Spanish and typologically related languages are characterized by absence of unaccusativization (L... more Spanish and typologically related languages are characterized by absence of unaccusativization (Levin & Rappaport Hovav 1995). According to Horrocks & Stavrou (2007), the verb-inflected grammatical aspect explains the absence of unaccusativization. Against this view, the article argues that the phenomenon relates to the typologically privileged role of the Spanish verb lexeme. From a usage-based point of view, absence of unaccusativization is understood as an undeveloped possibility of schematization. Spanish constructions are verb-framed and constructional (schematic) patterns only have a secondary role elaborating on the verb-framed core meaning (Pedersen 2019). Grammatical aspect, it is argued, likewise plays a secondary role making the verbal contribution congruent with the intended aspectual meaning.
The article examines transitive prefix constructions in Danish. It argues that the prefixes be-/f... more The article examines transitive prefix constructions in Danish. It argues that the prefixes be-/for-are markers of a productive lexemeindependent argument structure construction that can also be found in other Germanic languages. In contrast, comparable Spanish affixations are not lexeme-independent transitive markers, and they are only productive as morphological constructions of verbal derivation. The article hypothesizes that in sentence structure, the role of productive schematic patterns (generalized from usage) and verbal (lexical) information, respectively, are language type specific.
In comparison to English, Spanish constructions of argument structure are highly verb-constrained... more In comparison to English, Spanish constructions of argument structure are highly verb-constrained (e.g., Goldberg, Adele E. 2006. Constructions at work: The nature of generalization in language. Oxford: Oxford University Press; Narasimhan, Bhuvana. 2003. Motion events and the lexicon: A case study of Hindi. Lingua 113(2). 123–160): Pedro bajó/*bailó a la playa ‘Pedro went down/danced to the beach’. In some cases, the dominant role of the verbal meaning combines with a mismatching construction (e.g., an intransitive verb in a transitive construction: Pedro bajó las escaleras ‘Pedro went down the stairs’). To account for this evidence from a usage-based point of view, this study examines the Spanish transitive directed-motion construction combining verb lexeme analysis with collexeme corpus analysis (Stefanowitsch, Anatol & Stefan Th. Gries. 2003. Collostructions: Investigating the interaction beween words and constructions. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 8(2). 209–243). ...
* I would like to thank the editors of this volume and two anonymous referees for their valuable ... more * I would like to thank the editors of this volume and two anonymous referees for their valuable criticism and suggestions. 1 Romance languages tend to map the MI onto the verb, while the SI may be mapped onto a complex schematic construction. The paper hypothesizes that MIC and SIC stem from generalizations from usage, that they have their own, procedural role in grammar, as a device for organizing the information, and that the typology is anchored in this task. The interpretation of Talmy's descriptive typology is in this perspective that some pairs of MIC/SIC are more entrenched in the grammar of some languages than in others. The proposed framework is well suited for analyzing usage data that does not fit the basic patterns. It is also adequate for identifying patterns in data that are similar to those recognized in Talmy's work, yet not recognized as part of his typology.
According to the new edition of the Spanish Academy Grammar (Bosque 2010), it remains unexplained... more According to the new edition of the Spanish Academy Grammar (Bosque 2010), it remains unexplained why the clitic object in the Spanish impersonal transitive se-construction tends to be in dative (le): se le ve 'you can see him'. The aim of this paper is to analyze this usage quantitatively, with focus on its constructional motivation. To achieve solid empirical evidence, I extracted large amounts of data from Corpus del Español (20.4 mill. words) and analyzed the data statistically. I found that the constructional motivation for the dative is substantial and that it is due to characteristics of the specific impersonal se-construction.
In this article Talmys influential typology of macro-events (Talmy 1985, 1987, 1991, 2000) is dis... more In this article Talmys influential typology of macro-events (Talmy 1985, 1987, 1991, 2000) is discussed from the point of view of construction grammar (Goldberg 1995, 2006). Talmy has described typological differences of lexicalization between what he calls satellite-framed languages and verb-framed languages. The discussion originates in a contrastive analysis of a short story by H.C. Andersen available in six parallel versions: the original Danish version, an English, a German, a Spanish, an Italian and a French version. The article argues that the generalized version of the typology (Talmy 1991, 2000) suffers from being formulated exclusively in terms of lexicalization patterns, and that the typology should include both the lexical level and a schematic constructional level of analysis. A framework is proposed in which the typological patterns are interpreted as an information structure phenomenon. Constructions of the main information (MIC) and the supportive information (SIC), of varying degree of specificity, are the basic constituents of the typology. From this point of view, Germanic languages tend to map the main information (MI) onto a complex schematic construction and the supportive information (SI) onto a lexical (verbal) construction. Romance languages tend to map the MI onto the verb, while the SI may be mapped onto a complex schematic construction. The article hypothesizes that MIC and SIC stem from generalizations from usage, that they have their own, procedural role in grammar, as a device for organizing the information, and that the typology is anchored in this task. The interpretation of Talmys descriptive typology is in this perspective that some pairs of MIC/SIC are more entrenched in the grammar of some languages than in others. The proposed framework is well suited for analyzing usage data that does not fit the basic patterns. It is also adequate for identifying patterns in data that are similar to those recognized in Talmys work, yet not recognized as part of his typology.
