UC Berkeley Dissertations, Department of Linguistics Title Metaphor in the Grammar of Argument Realization Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/07j56079 Author David, Oana A. Publication Date 2016-07-01 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Metaphor in the Grammar of Argument Realization By Oana Alexandra David A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Eve E. Sweetser, Co-chair Professor George Lakoff, Co-chair Professor Yoko Hasegawa Summer 2016 Metaphor in the Grammar of Argument Realization Copyright © 2016 By Oana Alexandra David Abstract Metaphor in the Grammar of Argument Realization By Oana A. David Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics University of California, Berkeley Professor Eve E. Sweetser, Co-chair Professor George Lakoff, Co-chair Grammatical argument structure constructions (ASCs) in English interact with the verbs that act as the lexical head of the clause. This interaction results in some arguments being instantiated while others are omitted. One broad type of omission is known as null complement anaphora (NCA), also commonly called null instantiation. In NCA, core semantic participants are not instantiated as overt arguments, but are nevertheless understood in context. The omitted elements may be the direct objects of verbs, or may even be other constituents such as clausal complements and adjuncts. Some of the types of omissions examined are illustrated in (1) – (5). (1) The hat doesn’t match ø . [Goal, e.g. ‘my outfit’] (2) They arrived ø safely. [Goal, e.g. ‘in DC’] (3) I joined ø yesterday. [Group, e.g. ‘the society’] (4) Did you apply ø ? [Position, e.g. ‘to that job’] (5) He wrote a great speech and delivered it ø last night. [Goal, ‘to the audience’] Using large semantically annotated and corpus data sets, primarily from the FrameNet Annotation Database, this dissertation presents two important results with respect to lexical and constructional regularities in omission patterns. One main finding is that the omissible element usually qualifies, at an image schematic level, as the ground in a figure-ground relation. Some of the physical verbs discussed include verbs of motion (move, arrive, approach, depart, chase, float), object manipulation (give, implant, provide, join, manacle), perception (listen, glance, peer, gaze), and those verbs that combine motion and object manipulation (splatter, spray, propel, throw, transfer). In all of these cases, either the goal, or the source, or the location is omissible. These are frame elements that tend to be construed as the ground in a figure-ground configuration. Omissions in which the figure-ground rule is observed constitute 68% of a sample (n=2,005) of the annotated sentence data. I provide a Construction Grammar model to account for these figure-ground asymmetries, and show how they consistently result in the omission of elements that end up in the ground. I claim that this generalization holds at a high image schematic level for all of these types of verbs, and therefore this constitutes a lexical frame-based generalization. The second observation from the data is that metaphor located in the grammar of the argument structure construction itself plays a role in licensing NCA. So, where at first arrive and cajole do not seem to share any commonalities with respect to their semantics more generally, we 1 can at least deduce why their core semantic roles are omissible in sentences such as We arrived ø and He cajoled her ø. It is because in the former, the goal of arrival is the physical ground relative to which the figure is moving, while in the latter the goal of cajoling is metaphorically construed as the ground relative to which he is metaphorically propelling her. The Action frame element (that which he is cajoling her to do) would be instantiated metaphorically via an into-PP: e.g., He cajoled her into marrying him. I propose a model of grammar that incorporates metaphor as part of the argument linking pattern of clausal argument structure constructions. I provide data showing how metaphor is used to structure the domains of Communication, Thinking and Action, and propose a classification of metaphoric argument structure constructions. The main dimension along which metaphoric ASCs are classified is whether the verb in the clause is evoking the target domain or the source domain of the metaphor (I arrived at the conclusion (verb evokes source) vs. He cajoled her into marrying him (verb evokes target)). I also provide a methodological innovation in the way argument omission is studied. Namely, I suggest that to understand omission, we have to look at equivalent sentences in which those same frame elements are in fact instantiated. We do this in order to gauge the syntactic diversity with which the instantiation is possible. The same frame element could be instantiated using any number of complement types, e.g., The Goal frame element in I arrived home (NP) vs. I arrived at the airport (PP)). I assume that the range of syntactic strategies for instantiating the same frame element can influence whether that frame element is able to be null instantiated at all. Therefore, in order to understand why a particular frame element was candidate for omission in the first place, we must understand the possible ways in which it could be syntactically overt. Most saliently, I find that in many cases one or more of those syntactic strategies available to the instantiation of a frame element are metaphoric in nature, construing that element by use of prepositional phrases with in, into, out, out of, from, against, etc. 2 Table of Contents Abstract............................................................................................................................................1 Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................i Constructional Notation..................................................................................................................iv List of Abbreviations.......................................................................................................................v List of Figures................................................................................................................................vii List of Tables..................................................................................................................................ix List of Graphs..................................................................................................................................x Acknowledgements.........................................................................................................................xi 1 Introduction ........................................................................................... 1 1.1 Approaches to Argument Omission ...................................................................................... 7 1.1.1 Range of phenomena...................................................................................................... 7 1.1.2 Transformational accounts of omission ......................................................................... 8 1.1.3 Pragmatic approaches .................................................................................................... 9 1.1.4 Lexical semantic approaches ....................................................................................... 10 1.1.5 Cognitive and psycholinguistic approaches ................................................................. 11 1.2 Arguments and participant semantics in Construction Grammar ....................................... 14 1.2.1 Argument omission across Construction Grammar(s) ................................................. 16 1.2.2 Remaining problems in argument (non-)realization .................................................... 