Anglo-Saxon verbs of sound: semantic architecture, lexical representation and constructions (1).
Rodriguez, Francisco J. Cortes ; Orta, Marta Gonzalez
ABSTRACT
This paper provides a detailed analysis of the semantic structure
of Anglo-Saxon verbs of sound from the point of view of the Lexical
Grammar Model (LGM). Firstly, a description of the theoretical
foundations of the LGM for the analysis of lexical structures and the
specific methodological principles developed for historical vocabularies
will be provided. Secondly, the semantic architecture of the verbal
domain of Old English sound predicates will be offered. Thirdly, the
system of lexical decomposition proposed by the LGM and its application
to the lexical class under study will be explained. This system has the
format of a lexical template which will be fundamental to understand the
linking algorithm that mediates between the semantic representation of
sound predicates and their morpho-syntactic realizations. This linking
process has two phases: the first one will bind the lexical template of
verbs of sound with the representation of the constructions and
alternations where these predicates appear whereas the second interface
will account for their grammatical behaviour.
1. Introduction
One of the areas of research that still is a challenge for
researches in lexicology, grammar or historical linguistics is the
(re)construction of the semantic structures of historical lexicons.
There are in fact several drawbacks inherent to the study of the early
historical periods of any language which have been even held as
insurmountable in some occasions. Nevertheless, this situation is
reversing and there seems to be a growing interest in the study of
historical vocabularies and, in many cases, from innovative
perspectives.
This paper provides a detailed analysis of the semantic structure
of Anglo-Saxon verbs of sound from the point of view of the so-called
Lexical Grammar Model (LGM, henceforth) (Faber--Mairal 1999;
Mairal--Faber 2005; Mairal--Van Valin 2001; Marin 1998, etc.). This
lexicological model has been extensively used to study the lexicons of
languages like Present-Day Spanish, English, German and French, and more
recently in some lexical areas of historical languages like Old English,
Classical Latin and Ancient Greek (Cortrs--Mairal 2002; Cortrs--Martin
2003; Cortes--Plaza 2006; Cortes--Plaza in press; Gonzalez 2003-2004,
Gonzalez 2004a, Gonzalez 2005a, 2005b, Gonzalez in press; Martinez 2006,
Martinez--Aguiar in press). In doing so, certain methodological
adjustments have been made, provided the restrictions imposed by this
last type of languages. Section 1 provides a description of the
theoretical foundations of the LGM for the analysis of lexical
structures and the specific methodological principles developed for
historical vocabularies.
A description of the semantic structure of the verbal domain of Old
English (henceforth OE) sound predicates is offered in section 2. The
study of the organization of content within the domain gives as a result
the so-called semantic architecture of the lexical class under study, a
hierarchically arranged onomasiological organization of the predicates
that share the same central semantic (set of) feature(s).
Section 3 is devoted to the explanation of the system of lexical
decomposition proposed by the LGM and how it is applied to OE sound
verbs. This system has the format of a lexical template (LT) and it is
used for the description of content of every subdomain. LTs are
fundamental to understand the linking algorithm that mediates between
the semantic representation of a group of predicates and their
morpho-syntactic realizations. This linking process has two phases: the
first one binds the LT of a subclass of predicates with the
representation of the constructions and alternations where those
predicates appear. Section 4 describes this first process of linking.
There is a second interface that accounts for the specific
morphological and syntactic expression of the sentential constituents of
a given construction. In this second phase the LGM follows the linking
principles established in Van Valin--LaPolla (1997) and Van Valin
(2005)'s Role and Reference Grammar (henceforth RRG). Such
principles and the way they account for the grammatical behaviour of OE
sound predicates are expounded in section 5 of the paper.
2. Corpus selection and methodological principles
As in any study on lexical semantics, the use of the
lexieographical tools available for OE is essential for the
ascertainment of meaning, since there is no access to native
speakers' intuitions. Thus, dictionary definitions are the first
and almost only statements about the meanings of words, and in the case
of Anglo-Saxon lexicography, the works of Bosworth--Toller (1898
[1973]), Hall (1894 [1960-1996]), the historical part of the Oxford
English dictionary and the more recent Thesaurus of Old English
(Roberts--Kay--Grundy 1995; henceforth TOE) are to be credited as really
authoritative sources for the extraction of semantic descriptions.
However, the exclusive use of these would render a very restrictive view
of the semantic intricacies of predicates from a lexicological
perspective: with the exception of the last one, all other dictionaries
are alphabetical, which in the practice involves sacrificing the
establishment of any structural organization of the vocabulary based on
(psycho)linguistic criteria. The TOE is onomasiological, thus rendering
an exhaustive classification of lexical units in OE in terms of semantic
groupings. However, the approach followed in the design of this
thesaurus lacks linguistic grounding: it is based on a loose conception
of lexical field, in terms of which words are classified together if
they share some bit of meaning (Kay--Chase 1990: 305); that is, lexical
units appear clustered associatively, instead of being based on the
structural notions of opposition and similarity, fundamental for the
organization of lexical fields, as Coseriu and Geckeler demonstrated
(Coseriu 1977; Geckeler 1976). Despite this, we cannot deny the utility
of this dictionary as a starting point for the selection of the units to
be analyzed, but other resources are to be used.
The LGM proposes the description of lexicological structures by
combining different types of information along two fundamental axes, the
paradigmatic and the syntagmatic axis, and a subsidiary cognitive axis.
The first type of analysis (paradigmatic axis) aims at organizing
lexical units in a hierarchy based on semantic content. Following the
dictates of Structural Semantics (Coseriu 1977; Geckeler 1976),
Faber--Mairal (1999: 87) propose the following principle:
"Lexical Domain Membership": Lexical domain membership is
determined by the genus, which constitutes the nucleus of the
meaning of a lexeme.
According to this principle, the definitional structure of
predicates is the central element for the organization of lexicological
structures: words with the same central meaning, the genus, will belong
to the same (sub)class, and the functional differences within members of
the same (sub)class are expressed in terms of some differentiating
features, the differentiae, which constitute the second half of
definitions.
One crucial assumption of the LGM is that definitional paradigmatic
structure is not isolated from syntactic information:
... paradigmatic and syntagmatic information are closely
interrelated to the extent that a verb's syntax depends on its
location on the semantic space. In other words, a verb's
combinatorial possibilities and syntactic potential are
semantically motivated
(Faber--Mairal 1999: 143).
In fact, there is an explicit principle that binds both types of
information together:
"Lexical Iconicity": The greater the semantic scope of a lexeme,
the greater its syntactic variation
(Faber--Mairal 1999:187).
Some methodological issues which are of crucial importance for our
study stem from these principles. The genus not only delimits the
semantic universe for a particular lexical class, it opens the syntactic
universe relevant for the members of such a class as well. That is, the
members that share a common semantic feature also show striking
regularities in their syntactic behaviour. This fact led Cortrs--Mairal
(2002: 20) to reinterpret the Lexical Iconicity Principle in the
following terms:
"Lexical Iconicity Principle (Beta Reading)": The greater the
syntactic coverage of a lexical unit, the higher its position in
the semantic hierarchy within a given subdomain.
Thus, the hierarchical organization of predicates within
onomasiological structures (lexical classes and subclasses) can be also
ascertained to a certain extent if attention is paid to their syntactic
properties. There is a parallel between semantic specificity and
syntactic elasticity (Rappaport--Levin 1998). This last principle is of
paramount importance for the study of historical lexicons, since it
permits to look for semantic parameters in the syntagmatic axis; in
other terms, syntax becomes a symptom of the semantic configuration of a
(group of) predicate(s), since the presence or blocking of a certain
predicate in a syntactic construction is determined by certain
compatibility conditions between the meaning of the lexical unit and the
semantics associated to the construction. (2)
These theoretical stances open a new path of methodological
procedures in the analysis of historical vocabulary. The use of textual
evidence renders invaluable insights for the reconstruction of the
semantic features of Anglo-Saxon verbs, in our case. Now a close
scrutiny of the grammatical behaviour of verbal predicates as shown in
the remaining OE texts becomes a fundamental tool for lexicological
analysis, especially to determine the semantic feature(s) which
constitute the genus of a (sub)class. Where both lexicographical and
textual resources fall short of is in the determination of the specific
semantic features (the differentiae) of every single lexical unit.
There is, however, one limitation in the use of corpora, namely
their negative evidence restriction (Levin--Song--Atkins 1997): the
extant texts of a language like OE may not reflect the whole
combinatorial potential that a certain lexeme had; therefore, any
assertion on its grammatical properties must be framed against this
restriction. (3)
Cortes--Mairal (2002:18-20) expound one further assumption, we will
label it as the "Premise of Lexical Domain Stability", which
is fundamental for clustering lexical units into coherent semantic
groups. According to this premise, a domain's macrostructure remains stable for its most part both diachronically and within
languages that show close genetical relation (in the case involved,
Western Indo-European languages as they belong to the same
"phylum").
