34.637, FYI: Call for Chapters: Light verb constructions from a cross-linguistic perspective

Wed Feb 22 03:05:02 UTC 2023

LINGUIST List: Vol-34-637. Wed Feb 22 2023. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 34.637, FYI: Call for Chapters: Light verb constructions from a cross-linguistic perspective

Moderator: Malgorzata E. Cavar, Francis Tyers (linguist at linguistlist.org)
Managing Editor: Lauren Perkins
Team: Helen Aristar-Dry, Steven Franks, Everett Green, Sarah Robinson, Joshua Sims, Jeremy Coburn, Daniel Swanson, Matthew Fort, Maria Lucero Guillen Puon, Billy Dickson
Jobs: jobs at linguistlist.org | Conferences: callconf at linguistlist.org | Pubs: pubs at linguistlist.org

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
           https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

Editor for this issue: Everett Green <everett at linguistlist.org>
================================================================

Date: 
From: Jens Fleischhauer [fleischhauer at phil.uni-duesseldorf.de]
Subject: Call for Chapters: Light verb constructions from a cross-linguistic perspective

Light verb constructions from a cross-linguistic perspective

Anna Riccio (Foggia University) & Jens Fleischhauer (Cologne
University)

Light verb constructions (LVCs) are (semantically) complex predicates
consisting of a semantically light verb and an additional non-verbal
element (e.g., Alsina et alii. 1997; Amberber et alii. 2010; Butt
2010). The non-verbal element contributes the main predicational to
the complex predicate and is – in the most typical cases – either a
nominal (phrase) – as in (1) – or a prepositional phrase (2).

(1)     xunrizi kardan  (Persian < Iranian < Indo-European)
        bleeding        do
        ‘to bleed’

(2)     onder   stress  staan   (Dutch < Germanic < Indo-European)
        under   stress  stand
        ‘be stressed’

Light verb constructions are attested in typologically and areally
divers languages like, for instance, German, Dutch, Afrikaans,
Persian, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, Turkish,
Hindi/Urdu, Japanese and Korean. The literature on this topic is
rather extensive, however, it is far from obvious whether the complex
expressions dubbed ‘light verb constructions’ in the mentioned – as
well as other – languages have the same properties. Irrespective of
cross-linguistic issue, LVCs present a challenge for semantics, syntax
and morphology.

The analysis of LVCs gives rise to a number of (interrelated)
questions:

(i) What are the essential properties of light verb constructions in
individual languages?

(ii) Are there any crosslinguistically recurrent properties of light
verb constructions?

Proposed properties of light verb constructions – often mentioned in
the relevant literature – include, for instance, the following:

(iii) Desemantization of the finite verb,

(iv) Non-referentiality of the nominal element.

Desemantization of the finite verb manifests in:

(v) different degrees of verb lightness, functions of codifying
grammatical features (such as TAM features and person, e.g., Gross
2004).

Non-referentiality of the nominal element manifests in:

(vi) different degrees of predicativeness of LVCs’ nouns (Simone 2007)

(vii) reduced modifiability of the nominal element,

(viii) severe restrictions on the use, variance and interpretation of
articles.

Although such claims are frequently encountered in the relevant
literature, they are very rarely tested on the basis of experimental
or corpus linguistic data (exceptions are He & Wittenberg 2020,
Wittenberg 2018, Wittenberg & Levy 2017, Wittenberg et al. 2014,
Wittenberg & Piñango 2011).

The prospective volume is intended to be a collection of papers
dealing with the above mentioned – but also further – properties of
light verb constructions. The individual chapters should either
discuss (properties of) light verb constructions from a
crosslinguistic perspective or present a detailed study of one
individual language. The overall topic addressed by the various
chapters should be: What are language-specific and/or crosslinguistic
properties of light verb constructions.

We encourage abstracts dealing with the above mentioned questions come
various perspectives (e.g., diachronic, synchronic, pansynchronic),
using different methodologies such as corpus linguistics, experimental
linguistics or different theoretical frameworks.

In case of interest, prospective authors should send an email till
March, 15, 2023 to LightVerbConstructions at gmail.com expressing their
interest in contributing to the volume. The email should contain a
provisional title as well as full name and affiliation of the
author(s). An abstract (300 to 500 words + references) is needed till
April, 1, 2023. The abstracts will be reviewed and the submission of
the complete manuscript is due to December, 1, 2023.
The final book proposal will be compiled on the basis of the submitted
abstracts. Further details concerning the publication process
(including the intended publisher) will be communicated as soon as
possible.

Selected references

Alsina, A., Bresnan, J. & Sells, P. (eds.), 1997,

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LINGUIST List is supported by the following publishers:

Bloomsbury Publishing (formerly The Continuum International Publishing Group) http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/

Brill http://www.brill.com

Cascadilla Press http://www.cascadilla.com/

Equinox Publishing Ltd http://www.equinoxpub.com/

Georgetown University Press http://www.press.georgetown.edu

John Benjamins http://www.benjamins.com/

Lincom GmbH https://lincom-shop.eu/

Multilingual Matters http://www.multilingual-matters.com/

Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke (LOT) http://www.lotpublications.nl/

Springer Nature http://www.springer.com

----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-34-637
----------------------------------------------------------