Article published In: Linguistic Variation
Vol. 13:1 (2013) ► pp.48–80
The synchronic and diachronic status of English light verbs
Published online: 18 December 2013
https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.13.1.02ele
https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.13.1.02ele
This article elucidates the synchronic and diachronic status of English light verbs. In doing so, it contributes to the debate on the status of light verbs cross-linguistically. Synchronically, light verbs appear to straddle the boundary between lexical and functional categories. This has led to the view that light verbs are a diachronic stage on a grammaticalisation cline from full verb to auxiliary. Another view holds that light verbs are historically a dead-end. In this article I will present synchronic and diachronic data that show that the history of English light verbs does not display signs of grammaticalisation. I will argue that English light verbs are synchronic variants of full verbs.
Keywords: split vP, full verbs, diachrony, light verbs, grammaticalisation, V/v
Cited by (5)
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Sundquist, John D.
2020. Productivity, richness, and diversity of light verb constructions in the history of American English. Journal of Historical Linguistics 10:3 ► pp. 349 ff.
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