The usage of there sentences with become: the relationship between change of state and appearance/occurrence

Abstract

Numerous studies have investigated the kinds of verbs that can be used with there constructions. Generally, only existence and appearance verbs can occur in there constructions. However, some cases have been observed involving verbs not lexically expressing existence or appearance. This study focuses on there sentences with the verb become which are noteworthy in the following two respects. First, although the verb become is not an existence or appearance verb but a change-of-state verb, the verb is felicitously used with there constructions. Second, become is used without an adjectival or nominal complement, a unique argument realization pattern of the verb not found in other syntactic contexts. This study, based on a detailed examination of actual data in corpora, claims that there sentences with become express the appearance/occurrence of an entity. Although the postverbal noun is structurally a subject in there constructions and the subject of the verb become is usually interpreted as an entity undergoing a change, the postverbal noun of there sentences with become is an entity that has arisen as a result of the changing event.