As Cortes and Torres (2003: 19) remark, the same assumption is
present in the TOE, which follows Roget's classification for the
lexicon of contemporary English. Moreover, the results of previous
research concerning the OE lexical classes of action, change, movement,
physical perception, and speech have also verified its validity (see
Cortes--Mairal 2002; Cortes--Martin 2003; Cortes--Plaza 2006;
Cortes--Torres 2003; Gonzalez 2003-2004, Gonzalez 2004a, Gonzalez 2005a,
2005b, Gonzalez in press).
In consonance with this principle, the lexical class of sound verbs
in OE has been constructed by turning firstly the information from the
TOE on sound predicates into the structure of this class within the
lexicon of English verbs developed by Faber--Mairal (1999: 287, 289).
Once analyzed the information from all the verbs initially selected, the
structure of the domain parallels to a great extent the corresponding
Present-day English (PDE) class and only certain refinements have been
made. These will be shown below.
3. Macrostructure of the Old English lexical class of sound verbs
Taking into account the information provided by the TOE, and once
this is checked against the definitions contained in the OE
lexicographical sources by Bosworth--Toller (1898 [1973]) (B&T),
Toller--Campbell (1921 [1973]) (T&C) and Hall (1894 [1960-1996]),
the architecture of the lexical class of verbs of sound appears divided
from the onset into two major subclasses: one corresponding to the verbs
that express the emission of sounds, where the vast majority of lexical
units are ascribed, and a second one, with a few members that do not
primarily denote an activity in terms of which a sound is produced, but
merely encode the existence of a sound within, optionally, a certain
spatial framework. In fact, this second subclass has been incorporated
for the OE class of sound verbs into the macrostructure provided by
Faber--Mairal (1999).
The first subclass, to make a sound, is in its turn divided into
three main subclasses, that is, "Sounds produced by living
creatures", "by nature" and "by objects". The
first one, "Sounds produced by living creatures", is
characterised by the manner in which the sound is produced, whether by
using the phonatory organs, which is the default value, by the
intervention of other organs, which usually is related to certain body
conditions (breathing, expelling air or gnashing one's teeth), or
like an animal. Precisely, this manner component will enable the
existence of relations and overlaps between sound verbs and other
lexical classes such as speech or feeling.
Firstly, when a sound is produced by using the vocal organs, which
must be understood as the default cognitive scenario for sound emission,
there is a subdivision into various groups of verbs, depending on the
intensity or pitch of the sound produced, i.e. there are verbs that
express the emission of loud sounds and others involve emitting a soft
sound; an interesting subdomain is that of verbs that denote the
production of sounds indicating an emotion such as unhappiness or
happiness; again there is a slight macrostructural variation in
comparison with the PDE structuring of the domain provided in
Faber--Mairal (1999), instead of the disapproval emotion, codified in
the meaning of verbs like hoot, boo and excluded from the OE
architecture since we have not obtained any example for it, there is a
small group of Anglo-Saxon sound predicates denoting a feeling of pain
onsican, sicettanz poterian.
Secondly, if the sound produced is related to organs affected by
certain body conditions, this is due to breathing, expelling air or
gnashing one's teeth. This last subclass, "To make a sound by
gnashing one's teeth", has been introduced into the
architecture of OE sound verbs replacing the original subclass "To
make a sound by inhaling air" sniff which our corpus of predicates
has been unable to exemplify. Besides, within the second subclass,
"To make a sound by expelling air", the subclass "To make
a sound by expelling air through one's anus" fart has been
excluded for the same reason.
Lastly, in the case of "Sounds produced like animals", we
have obtained examples for three of the four subclasses which integrate
it in the corresponding PDE lexical subclass: "To make a sound like
a wild, angry animal", "like a domestic animal", or
"like a bird". However, "To make a sound like an
insect" buzz has been excluded from the OE macrostructure.
In relation to the other two main subclasses, that is, "Sounds
produced by nature" and "by objects", they remain for the
most part as in the original architecture, except for two subclasses
within "Sounds produced by objects", that is, "To make a
durative sound" and "Something heavy hitting against
liquid". The former has been included within the second major
subclass "To sound", whereas the latter has been excluded due
to the lack of examples. Again, the subclass "Something hitting
against something else" should be located in an overlapping area
between the lexical classes of sound and contact.
In sum, the architecture of the OE lexical class of sound verbs
will be as follows:
Figure 1. Architecture of the Old English lexical class of sound
1. To make a sound
1.1. Sounds produced by living creatures
1.1.1. To make a sound
1.1.1.1. To make a loud sound: berstan, bigellan,
blawan, breodian, ceallian, ciegan, cirman
(cyrman), clipian, geblawan, geciegan,
geclipian, gellan (gillan, giellan, gyllan),
grimman, grymet(t)an, hlimman, hlowan,
hlydan, hropan, hryman (hreman), oferclipian,
scrallettan, stenan (seman), styrman, punian
1.1.1.2. To make a soft sound: bemurc(n)ian, ceorian,
clum(m)ian, gehyrstan, hwaestrian, hwisprian,
missprecan, runian, pwastrian, twisprecan,
wipercwiddian
1.1.1.3. To make a sound indicating an emotion
1.1.1.3.1. Unhappiness: geocsian (gicsian)
1.1.1.3.2. Happiness: ahliehhan, cancettan,
ceahhetan, dryman (dreman),
hliehhan (hlehhan)
1.1.1.3.3. Pain: onsican, sicettan, poterian
1.1.2. To make a sound related to body conditions
1.1.2.1. To make a sound by breathing: asican,
asworettan, blawan, geblawan, hlocettan,
sican, sworettan
1.1.2.1.1. To make a sound by breathing
quickly and audibly: hwosan
(hwesan), orpian, stenecian, pefian
1.1.2.2. To make a sound by expelling air
1.1.2.2.1. To make a sound by expelling air
from one's throat: bealcettan, sugan
(sucan)
1.1.2.2.2. To make a sound by expelling air
from one's nose: fnesan, gefnesan,
hrutan, snytan
1.1.2.3. To make a sound by gnashing one's teeth:
gnyrran, grindan, gristan, gristbatian,
gristbitian, gryrran
1.1.3. To make a sound like an animal
1.1.3.1. To make a sound like a wild, angry animal:
bellan, grymet(t)an, gyrran (georran,
gyrrettan), rarian, ryn, rynan, peotan
1.1.3.2. To make a sound like a domestic animal:
beorcan, blaetan, borcian, crawan, gecrawan,
graedan, grun(n)ian, grymet(t)an, hlowan,
hnaegan
1.1.3.3. To make a sound like a bird: cloccian, crawan,
galan, gecrawan, gesingan, grcedan, singan,
writian
1.2. Sounds produced by nature: blawan, brastlian, geblawan,
hlynnan, swegan, swogan
1.3. Sounds produced by objects
1.3.1. To make a musical sound: ablawan, apeotan, blawan,
geblawan, geteon, gliwian, hearpian, hringan, lacan,
pipian, pleg(i)an, salletan, sealmian, slean, swinsian,
peotan, wraestan
1.3.2. To make a metallic/frictional sound: brastlian,
breahtmian, cearcian, ceorran, gnyrran, gyrran (georran,
gyrrettan), hryscan, punian
1.3.3. To make a punctual, explosive sound: berstan, cnyllan
(cnyllsan), stunian
1.3.4. To make a dull, punctual sound
1.3.4.1. Something hitting against something else:
wipstunian
1.3.5. To make an iterative, sibilant sound: ahwistlian,
braeclian, hrutan, hwinan, hwistlian
2. To sound: abraslian, ahleoprian, ahlowan, cracian (cracettan),
dynian, grillan, grymet(t)an, hleoprian, hlynsian (hlynnan),
hwoperian (hweoperian), oncwepan, onhwelan, onscillan, scyllan,
swegan, swogan
4. Lexical subclasses and lexical templates
As stated above, every lexical (sub)class covers a conceptual area
which is delimited by the central component of the meaning of its
members, i.e. their genus. It has also been explained that the
restrictions implicit in historical vocabularies do not permit in many
cases to obtain a deeper lexical decomposition of the lexemes within a
given subclass, and that specific hierarchical lexical relations like
hyper-/hyponymy cannot be reconstructed. Thus, the codification of LTs
for the subdomains in a lexical class is of vital importance in the
(re)construction of onomasiological structures in OE.
