Light verbs and polysemy

Abstract

Much current work on complex predicates proposes that the light verbs which head these constructions do not contribute to the thematic role inventory of the complex predicate. They are assumed not to have lexical semantic content; therefore, the semantic relationship between the light verb and its “heavy” or main-verb counterpart is often taken to be irrelevant or unproblematic. It is often tacitly assumed that light verbs are monoguous — that is, that they will contribute a constant value to any complex predicate in which they occur. In this paper I challenge that assumption, by way of examining the relationship between the polysemic structure of main verbs and their light counterparts. I suggest that light verbs are systematically related to their heavy counterparts in retaining the force-dynamic properties of the heavy sense, but that the conceptual domain in which that force-dynamic structure applies shifts from the physical to a psychological domain. The analysis implies that while light verb constructions may not have completely predictable semantics, the semantic contribution of the light verb is systematic, and transparent to some degree.