Affiliation:
1. University of Santiago de Compostela
Abstract
Abstract
Little attention has been paid to the English Superlative Object Construction (SOC), as in She worked her
hardest. The historical grammarians Jespersen (1909–1949) and Poutsma (1904–1929) are the only ones who do touch on the SOC, and they do so in passing
relying on what seem to be the prototypical examples of the construction. This empirical evidence, though valuable for a first
characterisation of the pattern, is insufficient to provide a detailed analysis of the form, function, frequency, and distribution
of the SOC in Present Day English from the perspective of Construction Grammar. Based on usage-based data from COCA, this paper
argues that the SOC qualifies as an intensifying comparative construction. Despite being low frequent and showing a set of highly
entrenched, lexicalised units (e.g., smile [X] prettiest, work [X] hardest),
the SOC is relatively productive, especially in informal registers where the construction can be easily accommodated to serve
emotive, phatic, and conative functions.
Publisher
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Reference84 articles.
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