Constructing the Meaning of Cover and Spread: A Lexical-Constructional Approach

Abstract

This research presents the results of the study of the verbs of position cover and spread as representative predicates of the subclass of verbs of putting something on (the surface of) something else and aims to examine the restrictions that regulate the subsumption process by means of which lexical structure can integrate into argument structure. In particular, we will deal with the integration of cover into the locatum subject construction, and of spread into the with-construction and provide a motivated account on the basis of external constraints such as metonymy, which regulate and license the integration of low-level lexical characterizations into higher-level constructional configurations. This meaning construction analysis will be done within the framework of the Lexical Constructional Model and will be complemented with a description of the interface mechanism which links meaning to syntactic structure following the analytical tools of Role and Reference Grammar