A Constructional Analysis of Quasi-Incorporation in Dutch

要旨

Th is paper deals with quasi-incorporation, the phenomenon that bare nouns form tight phrasal lexical units with verbs. Th e data are mainly from Dutch. Th e semantics of quasi-incorporation is similar to that of real noun-incorporation: the bare noun receives a generic interpretation, and the NV combination denotes a conventional activit y. However, the lexical units are phrasal since they are separable in root clauses, and in verb raising clusters. It is shown that such Dutch bare Noun + V combinations (either singular or plural nouns) have two structural interpretations. Th ey are either VPs with an NP that consists of the bare noun only, or they are units of the form (N 0 V 0 ) V0 , and thus a case of adjunction of the bare noun to the verb. Th e behav- iour of these NV combinations under verb raising, in the Dutch periphrastic progressive construction, and with respect to the choice of the correct nega- tive word ( geen or niet) is shown to follow from the assumption of two pos- sible structural analyses. Th us, Dutch quasi-incorpor ation is parallel to the analysis of similar cases of incorporation in Japanese, presented in Iida and Sells (2008). If the bare noun has no argumental role with respect to the verb, it is only the second structural option that is available, that of adjunction. Quasi-incorporation can be seen as a construction, in which a specifi c syn- tactic pattern receives a specifi c semantic interpretation, that of conventional activity. Th us, the paper argues that the notion 'construction' is essential for giv- ing a proper account of the semantics of quasi-noun incorporation.*

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