Le paradoxe des verbes supports

Abstract

Light verbs are generally considered on semantic grounds: Light verbs are contrasted with predicative verbs because the former lack argument structure. In this paper, I argue that light verbs should rather be considered on syntactic grounds, i.e., in terms of the structure of the sentence. From this point of view, light verbs highlight the central property of verbs tout court: namely, to construct a VP. In § 1, I argue that only on this basis can light and predicative verbs be consistently contrasted. In §§ 2 and 3, I address the question of the structure of a VP with a light verb. In § 4, I address the question of the relationship between argument structure and semantic richness.