A diachronic constructional analysis of locative alternation in English, with particular attention to load and spray

This paper is devoted to explaining the historical development of constructions of the representative locative alternation verbs load and spray from a diachronic construction grammar perspective. These verbs can occur in at least two syntactic frames: the location-as-object variant (e.g., load the wagon with hay) and the locatum-as-object variant (e.g., load hay onto the wagon). These two variants have undergone different historical developments. This paper proposes that the prototype of the constructions with load/spray was the adjectival “[location] (be) loaded/sprayed with [locatum]” construction, from which the location-as-object variant developed. The locatum-as-object variants for load and spray, in contrast, developed in the Present-day English period, independently of the location-as-object variants or, at most, the two variants are linked metonymically.