Wednesday 3 January 2018

'Give' + Scope

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 237n):
And there are clauses with give which, though superficially like transfer of possession, differ from these in that they do not exhibit the contrast between + preposition and – preposition. These are clauses with a nominalised verb as one participant, as in give somebody a kick/punch/kiss/hug. Thus while we can say, he gave the dog a kick, we are much less likely say he gave a kick to the dog. Such clauses are in fact mildly metaphorical variants of clauses where kick, punch, kiss, hug, etc. is a verb serving as the Process: he gave the dog a kick: he kicked the dog. This suggests that the nominalised verb is in fact a Scope rather than a Goal and that what might at first appear to be a Recipient is in fact construed as a Goal (and can thus be probed with do to/with): [Actor:] he [Process:] gave [Goal:] the dog [Scope:] a kick (cf. what he did to the dog was give it a kick but not what he did with the kick was give the dog it) …

Blogger Comments:

i.e.

congruent:
He
gave
the dog
a stick
Actor
Process: material
Recipient
Goal

but
He
gave
the dog
a kick
Actor
Process: material
Goal
Scope

is metaphorical for:
He
kicked
the dog
Actor
Process: material
Goal

So 'give' provides the only means of construing Scope in a transitive clause.