Table Of ContentRomance Perspectives on Construction Grammar
Constructional Approaches to Language
The series brings together research conducted within different constructional models and
makes them available to scholars and students working in this and other related fields.
The topics range from descriptions of grammatical phenomena in different languages
to theoretical issues concerning language acquisition, language change, and language use.
The foundation of constructional research is provided by the model known as Construction
Grammar (including Frame Semantics). The book series publishes studies in which this model
is developed in new directions and extended through alternative approaches. Such approaches
include cognitive linguistics, conceptual semantics, interaction and discourse, as well as
typologically motivated alternatives, with implications both for constructional theories and for
their applications in related fields such as communication studies, computational linguistics,
AI, neurology, psychology, sociology, and anthropology.
This peer reviewed series is committed to innovative research and will include
monographs, thematic collections of articles, and introductory textbooks.
For an overview of all books published in this series, please see
http://benjamins.com/catalog/cal
Editors
Jan-Ola Östman Kyoko Ohara
University of Helsinki Keio University, Japan
Helsinki, Finland
Advisory Board
Peter Auer Mirjam Fried Knud Lambrecht
University of Freiburg, Germany Charles University, Prague, University of Texas at Austin, USA
Czech Republic
Hans C. Boas Michael Tomasello
University of Texas at Austin, USA Adele E. Goldberg Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Princeton University, USA Anthropology, Germany
William Croft
University of New Mexico, USA Seizi Iwata Arnold M. Zwicky
Kansai University, Japan Stanford University, USA
Charles J. Fillmore†
International Computer Science Paul Kay
Institute, Berkeley, USA University of California, Berkeley,
USA
Volume 15
Romance Perspectives on Construction Grammar
Edited by Hans C. Boas and Francisco Gonzálvez García
Romance Perspectives
on Construction Grammar
Edited by
Hans C. Boas
University of Texas at Austin
Francisco Gonzálvez García
University of Almería
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Romance Perspectives on Construction Grammar / Edited by Hans C. Boas and Francisco
Gonzálvez García.
p. cm. (Constructional Approaches to Language, issn 1573-594X ; v. 15)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Romance languages--Infinitival constructions. 2. Romance languages--Resultative
constructions. 3. Romance languages--Grammar, Generative. 4. Romance
languages--Grammar, Comparative. 5. Construction grammar. I. Boas, Hans
Christian, 1971- editor. II. Gonzálvez-García, Francisco, editor.
PC162.C66 2014
440’.045--dc23 2014021644
isbn 978 90 272 0437 0 (Hb ; alk. paper)
isbn 978 90 272 6963 8 (Eb)
© 2014 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa
This volume is dedicated to the memory
of Charles Fillmore (1929–2014)
and Ivan Sag (1949–2013),
whose keen insights and dedication continue
to inspire construction grammarians around the world
Table of contents
Acknowledgements ix
Chapter 1
Applying constructional concepts to Romance languages 1
Hans C. Boas and Francisco Gonzálvez-García
Chapter 2
The role of constructional meanings in novel verb-noun
compounds in Spanish 37
Jiyoung Yoon
Chapter 3
From lexicalization to constructional generalizations:
On complex prepositions in French 79
Peter Lauwers
Chapter 4
A constructional corpus-based approach to ‘weak’ verbs in French 113
Dominique Willems and Claire Blanche-Benveniste
Chapter 5
The Narrative Infinitive Construction in French and Latin 139
Irina Nikolaeva
Chapter 6
Bringing together fragments and constructions:
Evidence from complementation in English and Spanish 181
Francisco Gonzálvez-García
viii Romance Perspectives on Construction Grammar
Chapter 7
A Romance perspective on gapping constructions 227
Anne Abeillé, Gabriela Bîlbîie, and François Mouret
Chapter 8
Variable type framing in Spanish constructions of directed motion 269
Johan Pedersen
Author index 305
Construction index 309
Language index 311
Subject index 313
Acknowledgements
The collaboration that produced this volume was motivated by our common goal
to apply the main principles of Construction Grammar to a set of closely related
languages such as French, Romanian, and Spanish, which have the same linguistic
ancestor. Our collaboration originated in the months following the Fifth Interna-
tional Conference on Construction Grammar (ICCG-5), which Hans Boas orga-
nized at the University of Texas at Austin in September 2008. At that conference
we listened to a number of excellent presentations, including those that form the
basis for the chapters in this book. After some discussion, we decided to ask the
presenters whether they would be interested in contributing a more polished ver-
sion of their presentations as chapters for a book on constructional approaches
to Romance languages. The result of this effort is the present collection of chap-
ters illustrating how different strands of constructional theories such as Cognitive
Construction Grammar and Sign-based Construction Grammar can be applied
to a variety of closely related languages.
Our warmest thanks go to the many friends and colleagues who helped us
with the reviewing process: Michel Achard, Marc Authier, Antonio Barcelona,
John Beavers, Camelia Bejan, Andreea Calude, F. J. Cortés Rodríguez, Nicole
Delbecque, Ricardo Maldonado, José M. García Miguel, Jaakko Leino, Brian
Nolan, Elena Pistolesi, Kim Schulte, Cinzia Russi, Graeme Trousdale, and Ricardo
Mairal Usón. We are also thankful to two anonymous reviewers who gave us
very detailed and helpful feedback on earlier versions of the manuscript. Jan-Ola
Östman and Kyoko Hirose Ohara, the editors of the Constructional Approach-
es to Language series, have also provided invaluable feedback about earlier ver-
sions of the manuscript. Stephanie Russo Krilov, a graduate student in Romance
Linguistics at UT Austin, did a fantastic job proof reading the final manuscript.
Thank you so much!
The publication of this book has been made possible by a number of different
organizations. Thanks to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, which sup-
ported HCB with a fellowship for advanced researchers during his work on this
book. FGG gratefully acknowledges the financial support from the Spanish Min-
istry of Economy and Competitiveness (grants FFI2010-17610/FILO, FFI2010-
19380/FILO, FFI2013-43593-P and FFI2013-40517-P). Finally, we would like to
