Fromquicktoquick-to- infinitival : on what is lexeme specific across paradigmatic and syntagmatic distributions
MARTIN SCHÄFER · English Language and Linguistics · 2020
Adjectives are paradigmatically versatile: they combine with many different items in the same syntactic configuration. They are also syntagmatically versatile: they occur in many different syntactic configurations. Given this versatility, how and to what extent can lexeme-specific preferences and features of the adjectives be identified? With the adjectivequickas its starting point, this article answers this question by using corpus data, contrasting the behavior ofquickwith that of its semantic neighbors. Case study 1 investigatesquick's attributive usage. It is shown thatquickin its default usage combines with eventive heads, and that there are clear differences in combinatorial preferences across its semantic neighbors. Case study 2 investigates thequick-to-infinitivalconstruction. Here, direct combination with eventive heads is impossible. It behaves differently from otheradj-to-infinitivalconstructions as well as the competingquicklyconstructions. Comparison of the availability of this construction forquick's semantic neighbors, and linking this to the results of study 1, shows a clear connection between paradigmatic and syntagmatic distributions.