18 1.2.2.1 What qualifies as ‘missing’? ................................................................................. 18 1.2.2.2 A note on definiteness and retrievability .............................................................. 19 1.2.2.3 Defining omission ................................................................................................. 25 1.3 Structure of the dissertation ................................................................................................ 27 2 The Architecture .................................................................................. 28 2.1 From Construction Grammar to Embodied Construction Grammar .................................. 28 2.2 The structure of frames ....................................................................................................... 34 2.3 Figure-ground relations from attention to language ........................................................... 35 2.4 Figure-ground relations in argument structure constructions ............................................. 38 2.5 Scenarios and perspectives ................................................................................................. 41 3 Frame-Based Generalizations in Argument Omission ........................ 45 3.1 Figure-ground relations in argument realization ................................................................. 45 3.2 Linking theory with empirics .............................................................................................. 48 3.2.1 Methodology and data .................................................................................................. 48 i 3.2.2 Structured frame role hierarchies ................................................................................. 55 3.2.2.1 Sources and goals of motion ................................................................................. 59 3.2.2.2 Givers and receivers .............................................................................................. 62 3.2.2.3 Part-Whole structure ............................................................................................. 63 3.2.3 Static and dynamic figure-ground relations in grammar ............................................. 64 3.2.3.1 Figure-ground in out, of, from, and out of phrases ............................................... 64 3.2.3.2 Figure-ground in in, to, and into phrases .............................................................. 69 3.2.4 Syntactic diversity in the instantiation of frame elements ........................................... 71 4 Metaphor in grammar .......................................................................... 78 4.1 Two sources of metaphor .................................................................................................... 78 4.1.1 Lexical sources of metaphor ........................................................................................ 80 4.1.2 Constructional sources of metaphor ............................................................................. 84 4.1.3 Combining lexical and constructional sources of metaphor ........................................ 87 4.1.4 Null instantiation of ground roles in metaphoric sentences ......................................... 93 4.2 Mapping argument realization in the domains of COMMUNICATION, THOUGHT, and ACTION ................................................................................................................................................... 98 4.2.1 Communication frames: A case study ....................................................................... 101 4.3 Constructional generalizations from the source domain ................................................... 105 4.3.1 Metaphoric uses of spatial prepositions ..................................................................... 105 4.3.1.1 Metaphoric sources and goals ............................................................................. 106 4.3.1.2 Other spatial prepositions used metaphorically .................................................. 111 4.3.2 Prepositions with non-transparent spatial meanings .................................................. 113 4.3.2.1 SIMILARITY IS CLOSENESS (as-PPs) ........................................................... 113 4.3.2.2 PURPOSES ARE DESTINATIONS/DESIRED OBJECTS (for-PPs) ............... 119 4.3.2.3 Part-Whole image schema (of-PP)...................................................................... 122 4.3.2.4 Instruments and co-actors (with-PP) ................................................................... 126 4.4 Non-metaphoric Content role omission ............................................................................ 130 4.4.1 Metonymic constraints in content role omissions ...................................................... 135 5 Constructional interdependencies ..................................................... 140 5.1 Constructional networks and multi-FE omissions ............................................................ 140 5.1.1 Metaphoric alternations with and onto, into phrases ................................................. 140 5.1.2 Metaphoric alternations with into and out of ............................................................. 143 5.1.3 Alternations with of, for and clausal complements .................................................... 146 5. 2 Omitting the figure ........................................................................................................... 150 ii 6 Conclusion ........................................................................................ 156 References ............................................................................................ 157 Appendices ........................................................................................... 172 iii Constructional Notation Symbol Name Description Mapping An asymmetric role-to-role binding, in which the source role lends its inferences to the target role; only applicable in metaphor. Binding Symmetric role-to-role binding, in which inferences combine from both frames. Typical of complex frames and image schemas. Frame-to-frame or An asymmetric relation, whereby cxn-to-cxn relation a frame is a subcase of another frame, or a construction is a subcase of a construction Frame-to-cxn When a constructional slot is relation responsible for evoking an entire frame. T Target Target domain of metaphor S Source Source domain of metaphor iv List of Abbreviations Abbreviation Expanded Use/Origin LU Lexical Unit FrameNet; refers to lexical units that evoke frames FE Frame Element FrameNet; refers to frame elements associated with frames NI Null Instantiation Fillmore (1986), FrameNet; the omission of core frame elements DNI Definite Null Instantiation Fillmore (1986); FEs with contextually-retrievable referents INI Indefinite Null Instantiation Fillmore (1986) FEs with non- retrievable referents CNI Constructional Null Instantiation FrameNet; FEs omitted for constructional reasons, e.g., the Agent by-phrase in Passives. PT Phrase Type FrameNet; refers to the type of phrase (NP, PP, etc.) used to instantiate an FE GF Grammatical Function FrameNet; refers to position in the sentence of a particular argument (Subject, Direct Object, etc.) PF Perspectivized Frame Refers to frames that take one or another perspective on a particular scene. S Scenario Refers to frames are non- perspectivized scenarios. ESM Event Structure Metaphor Lakoff & Johnson (1999), Grady (1997). IA Intersubjectively Accessible Dancygier & Sweetser (2014); referring to motion, location, objects, etc., usually the source domains of metaphor. IIA Intersubjectively Inaccessible Dancygier & Sweetser (2014); referring to cognitive, social, emotional, etc. states, usually the target domains of metaphor. v
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