Marginal Argument Structure constructions: the [V the Ntaboo-word out of]-construction in Post-colonial Englishes

Abstract

Abstract Argument Structure constructions – abstract, schematic constructions that are considered to encode basic human event construals – have received considerable attention in the constructionist literature. At the same time, languages sometimes also possess what can be considered Marginal Argument constructions that are partly lexically filled and considerably more specialized in meaning, such as the V the Ntaboo-word out of-construction. The present study focusses on the latter construction drawing on the Corpus of Web-based Global English (GloWbE). In particular, it provides empirical evidence that the productivity of the verb slot can be shown to correlate positively with the phase of a variety in the Dynamic Model.