Their theoretical importance is further increased when we consider
their other role within the LGM: LTs or entries for the verbal
subclasses are also to be taken as the foundational blocks for the
explanation of the grammar of the predicates under study.
Given the architecture of the lexical class of sound, two general
LTs must be posited:
1) sound emission: [[CAUS.sub.1,2] INSTR3 [[do' (x,
[make' (x, y <sound'>)])] & [INGR exist' (y)]]]
2) sound location: [[LOC.sub.in1] ([CAUS.sub.2,3]) [be-LOC (x,
[do' (y, [make' (y, z <sound'>)])])]]
Within the LGM, LTs are conceived as lexical representations which
encode syntactic and semantic information within the same format. Thus,
the format of a lexical entry or LT consists of two components: a
semantic constituent composed of semantic primitives (Wierzbicka 1987,
1996; Goddard--Wierzbicka 2002's Natural Semantic Metalanguage)
and/or lexical functions (Mel'cuk 1988, 1989; Mel'cuk--Wanner
1996), together with internal variables which are marked by numerical
subscripts, and a semantic-syntactic component encoded by RRG's
logical structures (LS).
As regards the semantic-syntactic component, Van Valin--LaPolla
(1997) propose a system of lexical representation, by means of LSs which
describe verbal predicates in terms of their Aktionsart or internal
temporal properties. This classification implies a way to capture
syntactic and morphological phenomena, characteristic of the different
verbal classes. Thus, in Van Valin (2005: 33) six classes of verbal
predicates are distinguished: states [+static, -dynamic, -telic,
-punctual], activities [-static, +dynamic,-telic,-punctual],
achievements [-static, -dynamic, +telic, +punctual], semelfactives
[-static, [+ or -] dynamic, -telic, +punctual], accomplishments
[-static, -dynamic, +telic, -punctual], and active accomplishments
[-static, +dynamic, +telic, -punctual], together with their causative counterparts. Table 1 below shows the lexical representations
corresponding to the verbal classes mentioned above (Van Valin 2005:
45):
Table 1. Lexical representations for Aktionsart classes
Verb Class Logical Structure
STATE predicate' (x) or (x, y)
ACTIVITY do' (x, [predicate' (x) or (x, y)])
ACHIEVEMENT INGR predicate' (x) or (x, y), or
INGR do' (x, [predicate' (x) or (x, y)])
SEMELFACTIVE SEML predicate' (x) or (x, y)
SEMI, do' (x, [predicate' (x) or (x, y)])
ACCOMPLISHMENT BECOME predicate' (x) or (x, y), or
BECOME do' (x, [predicate' (x) or (x, y)])
ACTIVE
ACCOMPLISHMENT
do' (x, [predicate1' (x, (y))]) & INGR predicate2' (z, x) or (y)
CAUSATIVE [alpha] CAUSE [beta], where [alpha], [beta] are
logical structures of any type
By way of illustration, consider the following examples extracted
from Van Valin (2004):
a. STATES
Dana saw the picture, see' (Dana, picture)
b. ACTIVITIES
Carl ate pizza, do' (Carl, [eat' (Carl, pizza)])
c. ACHIEVEMENTS
The window shattered. INGR shattered" (window)
d. SEMELFACTIVES
Dana glimpsed the picture. SEML see' (Dana, picture)
e. ACCOMPLISHMENTS
The snow melted. BECOME melted' (snow)
f. ACTIVE ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Carl ate the pizza, do' (Carl, [eat' (Carl, pizza)])
& INGR consumed' (pizza)
g. CAUSATIVES
STATE: The dog scared the boy. [do' (dog, O)] CAUSE
[feel' (boy, [afraid'])]
ACTIVITY: Felix bounced the ball. [do' (Felix, O)] CAUSE
[do' (ball, [bounce' (ball)])]
ACHIEVEMENT: The burglar shattered the window. [do' (burglar,
O)]CAUSE [INGR shattered' (window)]
SEMELFACTIVE: Sam flashed the light. [do' (Sam, O)] CAUSE
[SEML do' (light, [flash' (light)])]
ACCOMPLISHMENT: Max melted the ice. [do' (Max, O)] CAUSE
[BECOME melted' (ice)]
ACTIVE Mary fed the pizza to the child [do' (Mary, O)]
ACCOMPLISHMENT: CAUSE [do' (child, [eat' (child, pizza)])
& INGR consumed' (pizza)]
As Table 1 shows, LSs follow the conventions of formal semantics.
Constants, in boldface followed by a prime, are part of the semantic
metalanguage and will be applied to any language. However, lexical items from the language under study will fill variables in normal typeface.
Finally, the elements in capitals, such as INGR, SEML, BECOME, or CAUSE,
will modify the predicate (Van Valin 2005: 42-49).
However, LSs lack the semantic information characteristic of
lexical classes. Therefore, in order to construct a LT, LSs will be
complemented by a semantic decomposition in terms of ontological constants or internal variables and semantic primitives corresponding to
the different lexical classes. In this regard, Mairal--Faber (in press)
propose to combine Wierzbicka (1996)'s inventory of semantic
primitives (already integrated in RRG's LSs) with their own
adaptation of the lexical functions formulated by Mel'cuk--Wanner
(1996), in order to account for lexical domain-specific relations. Thus,
the semantic metalanguage used for the codification of the meaning
parameters of a LT will be based on Wierzbicka's Natural Semantic
Metalanguage, Mel'cuk's lexical functions, and the principles
of lexical organization from the LGM. The result will be a procedure of
lexical representation where meaning description is encapsulated and
interacts with the syntactic behaviour of lexical units:
Lexical templates conflate both syntactic information (those
aspects of the meaning of a word which are grammatically relevant)
and semantic information (those aspects which act as distinctive
parameters within a whole lexical class) into one unified
representation (Mairal--Faber 2002: 54).
The syntactic component of the LT in (1) above codifies an active
accomplishment LS with two subevents and two external argument positions
(x) and (y), marked in Roman letters, which will have a syntactic
representation. Therefore, in verbs of sound emission an effector (x)
produces a sound (y) and in turn causes the subsequent existence of that
sound, as encoded in the terminal subevent with the operator INGR
standing for a punctual state of affairs. Furthermore, this LS is
modified by the lexical functions CAUS1,2 and INSTR3, which refer to the
means (3) by which the effector (1) achieves this sound (2):
3) He clypode mid micelre stemne
NOM-he PRET-cry with DAT-great DAT-voice
'He cried with a loud voice'
(B&T: Homl. Th. i. 596, 5: Bd. 3, 2; S. 524, 21: Byrht. Th.
132, 33; By. 25: 139, 19; By. 256).
The LT corresponding to verbs of sound location, see (2) above,
expresses a locative relation between a certain place (1) and a sound
(3), by means of a stative LS [be-LOC (x, [do' (y, [make' (y,
z <sound'>)])])], which involves a subactivity specifying the
source of such sound: [do' (y, [make' (y, z
<sound'>)])]. Thus, in the semantic component the lexical
function [LOC.sub.in1] will modify the event that relates the causing
entity (2) and the sound produced (3), that is, [LOC.sub.in1] (CAUS2,3):
4) Dynep upheofon
PRES-resound NOM-heaven
'Heaven above shall resound'
(B&T: Exon. 116 b; Th. 448, 25; Dom. 59:21 b; Th. 58, 5; Cri.
931).
Turning to the subclass of sound emission, once the general LT has
been described, the hyponymic subclasses will inherit the information
provided by the hyperonymic ones. As shown above, this subclass is
divided into three parts: "Sounds produced by living
creatures", "Sounds produced by nature" and "Sounds
produced by objects". Firstly, within "Sounds produced by
living creatures" the first hyponymic subclass is "To make a
sound", which will enable us to account for loud sounds, soft
sounds, or sounds indicating an emotion. This will be reflected in the
corresponding LTs below:
5) [[CAUS.sub.1](living creature),2 INSTR3 [[do' (x,
[make' (x, y <MAGN sound'>)])]]]
He hlude stefne ne cirmde
NOM-he DAT-loud DAT-voice not PRET-cry
'He did not cry out with a loud voice' (B&T: 113a;
Th. 432, 20; Ra. 49, 3).
6) [[CAUS.sub.1(living creature),2] [INSTR.sub.3] [[do' (x,
[make' (x, y <ANTI MAGN sound'>)])]]]
Hi clumiap mid ceaflum dae hi
NOM-they PRES-mutter with DAT-jaw where NOM-they scoldon clypian
PRET-should INFIN-speak aloud
'They mutter with their jaws where they ought to speak
aloud'
(B&T: Wanl. Catal. 30, 14).
