Transitive Resultativkonstruktionen in der Konstruktionsgrammatik

Abstract

Abstract What is fascinating about German expressions such as “So kochen Sie ihren Mann schlank” (literally, “Thus you cook your husband slim”, i. e. “This is how you cook for your husband to make him slim”) is not only their deviation from the default setting of the verb in terms of form and content, but also that with such formations there is no end to the possibilities of analysis. The following paper is concerned with transitive constructions: besides non-referential and non-directional prepositional phrases such as “jemanden zu Tode prügeln” (“beat someone to death”), primarily adjectival resultative phrases such as “jemanden tot schießen” (“shoot someone dead”). Within all grammar models one assumes a simple dichotomy between verbal and so-called fake objects, which in construction grammar too ultimately leads to more or less invariant analysis proposals. Instead it will be shown that new objects are frequently based on more or less central verbal frame values, as well as how this comes about. In various constructions linked to specific scenarios, these are passed on to the patient role and/or licenced through the context. In this sense it is a matter of the proposal of a medial and mediating level between a purely schematic construction (Goldberg) and a verb licenced mini-construction (Boas). Between lexeme and construction-based licencing no dichotomy is assumed. In the conclusion the medial level is located in the total system of transitive resultative constructions.