The schematisation process of English light verbs Cover Image

Proces shematizacije engleskih laganih glagola
The schematisation process of English light verbs

Author(s): Tanja Gradečak
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Filozofski fakultet, Sveučilište Josipa Jurja Strossmayera, Osijek
Keywords: schematisation; light verbs; verbo-nominal constructions; network model; constructional schema

Summary/Abstract: The paper presents a corpus-cognitive study of basic elements in the schematisation process of the so called light verbs in the analytic verbo-nominal constructions in the contemporary English language. The historical overview offers a diachronic motivation for the initial sche-matisation processes of the verbs have, give, take and make and reveals an early recognition of their productive potential based on the simultaneous processes of (super)schematisation and metaphoric elaboration. Network models (cf. Langacker 1991) of the verbs are presented in order to elaborate on the complex interface facilitating a constructional schema which is at the same time highly productive and very frequent in the corpus of the English language.

  • Issue Year: X/2009
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 95-131
  • Page Count: 37
  • Language: Croatian