On the Brink of-Noun vs. On the Verge of-Noun: a Distinctive-Collexeme Analysis

Abstract

<jats:p>This paper uses the terminology of Construction Grammar (Goldberg 1996; 2006) and a corpus-based method to investigate a pair of semantically similar constructions and the lexemes that occur in both of them. The method, referred to as distinctive-collexeme analysis (Gries and Stefanowitsch 2004a), seeks to identify lexemes that exhibit a strong preference for one construction as opposed to another: in other words, to uncover subtle distributional differences between two semantically or functionally near-equivalent constructions. On the basis of the case study dealing with the on the brink of- noun construction versus the on the verge of- noun construction, the paper shows that there are lexemes that prefer one of the investigated patterns over the other. Moreover, the results of the distinctive-collexeme analysis reveal that the frame-constructional semantics is a relevant factor in the choice between these two patterns.</jats:p>

Nouns in the Be of N-Construction: A Corpus-Based Investigation

“…Recently, the increased application of online corpora has provided ideal possibilities for exploring the reciprocal relation between different kinds of grammatical patterns and the words combining with them in naturallyoccurring discourse, as indicated by a multitude of studies (e.g. Hilpert, 2014;Kaleta, 2014;Stefanowitsch, 2014;Perek, 2015;Kim & Davies, 2016;Yoon & Wulff, 2016;Wiliński, 2017Wiliński, , 2018Wiliński, , 2020, to mention a few). Perek's (2015) quantitative corpus-based investigation, for example, showed how a corpus-based method can aid in explaining many issues concerning the argument structure of words and providing quantitative descriptions of their usage, whereas Yoon and Wulff's (2016) study examined Spanish infinitive and sentential constructions collocating with various complements and determined the verbs that are strongly attracted to a particular complement.…”

“…Perek's (2015) quantitative corpus-based investigation, for example, showed how a corpus-based method can aid in explaining many issues concerning the argument structure of words and providing quantitative descriptions of their usage, whereas Yoon and Wulff's (2016) study examined Spanish infinitive and sentential constructions collocating with various complements and determined the verbs that are strongly attracted to a particular complement. Finally, Wiliński's (2017) study sought to identify minor distributional differences between two near-synonymous grammatical ISSN 0860-150X Jarosław Wiliński patterns: in other words, the on the brink of-noun construction versus the on the verge of-noun construction. The findings of this investigation revealed that both patterns have a strong tendency to collocate with specific sets of nouns.…”