How conceptual structure impinges on constructional behaviorthe case of "give" verbs

Abstract

This article aims to cast light on the constructional behavior of nine of Levin�s (1993) give verbs, i.e. feed, lease, lend, loan, pay, peddle, rent, sell, and trade, in the ditransitive and dative constructions. This paper also proposes onomasiological hierarchies for these verbs on the basis of Faber and Mairal's (1999) lexematics-oriented taxonomies. My findings concur with Levin� (1993) and Faber and Mairal's (1999) hypothesis according to which the internal semantic parameters of a given verb function as predictors of that verb�s syntactic representations. In a hierarchy of predicates, the hyponyms display the same complementation patterns as their genus or superordinate predicate. Nevertheless, some verbs inherit partial semantic and syntactic behavior from more than one lexical class. A verb like trade inherits conceptual structure both from give (cf. They traded him to the Cubs) and exchange (e.g. Jason traded Thomas his laptop for a mobile phone).