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Abstract

Abstract

This paper explores the growth of the Reaction Object Construction (ROC) as in , offering new insights into its characterisation and historical development from the perspective of Construction Grammar (Goldberg 199520062019) and its application to patterns of language change (Hilpert 2013Traugott & Trousdale 2013). It is argued that the modern ROC qualifies as a traditional form-meaning pairing and, at a deeper level, as a polysemous construction that follows the path of development of other transitivising constructions such as the construction (Israel 1996), and of processes of constructionalisation in general. Once the ROC imposes a coreferential constraint on its object argument, acquiring in this way its status as a form-meaning pairing over the Early Modern English period (1500–1700), the construction increases its productivity and schematicity; at the same time it decreases its compositionality since the link between the form/syntax and the overall meaning of the construction becomes less transparent, as in . The ROC can thus be argued to be part and result of a broader development in the grammar of English, namely the historical trend towards transitivisation.

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2020-10-30
2024-10-03

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The growth of the transitivising Reaction Object Construction
Constructions and Frames 12, 239 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1075/cf.00041.bou
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): constructionalisation; history of English; polysemous construction; Reaction Object Construction; transitivising construction

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