Resultative constructions with “implied-result” and “entailed-result” verbs in Thai and English: a contrastive study

Abstract

This study aims to make a contrastive investigation of the Thai and English transitive-based resultative constructions which consist of a causative predicate indicated by a transitive verb and a resultative predicate linguistically realized as a verb in Thai and an adjective in English. The resultative constructions which are the object of study in this article are those in which the causative predicate is manifested by two kinds of transitive verbs postulated in this article, namely, “implied-result verbs” and “entailed-result verbs”. This article examines one of the syntactic-semantic behavioral properties of both types of verb in both languages when they co-occur with resultative predicates. It is found in this article that English implied-result and entailed-result verbs are much more restricted in taking resultative predicates than the Thai counterparts. In other words, Thai resultative constructions are more productive than English ones. The productivity in the case of the former is attributed to the aspectual profile shift operating in serial verb constructions in Thai. Thai resultative constructions are arguably an instantiation of serial verb constructions. Resultative constructions in Thai allow both conventionalized as well as unconventionalized scenes to be expressed. In contrast, only conventionalized scenes can be expressed by resultative constructions in English.