Tidsskrift for Universiteternes Efter- og Videreuddannelse (UNEV), 2006
Vores baggrund er altså på den ene side sprogteknologisk og på den anden side sproglig og paedago... more Vores baggrund er altså på den ene side sprogteknologisk og på den anden side sproglig og paedagogisk. Vi har fundet sammen i et udfordrende samarbejde.
Page 213. Reflexive intensification in Spanish Toward a complex reflexive?* Johan Pedersen Univer... more Page 213. Reflexive intensification in Spanish Toward a complex reflexive?* Johan Pedersen University of Copenhagen i. Introduction This study aims to analyze the Spanish reflexive/intensifier distinction in a diachronic-typological perspective. ...
In typological studies of expressions of motion events, there is a need for a quantitative method... more In typological studies of expressions of motion events, there is a need for a quantitative methodology that assesses and qualifies inter-and intra-linguistic variation. The article reports from a large corpus study of the use of Spanish motion verbs in constructions of telic motion. Verb associations with the constructional V-slot were measured by using collostructional methodology (Stefanowitsch & Gries, 2003). Six categories of construction-specific variation were identified. The corpus data and broad evidence from other semantic domains suggest that the encoding of Spanish argument structure is verb-driven and that verb constraints versus schematicity is a typological parameter. The article concludes that Spanish is a verb-framing language rather than a verb-framed language (cf. Talmy, 2000), which explains the substantial variation observed. 1 I am grateful to several anonymous reviewers for valuable comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this article.
Spanish and typologically related languages are characterized by absence of unaccusativization (L... more Spanish and typologically related languages are characterized by absence of unaccusativization (Levin & Rappaport Hovav 1995). According to Horrocks & Stavrou (2007), the verb-inflected grammatical aspect explains the absence of unaccusativization. Against this view, the article argues that the phenomenon relates to the typologically privileged role of the Spanish verb lexeme. From a usage-based point of view, absence of unaccusativization is understood as an undeveloped possibility of schematization. Spanish constructions are verb-framed and constructional (schematic) patterns only have a secondary role elaborating on the verb-framed core meaning (Pedersen 2019). Grammatical aspect, it is argued, likewise plays a secondary role making the verbal contribution congruent with the intended aspectual meaning.
The article examines transitive prefix constructions in Danish. It argues that the prefixes be-/f... more The article examines transitive prefix constructions in Danish. It argues that the prefixes be-/for-are markers of a productive lexemeindependent argument structure construction that can also be found in other Germanic languages. In contrast, comparable Spanish affixations are not lexeme-independent transitive markers, and they are only productive as morphological constructions of verbal derivation. The article hypothesizes that in sentence structure, the role of productive schematic patterns (generalized from usage) and verbal (lexical) information, respectively, are language type specific.
In comparison to English, Spanish constructions of argument structure are highly verb-constrained... more In comparison to English, Spanish constructions of argument structure are highly verb-constrained (e.g., Goldberg, Adele E. 2006. Constructions at work: The nature of generalization in language. Oxford: Oxford University Press; Narasimhan, Bhuvana. 2003. Motion events and the lexicon: A case study of Hindi. Lingua 113(2). 123–160): Pedro bajó/*bailó a la playa ‘Pedro went down/danced to the beach’. In some cases, the dominant role of the verbal meaning combines with a mismatching construction (e.g., an intransitive verb in a transitive construction: Pedro bajó las escaleras ‘Pedro went down the stairs’). To account for this evidence from a usage-based point of view, this study examines the Spanish transitive directed-motion construction combining verb lexeme analysis with collexeme corpus analysis (Stefanowitsch, Anatol & Stefan Th. Gries. 2003. Collostructions: Investigating the interaction beween words and constructions. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 8(2). 209–243). ...
