Light Verb Constructions under the Generative Lexicon Theory

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper claims that the appropriate framework to address Light Verb Constructions is the Generative Lexicon Theory which has both the semantic structure and syntactic structure for each lexical representation. This paper further claims that two types of Light Verb Constructions identified by Kearns (1988) need to be approached differently within Generative Lexicon Theory: True Light Verbs are processed by the Type-Coercion mechanism while Vague Action Verbs are processed by the Co-Composition mechanism. These two different generative mechanisms explain why only True Light Verbs reveal differences from their simple verb counterparts. Addressing the two types of Light Verb Constructions with two generative mechanisms, this paper also supports the view that Light Verb Constructions are semi-productive semantic phenomena, rather than pragmatic phenomena.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• I. Introduction
• II. The Review of Kearns (1988)
• III. Proposal
• 3.1 The Generative Lexicon Theory
• 3.2 Analysis
• 3.3 Discussion
• IV. Conclusion
• References
• Abstract