7) [INVOLV [SYMPT.sub.1] ([FEEL.sub.3]) [CAUS.sub.1(living
creature),2] ([[feel.about' (x, y)]
CAUSE [do' (x, [make' (x, z <sound'>)])]])]
Da hrymde heo to hire hiwum
then PRET-cry NOM-she to DAT-her DAT-appearance
'Then she cried out to her appearance' (B&T: Gen. 39,
14, 15).
The LTs in (5) and (6) describe the manner in which the sound is
produced by means of the lexical functions MAGN and ANTI MAGN, for loud
and soft sounds, respectively, whereas the LT in (7) includes a semantic
representation with two new functions, INVOLV and SYMPT, which encode a
subevent as a causing (CAUS1(living creature),2) state of affairs in the
emission of a sound. Therefore, the effector (1) experiences SYMPT1 an
emotional reaction (FEEL3) such as unhappiness (FEEL3: unhappiness4),
happiness (FEEL3: happiness) or pain (FEEL3: pain), which causes the
emission of a sound]. FEEL appears in capital letters to mark its
primitive nature.
The second subclass under "Sounds produced by living
creatures", "To make a sound related to body conditions",
presents three main LTs describing the instrument by which the effector
(1) produces a sound, that is, by breathing (INSTR1 (breath)), by
expelling air (INSTR1 (expel air)), and by gnashing one's teeth
(INSTR1 (gnash teeth)), respectively:
8) [[CAUS.sub.1(living creature),2] [INSTR.sub.1] (breath)
[[do' (x, [make' (x, y <sound'>)])]]]
On minum bedde ic sice and wepe
on DAT-my DAT-bed NOM-I PRES-sigh and PRES-weep
'On my bed I sigh and weep' (B&T: Ps. Th. 6, 5).
9) [[CAUS.sub.1(living creature),2] [INSTR.sub.1] (expel air)
[[do' (x, [make' (x, y < sound'>)])]]]
Daet he gelome gefnese
that NOM-he often PRES-sneeze
'That he often sneezes' (B&T: L. M. 2, 59; Lchdm. ii.
282, 27).
10) [[CAUS.sub.1(living creature),2] [INSTR.sub.1] (gnash teeth)
[[do' (x, [make' (x, y < sound'>)])]]]
Ic cearcige odde gristbitige
NOM-I PRES-gnash or PRES-grind teeth
'I gnash or grind the teeth' (B&T: AElfc. Gr. 26;
Sore. 29, 7).
Both (8) and (9) can be further specified as [INSTR.sub.1] (MAGN
breath) as in (11) and [INSTR.sub.1] ([LOC.sub.ab1 (5) (BODY_PART:
throat)] expel air) or ([LOC.sub.ab1 (BODYPART: nose)] expel air) in
(12) and (13), respectively, with regard to the manner in which the
effector breathes, that is, quickly and audibly (e.g. hwosan, or]oian)
and the location from which the effector expels air, [LOC.sub.ab1], in
this case from one's throat (e.g. bealcettan, sugan) or nose (e.g.
fnesan, hrutan):
11) [[CAUS.sub.1(living creature),2] [INSTR.sub.1] (MAGN breath)
[[do' (x, [make' (x, y <sound'>)])]]]
He hefiglice asworette
NOM-he intensely PRET-sigh
'He sighed intensely' (B&T: Bd. 3, 11; S. 536, 33).
12) [[CAUS.sub.1(living creature),2] [INSTR.sub.1] ([LOC.sub.ab1
(BODY_PART: throat)] expel air) [[do' (x, [make' (x, y <
sound'>)])]]]
He sceal oft bealcettan
NOM-he PRES-will often INFIN-belch
'He will often belch' (T&C: 236, 14).
13) [[CAUS.sub.1(living creature),2] [INSTR.sub.1] ([LOC.sub.abl]
(BODY_PART: nose) expel air) [[do' (x, [make' (x, y <
sound'>)])]]]
da he paene [{cyrcward{] gehyrde ofer
then NOM-he ACC-the ACC-church-keeper PRET-hear over eall hrutan
ACC-all INFIN-snore
'Then he heard the church-keeper snore over all' (HSK:
<Coleofri.doc R 31>).
The third subclass corresponding to "Sounds produced by living
creatures" takes into account the verbs of sound that involve the
effector (1) producing a sound like an animal, which is codified by the
semantic restriction (LIKE animal affecting the internal
[variable.sub.(1)] [CAUS.sub.1(LIKE animal)]: (6)
14) [[CAUS.sub.1(LIKE wild animal/domestic animal/bird),2]
[INSTR.sub.3] [[do' (x, [make' (x, y <sound'>)])]]]
Hwilum hi douton eall swa wulfas
sometimes NOM-they PRET-howl NOM-all like NOM-wolf
'Sometimes all of them howled like wolves' (B&T:
Shrn. 52, 29; Bt. 38, 1; Fox 194, 36).
Secondly, with regard to the subdomain "Sounds produced by
nature", these predicates only denote an activity, where the
effector (1) is a natural force which produces a sound. In the
description of the different verbal classes in terms of their
Aktionsart, the semantic feature which differentiates activities form
active accomplishments is the telicity of the latter. In RRG, the telic
uses of activity verbs are termed "active accomplishments". As
Van Valin (2004: 30) states, "whether a verb is being used as an
activity or active accomplishment is directly a function either of the
quantification of the object NP (consumption and creation verbs) or of
the PP that accompanies it (motion verbs)". The rule which captures
the alternation between activity and active accomplishment verbs is
presented below (2004: 18):
Activity [creation] [right arrow] Active Accomplishment: do'
(x, [pred' (x, y)]) [right arrow] do' (x, [pred' (x,
y)])INGR exist' (y)
This lack of telicity in "Sounds produced by nature"
denotes that the action does not encode in its semantics a terminal
point; i.e. there is no indication of the end of the sound production
process. Thus the LT in (15) will select from the general LT the first
subevent:
15) [[CAUS.sub.1(nature),2] [do' (x, [make' (x, y
<sound'>)])]]
Se puner oft egeslice brastlap
NOM-the NOM-thunder often fearfully PRES-crackle
'The thunder often crackles fearfully' (B&T: Lchdm.
iii. 280, 13).
Thirdly, as far as the subclass "Sounds produced by
objects" is concerned, the LTs for its subordinate groupings will
differ in the type of sound produced, that is, metallic, explosive, dull
or sibilant, as the examples below illustrate, and in the kind of
instrument used:
16) [[CAUS.sub.1,2] [INSTR.sub.3(object/LIKE musical instrument)]
[[do' (x, [make' (x, y <sound'>)])] & [INGR
exist' (y)]]]
Naefre mondaes hlude byman ablawep
never NOM-man so loudly ACC-trumpet PRES-blow
'Never does a man blow the trumpet so loudly' (B&T:
Exon. l17b; Th. 451, 27; Dom. 110).
17) [[CAUS.sub.1,2] [INSTR.sub.1,3(object/friction/rub)] [[do'
(x, [make' (x, y <(TYPE: LIKE metal) sound'>)])]]]
Strengas gurron
NOM-rope PRET-creak
'The ropes creaked' (B&T: Andr. Kmbl. 748; An. 374).
18) [[CAUS.sub.1,2] [INSTR.sub.3(object)] [[do' (x,
[make' (x, y <(TYPE: sibilant) sound'>)])] & [INGR
exist' (y)]]]
He hwystlode stranglic[e] stemne
NOM-he PRET-hiss ACC-great ACC-voice
'He [the devil] made a great hissing' (B&T: Nar. 43,
17).
