TY - GEN
T1 - This construction is too hot to handle
T2 - A corpus study of an adjectival construction
AU - Jensen, Kim Ebensgaard
PY - 2014/9
Y1 - 2014/9
N2 - This paper presents a synchronic study of an adjectival construction. More specifically, it discusses the [too ADJ to V]-construction (e.g. Tommy was too full to walk), which expresses a causal relation in which the ADJ-element, drawing on the adjectival property of scalarity, specifies a degree of ADJ-ness that prevents the proposition expressed by the V-element from happening. Drawing on data from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and descriptive techniques from corpus linguistics, the paper, investigating the role of the ADJ-element and relations it enters into, seeks to provide an overview of the symbolic and usage-based features of the construction. The study suggests that there are subconstructions at play in addition to the central prevention-expressing one. There are even cases, where [too ADJ to V] expresses a relation of enablement rather than prevention between the ADJ- and the V-elements, which suggests another subconstructional division.
AB - This paper presents a synchronic study of an adjectival construction. More specifically, it discusses the [too ADJ to V]-construction (e.g. Tommy was too full to walk), which expresses a causal relation in which the ADJ-element, drawing on the adjectival property of scalarity, specifies a degree of ADJ-ness that prevents the proposition expressed by the V-element from happening. Drawing on data from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and descriptive techniques from corpus linguistics, the paper, investigating the role of the ADJ-element and relations it enters into, seeks to provide an overview of the symbolic and usage-based features of the construction. The study suggests that there are subconstructions at play in addition to the central prevention-expressing one. There are even cases, where [too ADJ to V] expresses a relation of enablement rather than prevention between the ADJ- and the V-elements, which suggests another subconstructional division.
KW - Faculty of Humanities
KW - cognitive linguistics
KW - construction grammar
KW - corpus linguistics
KW - force dynamics
KW - adjectives
KW - adjectival constructions
KW - scalar adjectival constructions
KW - scalar semantics
KW - Corpus of Contemporary American English
KW - collostructional analysis
KW - covarying collexemes
KW - distinctive collexemes
KW - American English
M3 - Article in proceedings
SP - 740
EP - 748
BT - Proceedings of the 14th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Cognitive Linguistics Association
A2 - null, Japanese Cognitive Linguistics Association
PB - Japanese Cognitive Linguistics Association
CY - Kyoto
ER -