E-Book Overview
at up the apple or Eat the apple up ? Is there any difference in the messages each of these alternative forms sends? If there isn’t, why bother to keep both? On the other hand, is there any semantic similarity between eat the apple up and break the glass to pieces? This study takes a fresh look at a still controversial issue of phrasal verbs and their alternate word order applying sign-oriented theory and methodology. Unlike other analyses, it asserts that there is a semantic distinction between the two word order variants phrasal verbs may appear in. In order to test this distinction, the author analyzes a large corpus of data and also uses translation into a language having a clear morphological distinction between resultative/non-resultative forms (Russian). As follows from the analysis, English has morphological and syntactic tools to express resultative meaning, which allows suggesting a new lexico-grammatical category — resultativeness.
E-Book Content
Phrasal Constructions and Resultativeness in English
Studies in Functional and Structural Linguistics (SFSL) Taking the broadest and most general definitions of the terms functional and structural, this series aims to present linguistic and interdisciplinary research that relates language structure — at any level of analysis from phonology to discourse — to broader functional considerations, whether cognitive, communicative, pragmatic or sociocultural. Preference will be given to studies that focus on data from actual discourse, whether speech, writing or other nonvocal medium. The series was formerly known as Linguistic & Literary Studies in Eastern Europe (LLSEE).
Founding Editor John Odmark Honorary Editors Eva Hajicˇová
Petr Sgall
Charles University
Charles University
General Editors Yishai Tobin
Ellen Contini-Morava
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
University of Virginia
Editorial Board Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
Jim Miller
La Trobe University
University of Auckland
Joan Bybee
Marianne Mithun
University of New Mexico
University of California, at Santa Barbara
Nicholas Evans
Lawrence J. Raphael
University of Melbourne
Emeritus CUNY
Victor A. Friedman
Olga Mišeska Tomic´
University of Chicago
Leiden University
Anatoly Liberman
Olga T. Yokoyama
University of Minnesota
UCLA
James A. Matisoff University of California, Berkeley
Volume 52 Phrasal Constructions and Resultativeness in English: A sign-oriented analysis by Marina Gorlach
Phrasal Constructions and Resultativeness in English A sign-oriented analysis
Marina Gorlach Metropolitan State College of Denver
John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam/Philadelphia
8
TM
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gorlach, Marina. Phrasal constructions and resultativeness in English : a sign-oriented analysis / Marina Gorlach. p. cm. (Studies in Functional and Structural Linguistics, issn 0165–7712 ; v. 52) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. English language--Verb phrase. 2. English language--Resultative constructions. 3. Semiotics. I. Title. II. Series. PE1319.G63 2004 425’.6-dc22 isbn 90 272 1561 8 (Eur.) / 1 58811 597 6 (US) (Hb; alk. paper)
2004059572
© 2004 – John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O