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.