The following table will show the hyperonymic and hyponymic LTs of
the lexical class of sound:
Table 2: Hyperonymic and hyponymic templates of the lexical class of
sound
SOUND VERBS
SOUND EMISSION
[CAUS1,2 1NSTR3 [[do' (x, [make' (x, y <sound'>)])] & [INGR exist'
(y)]]]
Sound produced by living creatures
To make a sound
a loud sound [[CAUS1.sub.(living creature),2] [INSTR.sub.3] [[do'
(x, [make' (x, y <MAGN sound'>)])] & [INGR exist'
(y)]]]
a soft sound [[CAUS1.sub.(living creature),2] [INSTR.sub.3] [[do'
(x, [make' (x, y <ANTI MAGN sound'>)])] & [INGR
exist' (y)]]]
a sound indicat- [INVOLV [SYMPT.sub.1] ([FEEL.sub.3])
ing an emotion [CAUS1.sub.(living creature),2] ([do'
(x, [make' (x, y <sound'>)])])]
unhappiness [INVOLV SYMPT1 ([FEEL.sub.3]: unhappiness)
[CAUS.sub.1(living creature),2]
([do' (x, [make' (x, y <sound'>)])])]
happiness [INVOLV [SYMPT.sub.1] ([FEEL.sub.3]: happiness)
[CAUS.sub.1(living creature),2] ([do' (x,
[make' (x, y <sound'>)])])]
pain [INVOLV [SYMPT.sub.1] ([FEEL.sub.3]: pain)
[CAUS.sub.1(living creature),2] ([do' (x,
[make' (x, y <sound'>)])])]
To make a sound related to body conditions
by breathing [[CAUS.sub.1(living creature),2] [INSTR.sub.1]
(breath) [[do' (x, [make'
(x, y <sound'>)])] & [INGR exist' (y)]]]
quickly and [[CAUS.sub.1(living creature),2] [INSTR.sub.1]
audibly (MAGN breath) [[do' (x, [make' (x,
y <sound'>)])] & [INGR exist'
(y)]]]
by expelling air [[CAUS.sub.1(living creature),2] [INSTR.sub.1]
(expel air) [[do' (x,
[make' (x, y < sound'>)])] & [INGR exist'
(y)]]]
from one's throat [[CAUS.sub.1(living creature),2] [INSTR.sub.1]
(LOCab1 (BODY_PART: throat)
expel air) [[do' (x, [make' (x, y <
sound'>)])] & [INGR exist' (y)]]]
from one's nose [[CAUS.sub.1(living creature),2] [INSTR.sub.1]
(LOCab1 (BODY_PART: nose)
expel air) [[do' (x, [make' (x, y <
sound'>)])] & [INGR exist' (y)]]]
by gnashing [[CAUS.sub.1(living creature),2] [INSTR.sub.1] (gnash
one's teeth teeth) [[do' (x, [make' (x, y < sound'>)])] &
[INGR exist' (y)]]]
To make a sound like an animal
like a wild, angry [[CAUS.sub.1(LIKE wild animal),2] [INSTR.sub.3]
animal [[do' (x, [make' (x, y <sound'>)])] & [INGR
exist' (y)]]]
like a domestic [[CAUS.sub.1(LIKE domestic animal),2] [INSTR.sub.3]
animal [[do' (x, [make' (x, y <sound'>)])] & [INGR exist'
(y)]]]
like a bird [[CAUS.sub.1(LIKE bird),2] [INSTR.sub.3] [[do' (x,
[make' (x, y <sound'>)])] & [INGR exist' (y)]]]
Sound produced by nature
[CAUS.sub.1(nature),2] [do' (x, [make' (x, y <sound'>)])]]
Sound produced by objects
To make a musical sound [[CAUS.sub.1,2] [INSTR.sub.3(object/LIKE
musical instrument)] [[do' (x, [make' (x,
y <sound'>)])] & [INGR exist' (y)]]]
a metallic fric- [[CAUS.sub.1,2] [
tional sound INSTR.sub.1,3(object/friction/rub)]
[[do' (x, [make' (x, y <(TYPE: LIKE
metal) sound'>)])] & [INGR exist'
(y)]]]
a punctual, ex- [[CAUS.sub.1,2] [INSTR.sub.3(object)]
plosive sound [[do' (x, [make' (x, y <(TYPE: explosive)
sound'>)])] & [INGR exist' (y)]]]
a dull, punctual [[CAUS.sub.1,2] [INSTR.sub.3(object)]
sound [[do' (x, [make' (x, y <(TYPE: dull)
sound'>)])] & [INGR exist' (y)]]]
something hitting [[CAUS.sub.1,2]
against some- [INSTR.sub.1,3(object)]
thing else (hit) [[do' (x,
[make' (x, y <
(TYPE: dull)
sound'>)])] &
[INGR exist'
(y)]]]
an iterative, [[CAUS.sub.1,2] [INSTR.sub.3(object)] [[do' (x,
sibilant sound [make' (x, y <(TYPE: sibilant)
sound'>)])] & [INGR exist' (y)]]]
SOUND LOCATION
[[LOC.sub.in1] ([CAUS.sub.2,3]) [be-LOC (x, [do' (y, [make' (y, z
<sound'>)])])]]
5. First phase of linking: the catalogue of constructions
In the previous section the organization of the verbal domain has
been made explicit, and a description of the LTs that encompass the
semantic content of each subdomain has been provided. This section will
account for the participation of the verbs of the class under study in
the different constructions that have been found in our corpus of
examples.
According to Goldberg (1995: 4), "a distinct construction is
defined to exist if one or more of its properties are not strictly
predictable from knowledge of other constructions existing in the
grammar"; its definition is as follows:
C is a CONSTRUCTION [iff.sub.dcf] C is a form-meaning pair
<[F.sub.i], [S.sub.i]> such that some aspect of [F.sub.i] or some
aspect of [S.sub.i] is not strictly predict-able from C's component
parts or from other previously established constructions.
In the LGM, the presence of one predicate in a given construction
is accounted for by means of an interface mechanism between the semantic
representation (LTs) of the verbal subdomains and that corresponding to
the semantics of the construction. The semantics of every construction
will also be rendered in the format of an LT. Such linking mechanism is
termed the "Lexical Template Modeling Process", which reads as
follows:
Lexical templates can be modeled by suppressing external variables,
instantiating internal variables, eliminating operators (e.g.
CAUSE), or else, by introducing elements resulting from the fusion
with other templates iff there is a compatibility between the
features in the lexical template and the syntactic construction
under scrutiny (Mairal--Faber 2002: 87).
This principle involves the existence of a set of matching
conditions that mediate between the semantics of the predicates and that
of the constructions. Such conditions have been expressed with a format
of linking rules, among which the following will be relevant for our
description (Mairal--Cortes, in press):
1. "Full matching": There must be a copy/identification
of variables, subevents and operators, between both the canonical LT and
the constructional LT, e.g. agent-subject construction or instrument
construction.
2. "Suppression of variables": The variables/operators in
the canonical LT must accommodate to the number of variables of the
constructional template. Canonical LT variables/operators can be
suppressed iff the basic interpretation of the canonical LT is not
violated, e.g. location-subject construction or instrument-subject
construction.
3. "Predicate and operator integration condition": The
constructional template may introduce a new predicate into the canonical
lexical template iff the semantics of the added predicate is compatible
with the semantic content of the lexical template, e.g. location-subject
construction or reaction-object construction.
4. "Partial matching": The semantics of the
constructional template must be compatible with at least one component
of the canonical LT, e.g. reactionobject construction (incompatibility with the second subevent [INGR exist" (Y)]).
Let us turn now to describe the specificities of each of the
constructions that have been revealed in the study of the corpus of
verbs that express the location of sounds.
The basic LT for this subclass which was described in (2) is
repeated in (19):
19) [[LOC.sub.in1] ([CAUS.sub.2,3]) [be-LOC (x, [do' (y,
[make' (y, z <sound'>)])]
This entry places the production of (a) sound(s) in a locative
coordinate in such a way that the production of the sound is
backgrounded semantically and the relevant semantic event is the
relation established between the activity and a certain spatial entity.
This is the reason why Levin (1993: 253) prefers to describe the PDE
equivalent class as a type of verbs of existence and distinguishes it
from the other types of sound verbs:
These verbs are often included among the verbs of sound emission
[...] but they do not actually seem to belong to this class. Rather
than describing the emission of a particular sound, they describe
the existence of a sound, although they are vague as to the exact
nature of the sound.
The hallmark for this class is the allowance by its members of the
so-called "swarm-with" alternation in PDE. Two are the
constructions involved in PDE, which following Dowty (2001) are labelled
"Agent-Subject (A-Subject) Form" (20) and
"Location-Subject (L-Subject) Form" (21):
20) Bees swarm in the garden.
21) The garden swarms with bees.
Dowty (2001: [section] 1.2.3) describes the "swarm-with"
alternation as follows:
The best systematic way to describe the SWARM-WITH construction is
via a lexical rule that takes an ordinary intransitive verb as
input and alters both its syntactic valence and its meaning ...
Verbs as found in A-subject sentences are the input to this rule,
and the corresponding verbs as found in L-subject sentences are the
output.
Therefore, from the general LT in (19) the following constructional
LTs can be derived:
22) Agent-subject:
[[LOC.sub.in1] ([CAUS.sub.2,3]) [be-LOC (x, [do' (y,
[make' (y, z <sound'>)])]
Drihten hleorralp of heofonum
NOM-God PRES-sound from DAT-heaven
'God made a sound from heaven'
(B&T: Bd. 4, 3; S. 519, 19; Ps. Spl. 17, 15).
