Figurative and non-figurative motion in the expression of result in English

Abstract

This paper investigates the role played by motion in the conceptualization of result in the English resultative and caused-motion constructions. We argue that there is a strong preference for the figurative use of caused motion to express a state change when the affected entity experiences a complete transformation. However, if the affected entity acquires a new property but retains its essence, an adjectival phrase is preferred. Another category encompasses figuratively exploited resultatives that formally employ the caused-motion construction, but semantically do not codify the same kind of change. The paper also discusses the motivating role of the metaphor A CHANGE OF STATE IS A CHANGE OF LOCATION to express result, and proposes the additional activity of other high-level metaphors and metonymies.

Why in Spanish “Nos Ponemos Contentos” But not “Satisfechos”: A Cognitive‐Linguistic Review of The “Change‐of‐State Verb Ponerse + Adjective” Construction*

“…As shown in our results, the caused-motion construction displays the motivation of A CHANGE OF TEMPORARY STATE IS A CHANGE OF TEMPORARY LOCATION, and the metaphor accounts for the relation between the semantics of both the caused-motion and the resultative construction. This is in line with constructionist approaches and the LCM, which acknowledge that resultatives are metaphorical extensions of caused-motion constructions, as the former inherit features from these low-level constructions (Goldberg 1995(Goldberg , 2006Ruiz de Mendoza & Luzondo 2016). Furthermore, following a constructionist approach which contends that users draw generalizations in the form of form-function patterns from the input is consistent with the finding that PCOS constructions have psychological plausibility for Spanish learners (Valenzuela & Rojo 2008, Eddington & Ruiz de Mendoza 2010.…”

“…Ruiz de Mendoza & Luzondo's (2016) discussion of motion in the expression of result in English shows that adjective phrases are preferred when the experiencer or “affected entity” acquires a new humanly relevant property, yet it retains its essence. In line with Ruiz de Mendoza & Luzondo (2016), there exist constraints based on the low‐level conceptual structure of the lexical items filling in the various constructional slots, which explains why constructions such as José se puso metálico (‘metallic’) are simply not said, for “metálico” is not a human property.…”

“…Ruiz de Mendoza & Luzondo's (2016) discussion of motion in the expression of result in English shows that adjective phrases are preferred when the experiencer or “affected entity” acquires a new humanly relevant property, yet it retains its essence. In line with Ruiz de Mendoza & Luzondo (2016), there exist constraints based on the low‐level conceptual structure of the lexical items filling in the various constructional slots, which explains why constructions such as José se puso metálico (‘metallic’) are simply not said, for “metálico” is not a human property. Yet, apart from limitations on the low‐level conceptual structure, there exist also constraints based on the high‐level conceptual structure (i.e., generally the construction requires lexical predicates to have certain high‐level properties, so utterances like * La considero en casa, lit.…”

A computational implementation of idiomatic and non-idiomatic constructions

“…In these cases, 'together' and 'apart' can function as resultative adverbs because of their secondary-predication nature. We therefore claim that the 'together/apart reciprocal' construction is part of the family of the resultative (Goldberg & Jackendoff, 2004), whose members express result either in the form of a literal or figurative change of state or as a literal or figurative change of location (see Ruiz de Mendoza & Luzondo, 2016;Luzondo & Ruiz de Mendoza, 2015).…”

Argument-structure and implicational constructions in a knowledge base

“…This section explores the family of the English resultative (cf. Goldberg and Jackendoff, 2004;Luzondo, 2014; Ruiz de Mendoza and Luzondo, 2014), whose members codify changes of state or location as the result of verbal action. A non-exhaustive list of the transitive members of this family is given in (1)-(6):…”