Why Aktionsart-Based Event Structure Templates Are not Enough – A Frame Account of Leaking and Droning

Abstract

In the paper, we present a frame approach to emission verbs and demonstrate how this framework enables us to account for their different uses and the constructions they can occur in. The frame model we apply is based on Barsalou’s ideas about frames as the fundamental structures of cognitive representation (Barsalou 1992). More precisely, frames are conceived as recursive attribute-value structures that allow one to zoom into conceptual structures to any desired degree and to access meaning components by attribute paths (cf. Petersen 2007/2015). We argue that such a formal frame-based account of meaning is highly suited for capturing the way particular uses of emission verbs are constrained by the interaction of grammar and cognition. The focus of the analysis is on degree gradation of substance emission verbs such as in sehr lecken ‘leak a lot’ as well as sound emission verbs as in sehr drohnen ‘drone a lot’. We show that a proper treatment of both of these phenomena requires lexical decomposition that goes beyond the traditional event structural templates as applied by Rappaport Hovav and Levin (1998) among others.