23) Location-subject:
[CULM [LOC.sub.in1] (MANY [CAUS.sub.2,3]) [be-LOC (x, [do' (y,
[make' (y, z <sound'>)])]
Dyneb upheofon
PRES-resound NOM-heaven
'Heaven above shall resound'
(B&T: Exon. 116 b; Th. 448, 25; Dom. 59:21 b; Th. 58, 5; Cri.
931).
The constructional LT in (22) shows a full matching with the
subclass LT in (19), whereas in (23) two new operators have been
included, CULM and MANY. The former signals 'the highest point
of' (in this case, the fact that the place appears completely
affected), whereas MANY modifying CAUSE will codify the dynamic texture
hypothesis mentioned by Dowty (2001: [section] 1.2.2):
Location-subject sentences describe a situation where a kind of
event is occurring simultaneously and repetitively throughout all
parts of a place or space. (The events are distributed throughout
all subregions (or surface, or space).) These subregions of
activity are so small, numerous, and homogeneous that the dominant
perception they create together is a "texture of movement" in the
surface as a whole. That is, the small events and the small agents
performing them may not be readily distinguishable as individuals.
(...) Likewise, other kinds of L-subject sentences (...) describe
situations in which individual (...) sound sources are less salient
than the overall effect they produce throughout a region.
Thus, the location-subject construction is associated with what has
been called a "holistic" or "affected"
interpretation; that is, the location is understood to be in some sense
"completely affected by the action" (Levin 1993: 50). This
holistic meaning is derived from the construction itself, and will not
be directly motivated by the semantics of sound verbs. This supports the
view within the LGM when it is postulated that, prior to the assignment
of morpho-syntactic rules, there is a linking phase between the LTs of a
class and the constructions where the predicates of such a class
participate. It would be impossible to specify the holistic meaning of
the locative alternation if constructional LTs are not considered
independent entities in the model with a capacity to contribute to the
final semantic configuration of sentences. This assumption is also
shared by Goldberg (1995: 28):
Since the mapping between semantics and syntax is done via
constructions, not via lexical entries, that there should be a
class of "syntactically relevant aspects of verb meaning" follows
from the existence of constructions, which are independently
motivated.
With regard to the corpus of verbs which express the emission of a
sound, the following constructions will be described: the
instrument-subject alternation, the reaction-object construction. The
general LT for this subdomain is repeated in (24):
24) [[CAUS.sub.1,2] [INSTR.sub.3] [[do' (x, [make' (x, y
<sound'>)])] & [INGR exist' (y)]]]
As stated above, the LS contained in (24) is modified by the
semantic operators CAUS1,2 e INSTR3,. INSTR refers to the potential
instrument by means of which the effector produces a sound, and together
with CAUS they will codify the causal chain linking the effector and the
implement (in RRG terms) or intermediary instrument (following
Levin's words). According to Levin (1993: 80), intermediary
instruments (e.g. David broke the window with a hammer) differ from
enabling/facilitating instruments (e.g. Doug ate the ice cream with a
spoon) in that only the former may turn up as subjects (cf. The hammer
broke the window vs. *The spoon ate the ice cream).
Thus, the LT in (24) will be modulated in order to obtain the
constructional LTs below, involving the instrument subject alternation:
25) Instrument construction:
[[CAUS1.sub.(living creature),2] [INSTR.sub.3] [[do' (x,
[make' (x, y <MAGN sound'>)])]]]
He clypode mid micelre stemne
NOM-he PRET-cry with DAT-great DAT-voice
'He cried with a loud voice'
(B&T: Homl. Th. i. 596, 5: Bd. 3, 2; S. 524, 21: Byrht. Th.
132, 33; By. 25: 139, 19; By. 256).
26) Instrument-subject construction:
[[CAUS1.sub.(living creature),2] [INSTR.sub.3] [[do' (x,
[make' (x, y <MAGN sound'>)])]]]
Dynedon scildas
PRET-ring NOM-shield
'The shields rang'
(B&T: Judth. 11; Thw. 24, 24; Jud. 204).
The causative nature of the predicates expressing sound emission is
precisely justified by the fact that they can participate in the
instrument subject alternation. Therefore, the alternation between both
constructions concerns the existence of two potential effectors: the
effector in (25) and the implement-effector in (26).
On the other hand, the fact that the verbs of sound appear in the
reaction-object construction is a proof of the existence of a network of
semantic relations (a Semantic Macronet, following Faber--Mairal 1999:
251-257's terminology (7)) existing between the lexical classes of
a given language. Levin (1993: 98) states that "certain
intransitive verbs--particularly verbs of manner of speaking and verbs
of gestures and signs--take non-subcategorised objects that express a
reaction (an emotion or disposition) ... When these verbs take such
objects they take on an extended sense which might be paraphrased
"express (a reaction) by V-ing", where "V" is the
basic sense of the verb; this construction was already present in OE,
and the corresponding LT is as follows:
27) Reaction-object construction:
[INVOLV [SYMPT.sub.1] ([FEEL.sub.3]) [CAIS.sub.1(living
creature),2] [[do' (x, [make' (x, z <sound'>)])]])]
Da hrymde heo to hire hiwum
then PRET-cry NOM-she to DAT-her DAT-appearance
'Then she cried out to her appearance' (B&T: Gen. 39,
14, 15).
As shown in (27), this construction will allow OE sound verbs to be
linked semantically to the lexical class of feeling. For this reason,
the constructional LT requires to encode the semantic subevent [INVOLV
SYMPT1 (FEEL3)] as a causing state of affairs in the emission of a
sound. Again, as occurred in the location-subject construction, the
construction itself modulates the general meaning of sound verbs,
contributing to their semantics by adding a specific subevent to the
basic LT.
Other constructions found in our analysis of verbs of the subclass
of sound emission involve the addition of a directional phrase
indicating that the entity emitting the sound is also carrying out a
motion activity. According to Levin (1993: 105-106) and Mora (2001:
[section] 6.1), when PDE sound emission verbs are complemented by this
kind of directionals the implication is that the emission of the sound
and the motion are concomitant. Levin paraphrases the meaning of this
construction as "go by V-ing" thus involving that the effector
entity is also a mover. Mora (2001: [section] 6.1) indicates a
restriction on the emitter argument for the construction to express
directed motion, namely that it should not be agentive, and if so the
implication is that the noise is not produced by the articulatory organs, but by accessories or clothes that the animate subject is
wearing while moving.
This type of construction can be found in Anglo-Saxon sentences of
the following type:
28) stunede sio brune yd wid odre
PRET-dash NOM-the NOM-dark NOM-wave against ACC-other
'One dark wave dashed against the other' (B&T: Met
26, 29).
Another interesting feature of this construction is the possibility
of having variable Aktionsart specification, depending on the semantics
of the directional complement: if it indicates a goal or destination for
the motion, the interpretation is telic, as in the previous example, and
the corresponding LT encodes an Active Accomplishment LS: (8)
29) [INVOLV (MOVE1 & LOCad4,1) CAUS1,2 INSTR3 [[do' (x,
[make' (x, y <sound'>)])] & [INGR exist' (y)]]]
Otherwise, the construction is non-telic and, therefore, an
activity: (9)
30) Da deoflu [...] ongunnon hryman up on
NOM-the NOM-devil PRET-begin INFIN-cry upwards to
daere lyfte pus cwedende
DAT-the DAT-sky thus GERUND-say
'The devils began to cry out upwards to the sky saying as
follows' (DOEC: AECHom II, 31-32 B1.2.34).
31) Hlydad tosomne, [...] singad ond swinsiap
PRES-make-noise together PRES-sing and PRES-make-pleasing-sound
supan ond norpan, eastan ond westan
south and north east and west
'They make a noise together, sing and make a pleasing sound
(from/to) south and north, east and west' (HSK: <Cochrist.doc R
822>).
The semantics of non-telic directional phrases in our corpus is in
many occasions ambiguous: it is not easy to distinguish always whether
it is the sound-emitter that displaces itself from one place or whether
it just moves part of its body/constituent parts or the instrument with
the intention of orientating the emission of the sound into a certain
direction, as if it were actually the entity being displaced (compare
(28) and (30) with (31), where it seems more evident that there is no
implication of displacement on the part of the emitter). The
corresponding LT is as follows:
32) [INVOLV (MOVE1/3,4) CAUS1,2 INSTR3 [do' (x, [make'
(x, y <sound'>)])]]
Some of the complements indicating motion also involve a meaning of
intended contact, thus reminding of a conative interpretation, as in:
33) Hi grundon ofer me mid todum
NOM-they PRET-grind over ACC-me with DAT-tooth heard
DAT-hard
'They ground over me with violent teeth' (B&T: Ps.
Spl. 34, 19; Andr. Kmbl. 746; An. 373).
34) Hy gristbitoton on me topum heora
NOM-they PRET-gnash on ACC/DAT-me DAT-tooth GEN-their
'They gnashed with their teeth on me' (T&C: Ps. Rdr.
34, 16).
35) Clyniga paet dor
IMPER-knock ACC-the ACC-door
'Knock at the door' (T&C: Lk. R. 15, 25).
In fact, there is an area of overlap between the class of sound
verbs and the one of verbs of contact. This is more evident in cases
like
36) He ymbe da herehupe hlemmep togaedre
NOM-he around NOM-the NOM-prey PRES-clash together
grimme goman
ACC-fierce ACC-jaw
'He clashes his fierce jaws together around the prey'
(B&T: Exon. 97 b, Th. 363, 30; Wal. 61).
37) Tosomne cnyllap
together PRES-clash
'They clash together' (T&C: Wrt. Voc. ii. 134, 66).
where the two types of meaning are intertwined to the extent that
it is impossible to separate them, because of the occurrence of the
"together" phrases. The corresponding LT is:
38) [INVOLV (TOUCHING1,4) CAUS1,2 INSTR3 [[do' (x [??] y,
[make' (x [??] y, z <sound'>)])] & [INGR exist'
(z)]]]
A feature worth mentioning about this type of meaning extensions or
overlaps between classes is the fact that they are associated to
variations in the syntactic behaviour of predicates. This is one more
side-effect of the "Lexical Iconicity Principle": the polysemy
of lexical units is associated to syntactic variation. We propose to
label this as a phenomenon of polysyntax. Such a phenomenon explains
that a verb of sound, for instance, when constructed with a locative
phrase can have a meaning of contact, or when there is a recipient
expressed in sentences, there is an overlap between the subclass of
sound emission and the lexical class of speech verbs. That is, a
recipient for a sound makes it to be interpreted as a kind of message:
39) Hreopon friccan, caseres bodan:
PRET-shout NOM-herald GEN-emperor DAT-messenger:
Eow peos cwen lapap, secga to
DAT-you NOM-this NOM-queen PRES-ask speak to salore, paet ge
seonoddomas rihte
DAT-hall so that NOM-you ACC-council-decree correctly reccen
PRES-explain
'The heralds shouted to the emperor's messenger:
"This queen asks you to give a speech to the hall so that you
explain the decree of the council correctly"' (HSK:
<Cocynew.doc R 550>).
The LT for this overlapping construction involves a variation of
the selection restrictions for the second argument of the LS, and a
modification of the semantic component showing the intentionality to
convey a message:
40) [PURP (SAY1,2,4)CAUS1,2 INSTR3 [[do' (x, [make' (x, y
<message'>)])] & [INGR exist' (y)]]]
6. Second phase of linking: the grammatical exponents of
constructions
Once we have presented an adequate description of the semantics of
the constructions in which the group of verbs sharing the core meaning
of sound participate, the second phase of linking will make use of a set
of morpho-syntactic rules in order to describe the morphological and
syntactic structure of the constituents in the different constructions.
Thus, the macrorole assignment principles and case assignment rules will
predict the syntactic and morphological behaviour of these verbal
predicates from their semantic structure, with the result that the
information to be included in the lexical representations will be
greatly reduced.
In order to account for the argument structure of a verb, Van
Valin--LaPolla (1997: 139) suggest two general semantic relations, the
actor and undergoer macroroles, which are "generalizations across
the argument-types found with particular verbs which have significant
grammatical consequences." The actor macrorole comprises those
arguments whose nature is closer to that of an agent and the undergoer
subsumes those patient-like arguments (Van Valin 2005: 6067).
As Kailuweit (2004) points out, macroroles are categories mediating
between semantics and syntax. Consequently, they also have
morpho-syntactic characteristics: in OE macroroles are only assigned to
core arguments, that is, arguments marked by a grammatical case, in
opposition to oblique arguments, which are introduced by
argument-marking or argument-adjunct prepositions or appear as oblique
noun phrases. According to Van Valin--LaPolla (1997: 159),
argument-adjunct prepositions are predicates "in their own
right," which "introduce an argument into the clause and share
it with the LS of the core", whereas argument-marking prepositions,
as their name states, signal the core arguments of the verb (see also
Gonzalez 2004b). We will show examples of both prepositions in the
morpho-syntactic structure of the instrument and the reaction-object
constructions below, respectively.
The interaction between arguments and macroroles is established in
the macrorole assignment principles (Van Valin 2005: 63):
a. Number: the number of macroroles a verb takes is less than or
equal to the number of arguments in its logical structure,
1. If a verb has two or more arguments in its LS, it will take two
macroroles.
2. If a verb has one argument in its LS, it will take one
macrorole.
b. Nature: for verbs which take one macrorole,
1. If the verb has an activity predicate in its LS, the macrorole
is actor.
2. If the verb has no activity predicate in its LS, the macrorole
is undergoer.
Moreover, case assignment rules are also related to the assignment
of macroroles. Based on Van Valin (2005: 108), we propose the following
case assignment rules for OE verbs of sound:
a. Assign nominative case to the highest ranking macrorole.
b. Assign accusative case to the other macrorole macrorole.
c. Assign dative/genitive case to non-macrorole arguments.
Turning to the constructional LTs described above, the following
morphosyntactic structures will be obtained. First, with respect to the
"swarm-with" alternation, two constructional templates have
been obtained: agent-subject and location-subject constructions.
Applying the macrorole and case assignment principles to the
constructional LT corresponding to the agent-subject construction, its
morpho-syntactic behaviour will be as follows:
41) [LOCin1 (CAUS2,3) [be-LOC (x, [do' (y, [make' (y, z
<sound'>)])], x = 1, y = 2, z = 0
Drihten hleodrap of heofonum
'God made a sound from heaven' (B&T: Bd. 4, 3; S.
519, 19; Ps. Spl. 17, 15).
(x) [??] non-MR of + locative argument
(y) [??] Actor Nominative
As can be seen in (41), (x) cannot take a macrorole since it is the
first argument of a locative predicate be-LOC, whose second argument
will be the rest of the LS, [do' (y, [make' (y, z
<sound'>)]. Van Valin (2005: 63) states that PDE location
verbs with two arguments, such as lie, are macrorole-intransitive; that
is, the first argument will not receive actor status, and only will the
second argument be a candidate for macrorole status as an undergoer,
provided that it is a phrase. Note that in OE the same restriction holds
for the first argument, but as regards the second argument position in
(41), which is occupied by an event structure, the possibility of
assigning undergoer to this second argument is thus blocked. Because of
that, (x) will be realised as an adverbial construction (or adjunct, in
RRG's terms) introduced by the preposition of. Therefore, the
following candidate to receive a macrorole will be (y), first argument
of the subactivity [make' (y, z <sound'>)], taking the
actor macrorole and nominative case. However, Levin (1993: 50) points
out the fact that when the locative argument is not expressed by means
of a preposition as in (41), then it is associated with the
"holistic interpretation" introduced above, which means that
the locative element is understood as completely affected by repetitive
and simultaneous activities. Applying again RRG's morpho-syntactic
rules, given that (x) is the first argument in a locative intransitive
structure, it cannot receive macrororole status; however, it will
receive nominative case as it is the privileged syntactic argument,
which controls verb agreement in the sentence:
42) [CULM LOCin1 (MANY CAUS2,3) [be-LOC (x, [do' (y,
[make' (y, z <sound'>)])], x = 1, y = 0, z = o
Dynep upheofon
'Heaven above shall resound' (B&T: Exon. l16b; Th.
448, 25; Dora. 59:21 b; Th. 58, 5; Cri. 931).
(x) [??] non-MR Nominative
Second, as far as the instrument-subject alternation is concerned,
two constructions have been analysed: the instrument and the
instrument-subject constructions. With respect to the instrument
construction in (43), if the effector (1), the first internal variable
in the causal chain [CAUS1 (living creature), 2 INSTR3] and therefore
with preference to function as actor, is lexically saturated, that is,
it is linked to an external variable like (x), then it will take the
actor macrorole. In that case, the implement will be introduced by the
preposition mid or will take dative or instrumental case. In order to
capture this argument-marking preposition, we must apply the rule for
assigning mid in OE, based on Van Valin (2005: 114)'s lexical rule for the preposition with in PDE:
Assign mid to non-MR b argument if, given two arguments, a and b,
in a logical structure, with (1) both as possible candidates for a
particular macrorole and (2) a is equal or higher (to the left of
b) on the AUH [Actor Undergoer Hierarchy], b is not selected as
that macrorole.
