Abstract
Abstract This paper employs a usage-based approach to grammar, the theory of frame semantics, and the corpus-based method referred to as the attraction-reliance measure, for the purpose of examining the mutual association between a noun and the be of N-pattern: in other words, to determine nouns that are strongly associated with this construction. On the basis of the data gleaned from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), the paper aims to indicate that there are specific categories of nouns occurring in the construction under scrutiny, and that this construction performs specific functions in discourse.
Highlights
The increased application of online corpora has provided ideal possibilities for exploring the reciprocal relation between different kinds of grammatical patterns and the words combining with them in naturallyoccurring discourse, as indicated by a multitude of studies (e.g. Hilpert, 2014; Kaleta, 2014; Stefanowitsch, 2014; Perek, 2015; Kim & Davies, 2016; Yoon & Wulff, 2016; Wiliński, 2017, 2018, 2020, to mention a few)
The most rational justification for this is that overall, the total frequency of these nouns in Contemporary American English (COCA) tends to have a powerful influence upon the probability of their occurrence in the be of N-pattern
It was ascertained that nouns invoking various semantic frames, such as IMPORTANCE, ORIGIN, TYPE, ASSISTANCE, OPINION, QUALITY EVALUATION, PEOPLE, EMOTION DIRECTED, USEFULNESS, AGE, RANK, DIMENSION, and BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION belong to the collection of the most important lexical items determining the meaning and function of the construction
Summary
The increased application of online corpora has provided ideal possibilities for exploring the reciprocal relation between different kinds of grammatical patterns and the words combining with them in naturallyoccurring discourse, as indicated by a multitude of studies (e.g. Hilpert, 2014; Kaleta, 2014; Stefanowitsch, 2014; Perek, 2015; Kim & Davies, 2016; Yoon & Wulff, 2016; Wiliński, 2017, 2018, 2020, to mention a few). Wiliński’s (2017) study sought to identify minor distributional differences between two near-synonymous grammatical patterns: in other words, the on the brink of-noun construction versus the on the verge of-noun construction. The findings of this investigation revealed that both patterns have a strong tendency to collocate with specific sets of nouns. The main purpose of this paper is twofold: firstly, to put forward the arguments for the occurrence of the be of N-construction (a combination of form and meaning/function), and secondly, to conduct a qualitative and quantitative study of nouns occurring in this grammatical pattern
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