2. Diathesis Alternations and Collocational Schemas of English EAT and DRINK in the BNC* JOHN NEWMAN SALLY RICE University of Alberta ICLC 8 University of La Rioja Logroño, Spain 20-25 July 2003 *Many thanks to Hui Yin, our Research Assistant

3. I. Why do EAT and DRINK display such variable transitivity? some classic accounts...

4. Transitivity of EAT-v.1 She ate an apple.MonotransitiveS P O d She ate.IntransitiveS P “…the intransitive clause simply leaves unexpressed the second participant.” Huddleston, Rodney. (1988). English Grammar: An Outline, 59-60. Cambridge University Press default

5. Transitivity of EAT-v.2.1 Van Valin, Jr., Robert D. & Randy J. LaPolla. (1997). Syntax: Structure, Meaning and Function, 115. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. The “logical structures” of eat: do' (x, [eat' (x, y)]) x=consumer, y=consumed do' (x, [eat' (x)]) x=consumer, y=consumed no default?

6. Transitivity of EAT-v.2.2 Van Valin, Jr., Robert D. & Randy J. LaPolla. (1997). Syntax: Structure, Meaning and Function, 115. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

7. Transitivity of EAT-v.2.2 Van Valin, Jr., Robert D. & Randy J. LaPolla. (1997). Syntax: Structure, Meaning and Function, 115. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. default

8. Transitivity of EAT-v.2.2 Van Valin, Jr., Robert D. & Randy J. LaPolla. (1997). Syntax: Structure, Meaning and Function, 112. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. “…eat is not inherently telic, unlike kill and break; hence it must be analyzed as an activity verb, with an active accomplishment use.” “The crucial point to be emphasized again is that it is necessary to distinguish the basic lexical meaning of a verb, e.g. eat as an activity verb, from its meaning in a particular context, e.g. eat a slice of pizza as an active accomplishment predication.”

9. Transitivity of EAT-v.3 Wimpy ate the hamburger.Wimpy ate all day long. Langacker, Ronald. (1991). Concept, Image, and Symbol. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. default

10. Tongan ‘Oku kai ‘e Mele ‘a e ika. PRES eat ERG Mary ABS ART fish Mary is eating the fish. ‘Oku kai ika ‘a Mele. PRES eat fish ABS Mary Mary eats fish. Transitivity of EAT-v.3.1 Mere ika Complex Predicate kai-ika default (in discourse)

11. SCALAR TRANSITIVITY Hopper & Thompson 1980 Thompson & Hopper 2001 HIGHLOW A. Participants B. Kinesis C. Aspect D. Punctuality E. Volitionality F. Affirmation G. Mode H. Agency I. Affectedness of O J. Individuation of O

12. SCALAR TRANSITIVITY Hopper & Thompson 1980 Thompson & Hopper 2001 HIGHLOW A. Participants21 B. Kinesisactionnon-action C. Aspecttelicatelic D. Punctualitypunctualnon-punctual E. Volitionalityvolitionalnon-volitional F. Affirmationaffirmativenegative G. Moderealisirrealis H. AgencyA high in potencyA low in potency I. Affectedness of OO highly affectedO not affected J. Individuation of OO highly individuatedO not individuated

13. SCALAR TRANSITIVITY Hopper & Thompson 1980 Thompson & