The Cognitive Grounding of English Phrasal Verbs [MA thesis Preface]

This study investigates the cognitive grounding of English phrasal verbs on the basis of two fundamental cognitive processes; metonymy and metaphor. Formal approaches to English phrasal verbs focus on syntactic and morphological factors, however, through this thesis I will attempt to study this type of idiomatic expressions on the basis of the cognitive framework since I believe it profoundly explains how speakers convey meaning with the use of English phrasal verbs. I will place central emphasis on metonymy, metaphor and image schemas. More precisely, the introductory part reviews former approaches to English phrasal verbs, which however, account merely on morpho-syntactic factors. The approach followed adopts the theoretical framework of Cognitive Linguistics, and particularly cognitive semantics, which places central emphasis on meaning, on the role of cognition and on the conceptualization and expression of linguistic expressions. It is argued that the semantics of the particle blend with the semantics of the verb in such a way so that the idiomatic character of the particular expression arises. It is further proposed that English phrasal verbs could be studied as the in-between point of (de)compositionality and fixedness. With regard to idiomaticity, it is claimed that there is a continuum from metonymic to metaphoric interpretations of English phrasal verbs, or cases of strong interaction between the two processes. The final part of the thesis attempts to propose that English phrasal verbs are rooted in image schemas. 

Acknowledgements
It is a pleasure to thank those who made this paper possible. I am heartily thankful to my supervisor, Professor Angeliki Athanasiadou, whose encouragement, supervision and support from the preliminary to the concluding level enabled me to develop an understanding of the subject. She never accepted less than my best efforts. 

The Syntax-Semantics Interface of English Phrasal Verbs; A View from Cognitive Grammar (To appear: Interfaces in English Linguistics 2012 Conference, Budapest October '12)

This paper investigates the syntax-semantics interface of English phrasal verbs as the in-between point of (de)compositionality and fixedness, and opposes to traditional approaches emphasizing merely morpho-syntactic factors (i.e., flexibility and voice). The theoretical framework adopted is Langacker’s (1987, 1990, 1991, 1999, 2009) Cognitive grammar, whose most central tenet states that grammar forms a continuum with the lexicon and is not autonomous “vis-à-vis semantics” but rather incorporates it.

In particular, it will be argued that the idiomatic meaning of English phrasal verbs is rooted both in syntactic (i.e., exceptional extraction from the NP) and in semantic (i.e., attribution effects) factors (Bolinger 1972; Kuno 1987; Deane 1991, 1992). More specifically, exceptional extraction constitutes the most representative factor accounting for the syntax-semantics interface of phrasal verbs. In NPs allowing extraction, the head noun describes an attribute, characteristic, or part of the extracted NP (Kuno 1987). Exceptional extraction is strongly related to length (Deane 1991), since it can be licensed when the head noun denotes an attribute and the extracted NP denotes what Langacker (1987) terms as the “cognitive domain” against which the attribute is defined.

Moreover, semantic factors will be analyzed on the basis of Geeraerts’s (1995) remarks on paradigmatic and semantic dimensions of idiomatic expressions. More precisely, the idiomatic meaning of English phrasal verbs derives from attribution effects, which are subject to the blend of the semantics of the particle with this of the verb. This kind of blend is employed in two steps: firstly, the syntagmatic dimension suggests that the verb and the particle are combined as separate linguistic entities, and secondly, the paradigmatic dimension indicates that the derived construction, which carries an idiomatic interpretation arises as the outcome of the blend.

Keywords:

Cognitive grammar, English phrasal verbs, idiomaticity, (de)compositionality, fixedness, syntagmatic, paradigmatic, blend.