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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. 241–275

Chapter 8
Motivation behind the extended senses of the Polish ditransitive construction

| Pedagogical University of Cracow

This chapter, drawing on Goldberg’s (1992/2006, 1995, 2002) and Croft’s (2003) analyses of the English ditransitive construction, employs Geeraerts’ (1998/2006) multidimensional model of constructional polysemy. Its main aim is to characterize the family of ditransitive expressions in Polish and to identify the cognitive mechanisms that motivate them. Relying on the groundwork laid by Rudzka-Ostyn’s (1996), Dąbrowska’s (1997), and Fried’s (1999, 2004, 2011) studies of the Polish and Czech dative case, the chapter underscores the semantic contribution of overt case marking on the first object as the key factor licensing the wider semantic range of the Polish pattern compared to the English construction, notably its application to the expression of events of ‘pure’ benefaction, malefaction, and reversed transfer.

Keywords: constructional polysemy, dative case, multidimensional model
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1The notion of ‘construction’
    • 1.2The ditransitive construction
    • 1.3The aims and structure of the present analysis
  • 2.The English ditransitive construction in the radial set model and the multidimensional model of constructional semantics
    • 2.1Adele Goldberg’s radial network
    • 2.2Competing monosemous constructional analyses of the English ditransitive
    • 2.3The missing links in the radial set and monosemous accounts of the English ditransitive construction
    • 2.4The multidimensional approach to constructional polysemy
  • 3.The anatomy of the Polish family of ditransitive constructions
    • 3.1The prototype
    • 3.2Extensions by metonymy: The ‘causality’ dimension
      • 3.2.1Extension from causation of transfer to causation of object motion resulting in possessional transfer
      • 3.2.2Extension to action rendering the direct object referent available for transfer or use
        • 3.2.2.1Action or communicative act leading to future transfer
        • 3.2.2.2Enablement of transfer or use
        • 3.2.2.3Creation, preparation or obtainment with a view to subsequent transfer
      • 3.2.3Extension to attitude towards existing possessional relationship and/or envisaged transfer
        • 3.2.3.1Negative attitude
        • 3.2.3.2Positive attitude
    • 3.3Extensions by metaphor: The nature of the transferred entity
      • 3.3.1Extensions from a material to an abstract entity of transfer (expressed as the second object argument of the ditransitive syntactic frame)
        • 3.3.1.1The transferred entity is a message in communication
        • 3.3.1.2The transferred entity is a sensory perception
        • 3.3.1.3The transferred entity is an effect of action intentionally directed at the dative referent
        • 3.3.1.4The transferred entity is a mental state caused for the dative referent
      • 3.3.2The transferred entity is an effect of the Agent’s action on the direct object referent (not overtly expressed in the construction’s syntactic frame)
    • 3.4Extensions by perspectival switching: Shifts in the direction and/or polarity of transfer
      • 3.4.1Change in the direction of transfer
        • 3.4.1.1Actual reversed transfer (removal of possessum from the dative’s sphere of control)
        • 3.4.1.2Envisaged reversed transfer
        • 3.4.1.3Bidirectional transfer
      • 3.4.2Shift in polarity: Prevented transfer
  • 4.The network of dative variants occurring in the Polish ditransitive construction
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 26 July 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.58.09pas
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