Thus, we obtain the following morpho-syntactic structure:
43) [CAUS1(living creature),2 INSTR3 [[do' (x, [make' (x,
y <MAGN sound'>)])]]], x = 1, y = o
He clypode mid micelre stemne
'He cried out with a great sound'
(B&T: Homl. Th. i. 596, 5; Bd. 3, 2; S. 524, 21; Byrht. Th.
132, 33; By. 25: 139, 19; By. 256).
(x) [??] Actor Nominative
(3) [??] non-MR mid + instrument argument
On the contrary, if the internal variable (1) is not lexically
realised, as in (44), then the implement-effector (3), as the following
candidate to function as actor of the subevent [do' (x, [make'
(x, y <MAGN sound'>)])], will be linked to the external
variable (x):
44) [CAUS1(living creature),2 INSTR3 [[do' (x, [make' (x,
y <MAGN sound'>)])]]], x = 3, y = o Dynedon scildas
'The shields rang' (B&T: Judth. 11; Thw. 24, 24; Jud.
204).
(x) [??] Actor Nominative
Third, given the nature of the reaction-object construction, whose
object modulates the general meaning of verbs of sound, it must be
considered to introduce an argument-adjunct. In a similar fashion to
oblique instruments, reaction objects are the syntactic expression of an
internal variable associated to a subevent in the semantic component of
a LT which is not linked to an external variable of the LS in the same
LT. In fact, we propose the following general linking rule for this type
of semantic argument:
Assign oblique case to an internal variable argument if it is not
linked to an external variable in the LS; the oblique argument will
consequently have the status of an non-Macrorole core
argument-adjunct. The exact nature of the oblique marking (case or
prepositional expression) will depend of the exact semantic nature
of the event the internal variable is associated to.
As shown in (45), this rule explains the realisation of the
internal variable FEEL(3); it will be syntactically expressed by a
"to + dative" phrase:
45) [INVOLV SYMPT1 (FEEL3) CAUS1(living creature),2 [do' (x,
[make' (x, y <sound'>)])]])], x = 1, y = o
Da hrymde heo to hire hiwum
'Then she cried out to her appearance' (B&T: Gen. 39,
14, 15).
(x) [??] Actor Nominative
(3) [??] non-MR to + reaction argument
This rule accounts for the morpho-syntactic realization of
directional complements in (46) and (47), the oblique arguments in
sound-contact constructions like (48), and also the recipient argument
in sound emission as message constructions like (49):
46) [INVOLV (MOVE1 & LOCad4,1) CAUS1,2 INSTR3 [do' (x,
[make' (x, y <sound'>)])]], x = 1, y = o
stunede sio brune yd wid odre
'One dark wave dashed against the other' (B&T: Met
26, 29).
(x) [??] Actor Nominative
(4) [??] non-MR wi6 + directional argument
47) [INVOLV (MOVE1/3,4) CAUS1,2 INSTR3 [do' (x, [make'
(x, y <sound'>)])]], x = 1, y = o
Da deoflu [...] ongunnon hryman up on daere lyfte pus cwedende
'The devils began to cry out upwards to the sky saying as
follows' (DOEC: AECHom II, 31-32 B1.2.34).
(x) [??] Actor Nominative
(4) [??] non-MR on + directional argument
48) [INVOLV (TOUCHING1,4) CAUS1,2 INSTR3 [do' (x [??] y,
[make' (x [??] y, z <sound'>)])]], where x= 1/3, z = o
Hi grundon ofer me mid todum heard
'They ground over me with violent teeth' (B&T: Ps.
Spl. 34, 19; Andr. Kmbl. 746; An. 373).
(x) [??] Actor Nominative
(3) [??] non-MR mid + instrument argument
(4) [??] non-MR ofer + directional argument
49) [PURP (SAY1,2,4) CAUS1,2 INSTR3 [[do' (x, [make' (x,
y <message'>)])] & [INGR exist' (y)]]], where x =
1/3, y = 2
Hreopon friccan, caseres bodan: Eow beos cwen labab, secga to
salore, paet ge seonoddomas rihte reccen
'The heralds shouted to the emperor's messenger:
"This queen asks you to give a speech to the hall so that you
explain the decree of the council correctly"' (HSK:
<Cocynew.doc R 550>).
(x) [??] Actor Nominative
(y) [??] Undergoer Direct speech sentence
(4) [??] non-MR recipient argument
7. Conclusions
The aim of the analysis proposed in this paper for the lexical
class of Anglo-Saxon sound verbs is to shed light on the relation
between their semantic structure and the morphological and syntactic
behaviour that they exhibit in particular sentences. In doing so, we
have provided a fully-fledged semantic description for the members of
this class. This description encodes a semantic scenario in a formal
system of representation, the so-called LT structure, following the
format proposed in the LGM. Such LT will also enable us to provide an
explanation of the syntactic and morphological behaviour of the verbs
that belong to this subclass; this involves a dual linking system: in a
first phase, a set of linking mechanisms will retrieve from the LT an
adequate description of the semantics of the constructions where the
verbal lexemes participate; the second phase of linking involves the use
of morpho-syntactic rules, of the type devised for different languages
in Van Valin--LaPolla's (1997) and Van Valin's (2005) RRG,
whose task is to provide the syntactic and morphological structure of
the constituents in such constructions.
One of the most interesting aspects of the study is that it shows
the efficiency of certain methodological assumptions, as described in
section 2, in the task of reconstructing the lexicological configuration
of a lexical class (section 3). An extensive analysis of OE verbal
vocabulary will yield as a result an onomasiologically organised
thesaurus. Furthermore, such a thesaurus can be also integrated as the
lexical component in an explanatory model of Anglo-Saxon grammar.
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FRANCISCO J. CORTES RODRIGUEZ-- MARTA GONZALEZ ORTA
University of La Laguna--University of A Coruna
(1) Financial support for this research has come from the research
project HUM2005-07651-C02-01, funded by the Spanish Ministry of
Education.
(2) In this regard, the LGM adopts the view of constructionist theories (Fillmore 1988; Goldberg 1995; Kay 1997, among others) and
functional projectionist theories (Dik 1997; Van Valin--LaPolla 1997,
Van Valin 2005, etc.) which postulate that syntactic constructions are
meaningful and that there is an interface between the lexical and the
syntactic components which match a predicate with a given syntactic
structure, provided certain conditions, mostly semantic, are met.
(3) One interesting case of negative evidence is the fact that in
the corpus analysed for this paper (The dictionary of Old English corpus
(DOEC), The Helsinki corpus of English texts: Diachronic and dialectal
(HSK), and the Anglo-Saxon dictionaries by Bosworth--Toller and
Toller--Campbell) there are no instances of the caused motion
construction, as happens with some PDE verbs of sound emission.
(4) The use of italics represents the fact that this component can
be further decomposed.
(5) The lexical function [LOC.sub.ab] has been incorporated into
Mel'cuk's list of functions in order to express 'spatial
location with directionality "from"'.
(6) LIKE is one of Wierzbicka's semantic primitives denoting
'similarity'.
(7) Within the LGM model the search for the types and the nature of
these semantic interconnections constitutes the third type of analysis
or axis, the cognitive one.
(8) Note that this construction involves the addition of a subevent
with some constituent shared with the event depicted by the predicate;
that is, these are cases of argument-adjunct prepositional phrases (see
next section). The implication of motion, not mere location, is even
more evident in those cases where the prepositional complements are
usually in accusative, not in locative case, since the prepositions are
to be interpreted dynamically, as in:
27) Ongan ceallian pa ofer cald waeter
PRET-begin INFIN-cry then across ACC-cold ACC-river
Byrhtelmes beam
GEN-Byrhthelm NOM-son
'The son of Byrhthelm began to cry out across the cold
river' (B&T: Byrht. Th. 134, 28; By. 91).
28) da he paene [{cyrcward{] gehyrde ofer
then NOM-he ACC-the ACC-church-keeper PRET-hear over
eall hrutan
ACC-all INFIN-snore
'Then he heard the church-keeper snore over all' (HSK:
<Coleofri.doc R 31>).
(9) The variation in telicity, together with their capability to
appear with both agentive and non agentive subjects, and the fact that
some of them are stative (the first subclass of sound location verbs)
whereas the rest are dynamic, led to divergent opinions as to their
nature within the literature of the Unaccusative Hypothesis, since they
show what is termed "variable behaviour" (Levin--Rappaport
1996), that is, they exhibit features of both unaccusative and
unergative verbs.