Aspectual posture verb constructions in Dutch
Maarten Lemmens
Université Lille 3, France
UMR 8528 SILEX du CNRS
lemmens@univ-lille3.fr
Abstract
This paper discusses the auxiliated posture verb construction in Dutch (liggen/zitten/staan +
te+ V) used with progressive, durative or habitual value. Our analysis, based on an extensive
corpus of authentic examples, confirms Kuteva’s (1999) observation that the precondition for
such grammaticalization is the use of cardinal posture verbs as default verbs for locating
entities in space. At the same time, the analysis reveals clear experientially based patterns in
the type of verb that occurs in the auxiliated CPV-construction. The data suggest that the
construction has not yet fully grammaticalised to a mere progressive, but has retained a link
with the postural (or by extension, the locational) source. This sheds light on some clear
semantic differences with another common progressive construction in Dutch, aan het V zijn
‘be at the V-INF’.
Keywords: Dutch, grammaticalization, auxiliation, progressive aspect, durative aspect,
posture verbs, stance verbs, stative verbs, location verbs
© Maarten Lemmens, June 2004
OUTLINE OF THE ARTICLE
1. Introduction: progressive constructions in Dutch
2. From POSTURAL via LOCATIONAL to ASPECTUAL
3. A short overview of Dutch CPV usage
3.1 Prototypes, variation and canonical postures
3.2 Image schematic extensions
3.2.1 Staan
3.2.2 Liggen
3.2.3 Zitten
4. An empirical analysis of postural progressives
4.1 The corpus
4.2 General distribution of the CPV+te+infinitive construction
4.3 Collocates of the CPV+te+infinitive construction
4.4 Durative and locative semantics of the POS-progressive
4.4.1 Durative modifiers
4.4.2 Locational modifiers
Conclusion
Notes
References
Tables
Graphs
Figures