Particle verbs with weg- in German: a constructional analysis

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of German particle verbs with the particle weg- ‘away’ as in Tattoos weglasern (lit. ‘to laser tattoos away’ within the framework of Construction Grammar (Goldberg, 1995, 2006; Ziem & Lasch, 2013). The meaning of German weg-verbs often being non-compositional, morpho-lexical approaches turn out to be unable to properly account for the meaning of weg-constructions. The constructionist approach allows us to shed light on the relationship between morphology and syntax within weg-constructions and to account for both lexicalised and non-lexicalised instances of verbs with weg-. The analysis is based on the distinction between transitive and reflexive weg-constructions, which can occur as caused-motion and resultative constructions. The discussion of various variants of the German weg-construction suggests that the weg-constructions under investigation are linked to each other in a family of constructions.