In:Constructing Families of Constructions: Analytical perspectives and theoretical challenges
Edited by Francisco José Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, Alba Luzondo Oyón and Paula Pérez-Sobrino
[Human Cognitive Processing 58] 2017
► pp. 175–204
Chapter 6Revisiting the English resultative family of constructions
A unifying account
Published online: 26 July 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.58.07cer
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.58.07cer
Abstract
The resultative construction has spurred much debate over the last five decades. This proposal, which is embedded within the Cognitive Construction Grammar paradigm, provides a critical discussion on two fine-grained classifications of resultatives, Goldberg and Jackendoff’s (2004) and Luzondo’s (2014), in order to lay the foundations for a new taxonomy. The family of constructions put forward here benefits from both typologies by drawing on their main insights (the inclusion of the creation and transformation configurations as resultatives, or the constraining factors which license lexical constructional fusion) and by making up for some drawbacks (the status of the way construction as part of the broad family of resultatives) with the goal of achieving a greater degree of refinement and accuracy in the description of resultatives.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Goldberg and Jackendoff’s classification of English resultatives
- 3.Luzondo’s family of English resultatives
- 4.A revised classification of resultative constructions in English
- 5.Conclusion
Acknowledgement Notes References
References (54)
Beavers, J. 2012. Resultative constructions. In R. I. Binnick (Ed.), Oxford handbook on tense and aspect (908–933). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2005. Determining the productivity of resultative constructions: a reply to Goldberg and Jackendoff. Language, 81(2) 448–464.
2008a. Determining the structure of lexical entries and grammatical constructions in Construction Grammar. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 6, 113–144.
2008b. Towards a frame-constructional approach to verb classification. In E. Sosa, & F. J. Cortés (Eds.), Grammar, constructions, and interfaces: Special issue of Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses, 57, 17–48.
2010. The syntax-lexicon continuum in Construction Grammar: A case study of English communication verbs. Belgian Journal of Linguistics, 24, 54–82.
2011a. Coercion and leaking argument structures in Construction Grammar. Linguistics, 49(6), 1271–1303.
2011b. A frame-semantic approach to syntactic alternations: The case of build verbs. In P. Guerrero (Ed.), Morphosyntactic alternations in English (207–234). London: Equinox.
2003. The English change network. Forcing changes into schemas. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
2004. The cognitive basis of adjectival and adverbial resultative constructions. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 2, 103–126.
2007. Unsubcategorised objects in English resultative constructions. In N. Delbecque, & B. Corneille (Eds.), On interpreting construction schemas. From action and motion to transitivity and causality (103–124). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Butler, C. S., & Gonzálvez, F. 2014. Exploring functional-cognitive space. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Dirven, R., & Ruiz de Mendoza, F. 2010. Looking back at 30 years of Cognitive Linguistics. In E. Tabakowska, M. Choinski, & L. Wiraszka (Eds.), Cognitive Linguistics in action (13–70). Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter.
Goldberg, A. 1995. Constructions. A Construction Grammar approach to argument structure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
2006. Constructions at work. The nature of generalizations in language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Goldberg, A., & Jackendoff, R. 2004. The English resultative as a family of constructions. Language, 80(3), 532–568.
Gonzálvez, F. 2009. The family of object-related depictives in English and Spanish: Towards a usage-based constructionist analysis. Language Sciences, 31(5), 663–723.
2011. Metaphor and metonymy do not render coercion superfluous: Evidence from the subjective-transitive construction. Linguistics, 49(6), 1305–1358.
Halliday, M. A. K. 1967. Notes on transitivity and theme in English. Part 2. Journal of Linguistics, 3, 199–243.
Hampe, B. 2010. Metaphor, constructional ambiguity and the causative resultatives. In S. Handl, & H. J. Schmid (Eds.), Windows to the mind: Metaphor, metonymy and conceptual blending (185–215). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Hoffman, T., & Trousdale, G. (Eds.). 2013. The Oxford handbook of Construction Grammar. New York: Oxford University Press.
Iwata, S. 2006. Argument resultatives and adjunct resultatives in a lexical constructional account: The case of resultatives with adjectival result phrases. Language Sciences, 28, 449–496.
Jiménez, R., & Luzondo, A. 2013. Constructions in Role and Reference Grammar. The case of the English resultative. In B. Nolan, & E. Diedrichsen (Eds.), Linking constructions into Functional Linguistics. The role of constructions in grammar (179–204). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Johnson, M. 1987. The body in the mind: The bodily basis of meaning, reason and imagination. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Johnson, M., & Lakoff, G. 2002. Why cognitive linguistics requires embodied realism. Cognitive Linguistics, 13(3), 245–263.
Levin, B. 1993. English verb classes and alternations: A preliminary investigation. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press.
2006. English object alternations. A unified account. Unpublished manuscript. Stanford, CA, Stanford University.
Levin, B., & Rappaport, M. 1990. Wiping the slate clean: A lexical-semantic exploration. Cognition, 41, 123–155.
2006. Constraints on the complexity of verb meaning and VP structure. In H. M Gaertner et al. (Eds.), Between 40 and 60 puzzles for Krifka. Berlin: ZAS. Available at [URL] (Accessed on May 25, 2008).
Luzondo, A. 2011. Construcciones resultativas del inglés en el Modelo Léxico Construccional: Implicaciones para la modelación de una base de conocimiento léxico conceptual. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of La Rioja.
2014. Constraining factors on the family of resultative constructions. Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 12(1), 30–63.
Mairal, R., & Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J. 2009. Levels of description and explanation in meaning construction. In C. S. Butler, & J. Martín (Eds.), Deconstructing constructions (153–198). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Mondorf, B. 2011. Variation and change in English resultative constructions. Language Variation and Change, 22, 397–421.
Panther, K. U., & Thornburg, L. 2000. The EFFECT FOR CAUSE metonymy in English grammar. In A. Barcelona (Ed.), Metaphor and metonymy at the crossroads (215–232). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Peña, M. S. 2003. Topology and cognition. What image-schemas reveal about the metaphorical language of emotions. München: Lincom Europa.
2008. Dependency systems for image-schematic patterns in a usage-based approach to language. Journal of Pragmatics, 40(6), 1041–1066.
2009. Constraints on subsumption in the caused-motion construction. Language Sciences, 31(6), 740–765.
Rappaport, M., & Levin, B. 1998. Building verb meanings. In M. Butt, & W. Geuder (Eds.), The projection of arguments (97–134). Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.
2010. Reflections on manner/result complementarity. In E. Doron et al. (Eds.), Syntax, lexical semantics, and event structure (21–38). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J., & Luzondo, A. 2012. Lexical-constructional subsumption in resultative constructions in English. In M. Žic Fuchs, M. Brdar, & I. Raffaelli (Eds.), Cognitive Linguistics between universality and variation (117–136). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
2016. Figurative and non-figurative motion in expression of result in English. Language and Cognition, 8(1), 32–58.
Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J., & Mairal, R. 2008. Levels of description and constraining factors in meaning construction: An introduction to the Lexical Constructional Model. Folia Linguistica, 42(2), 355–400.
2011. Constraints on syntactic alternation: Lexical-constructional subsumption in the Lexical Constructional Model. In P. Guerrero (Ed.), Morphosyntactic alternations in English. Functional and cognitive perspectives (62–82). Sheffield & Oakville: Equinox.
Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J., & Pérez, L. 2001. Metonymy and the grammar: Motivation, constraints, and interaction. Language and Communication, 21, 321–357.
Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
