A Cognitive-Semantic Account for the Formation of Two-word and Three-word Verbs

초록

The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to present a cognitive-semantic account for the relationship between the meanings and high frequency of verb-particle combinations in English and 2) to demonstrate why one particular set of particles (i.e. out, up, down, back, away, etc.) is frequently used to combine with a particular verb to form two-word verbs, while the other particular set (i.e. on, with, to, of, for, etc.) tends to combine with a particular verb to form three-word verbs. It seems that the high frequency of a limited set of particles in verb-particle constructions is motivated by conceptual features based on semantic extensions. The verb-particle combination can be best understood by a functional or semantic characterization with respect to the meanings of the attached particles. Based on a cognitive- functional approach, this study proposed that the verb-particle combinations are probably created according to the human conceptual system organizing functional categories. Finally, this study claims that verb-particle combinations can emerge as a functional category, a linguistic device to convey semantically- salient meanings in order to organize cognitively-motivated constructions; thus, the frequent use of a limited set of particles is closely related to their functionally-semantically salient properties.

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