Prototype effects in the process of Compositional Cospecification in the middle construction

Abstract

This paper aims at exploring the process of semantic shift in Compositional Cospecification with regards to the prototype effects found in the middle construction, understood as a prototype category which allows the subsumption of both central and peripheral members within the middle spectrum. The range covers structures from action- oriented to ergative-like ones, including their metonymic extensions. This paper is conducted through a corpus of contextualised examples (4500+) compiled with the Sketch Engine tool. By examining the lexical-semantic, discourse- pragmatic, and situational features that influence the process of constructional coercion, the family- resemblance analysis provided here reveals that different patterns in Compositional Cospecification can be found within the middle spectrum. The parameters examined are: (i) the qualia structure of the nominal; (ii) the semantics of the predicate in combination with the nature of the nominal; (iii) the semantic charge of the adjunct; and (iii) other external and contextual factors surrounding the construction.

Keywords

• middle construction
• prototype effects
• compositional cospecification
• semantic shift
• qualia structure
• construcción media
• efectos prototípicos
• cospecificación composicional
• cambio semántico
• estructura de qualia