* I would like to thank the editors of this volume and two anonymous referees for their valuable ... more * I would like to thank the editors of this volume and two anonymous referees for their valuable criticism and suggestions. 1 Romance languages tend to map the MI onto the verb, while the SI may be mapped onto a complex schematic construction. The paper hypothesizes that MIC and SIC stem from generalizations from usage, that they have their own, procedural role in grammar, as a device for organizing the information, and that the typology is anchored in this task. The interpretation of Talmy's descriptive typology is in this perspective that some pairs of MIC/SIC are more entrenched in the grammar of some languages than in others. The proposed framework is well suited for analyzing usage data that does not fit the basic patterns. It is also adequate for identifying patterns in data that are similar to those recognized in Talmy's work, yet not recognized as part of his typology.
According to the new edition of the Spanish Academy Grammar (Bosque 2010), it remains unexplained... more According to the new edition of the Spanish Academy Grammar (Bosque 2010), it remains unexplained why the clitic object in the Spanish impersonal transitive se-construction tends to be in dative (le): se le ve 'you can see him'. The aim of this paper is to analyze this usage quantitatively, with focus on its constructional motivation. To achieve solid empirical evidence, I extracted large amounts of data from Corpus del Español (20.4 mill. words) and analyzed the data statistically. I found that the constructional motivation for the dative is substantial and that it is due to characteristics of the specific impersonal se-construction.
In this article Talmys influential typology of macro-events (Talmy 1985, 1987, 1991, 2000) is dis... more In this article Talmys influential typology of macro-events (Talmy 1985, 1987, 1991, 2000) is discussed from the point of view of construction grammar (Goldberg 1995, 2006). Talmy has described typological differences of lexicalization between what he calls satellite-framed languages and verb-framed languages. The discussion originates in a contrastive analysis of a short story by H.C. Andersen available in six parallel versions: the original Danish version, an English, a German, a Spanish, an Italian and a French version. The article argues that the generalized version of the typology (Talmy 1991, 2000) suffers from being formulated exclusively in terms of lexicalization patterns, and that the typology should include both the lexical level and a schematic constructional level of analysis. A framework is proposed in which the typological patterns are interpreted as an information structure phenomenon. Constructions of the main information (MIC) and the supportive information (SIC), of varying degree of specificity, are the basic constituents of the typology. From this point of view, Germanic languages tend to map the main information (MI) onto a complex schematic construction and the supportive information (SI) onto a lexical (verbal) construction. Romance languages tend to map the MI onto the verb, while the SI may be mapped onto a complex schematic construction. The article hypothesizes that MIC and SIC stem from generalizations from usage, that they have their own, procedural role in grammar, as a device for organizing the information, and that the typology is anchored in this task. The interpretation of Talmys descriptive typology is in this perspective that some pairs of MIC/SIC are more entrenched in the grammar of some languages than in others. The proposed framework is well suited for analyzing usage data that does not fit the basic patterns. It is also adequate for identifying patterns in data that are similar to those recognized in Talmys work, yet not recognized as part of his typology.
Tidsskrift for Universiteternes Efter- og Videreuddannelse (UNEV), 2006
Vores baggrund er altså på den ene side sprogteknologisk og på den anden side sproglig og paedago... more Vores baggrund er altså på den ene side sprogteknologisk og på den anden side sproglig og paedagogisk. Vi har fundet sammen i et udfordrende samarbejde.
Page 213. Reflexive intensification in Spanish Toward a complex reflexive?* Johan Pedersen Univer... more Page 213. Reflexive intensification in Spanish Toward a complex reflexive?* Johan Pedersen University of Copenhagen i. Introduction This study aims to analyze the Spanish reflexive/intensifier distinction in a diachronic-typological perspective. ...
In typological studies of expressions of motion events, there is a need for a quantitative method... more In typological studies of expressions of motion events, there is a need for a quantitative methodology that assesses and qualifies inter-and intra-linguistic variation. The article reports from a large corpus study of the use of Spanish motion verbs in constructions of telic motion. Verb associations with the constructional V-slot were measured by using collostructional methodology (Stefanowitsch & Gries, 2003). Six categories of construction-specific variation were identified. The corpus data and broad evidence from other semantic domains suggest that the encoding of Spanish argument structure is verb-driven and that verb constraints versus schematicity is a typological parameter. The article concludes that Spanish is a verb-framing language rather than a verb-framed language (cf. Talmy, 2000), which explains the substantial variation observed. 1 I am grateful to several anonymous reviewers for valuable comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this article.
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