Article

Name: Cognitive foundations for classification of English possessive sentences

Authors: Yatsko Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich

In the section Linguistics

Abstract: The paper describes the structure of English possessive predicative constructions on the basis of the methodology of predication analysis that involves the distinction of causative, agentive, inchoative, egressive, continuative, and stative semantic features. A meta-language is described that is used for the description of semantic and syntactic structure of predicative constructions. A distributive analysis is made, and the semes that are in complementary distribution, make it possible to single out the contaminated kinds of possessive constructions: inchoative-causative, inchoative-agentive, egressive-causative, egressive-agentive, continuative-causative, continuative- agentive. Based on the notion of prototypical situation it is shown that causative possessive constructions are initial, and the other types of predicative possessive constructions are derived from causative ones by omission of semantic features. Factors that influence the prototypicality of possessive constructions are singled out. They include referential characteristics of possessor and possessum, tense and aspect forms of possessive verbs, and specific features of possessive construction's configuration. The paper uses sources from the most representative English corpora.

Keywords: possessive predicative constructions, classification, predicative analysis, prototyp-ical situation

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