus-driven Approach to the Lexical Grammar of English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/scl.4
Israel, M. 1996. The Way Constructions Grow. In A. Goldberg (ed.), Conceptual Structure, Discourse, and Language. Stanford: CSLI, 217-230.
Kim, J. and M. Davies. 2015. The “into causative” Construction in English: A Construction-based Perspective. English Language & Linguistics 20.1, 55-83. 10.1017/S1360674315000271
Rudanko, J. 2005. Lexico-grammatical Innovation in Current British and American English: A Case Study on the Transitive into -ing pattern with Evidence from the Bank of English Corpus. Studia Neophilologica 77, 171-87. 10.1080/00393270500384791
Rudanko, J. 2006. Emergent Alternation in Complement Selection: The Spread of the Transitive into -ing Construction in British and American English. English Linguistics 34.4, 312-331. 10.1177/0075424206293600
Rudanko, J. 2012. On the Profiles of to infinitives and to -ing complements at a Time of Grammatical Variation, with Evidence from Current American English. Selected Papers from UK-CLA Meetings, 262-276.

Information

Publisher :The Modern Linguistic Society of Korea
Publisher(Ko) :한국현대언어학회
Journal Title :The Journal of Studies in Language
Journal Title(Ko) :언어연구
Volume : 36
No :4
Pages :565-576
DOI :https://doi.org/10.18627/jslg.36.4.202102.565

[1] Carrier, J. and J. Randall. 1992. The Argument Structure and Syntactic Structure of Resultatives. Linguistic Inquiry 23.2, 173-234.

[2] Davies, M. 2013. Recent Shifts with Three Nonfinite Verbal Complements in English: Data from the 100 million word TIME Corpus (1920s-2000s). In B. Aarts, J. Close, G. Leech, and S. Wallis (eds.), The Verbal Phrase in English, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 46-67. 10.1017/CBO9781139060998.004 23376506

[3] Francis, G., H. Susan, and M. Elizabeth (eds). 1996. Collins Cobuild Grammar Patterns 1: Verbs. London: HarperCollins.

[4] Goldberg, A. 1995. Constructions: A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

[5] Goldberg, A. 1997. Making One’s Way Through the Data. In M. Shibatani and S. Thompson (eds.), Grammatical Constructions: Their Form and Meaning. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 29-53.

[6] Goldberg, A. 2006. Constructions at Work: Constructionist Approaches in Context. New York: Oxford University Press.

[7] Goldberg, A. and R. Jackendoff. 2004. The English Resultative As a Family of Constructions. Language 80, 532-68. 10.1353/lan.2004.0129

[8] Hunston, S. and G. Francis. 2000. Pattern Grammar: A Corpus-driven Approach to the Lexical Grammar of English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/scl.4

[9] Israel, M. 1996. The Way Constructions Grow. In A. Goldberg (ed.), Conceptual Structure, Discourse, and Language. Stanford: CSLI, 217-230.

[10] Kim, J. and M. Davies. 2015. The “into causative” Construction in English: A Construction-based Perspective. English Language & Linguistics 20.1, 55-83. 10.1017/S1360674315000271

[11] Rudanko, J. 2005. Lexico-grammatical Innovation in Current British and American English: A Case Study on the Transitive into -ing pattern with Evidence from the Bank of English Corpus. Studia Neophilologica 77, 171-87. 10.1080/00393270500384791

[12] Rudanko, J. 2006. Emergent Alternation in Complement Selection: The Spread of the Transitive into -ing Construction in British and American English. English Linguistics 34.4, 312-331. 10.1177/0075424206293600

[13] Rudanko, J. 2012. On the Profiles of to infinitives and to -ing complements at a Time of Grammatical Variation, with Evidence from Current American English. Selected Papers from UK-CLA Meetings, 262-276.

The Journal of Studies in Language ISSN:1225-4770(Print) 2671-6151(Online) 언어연구

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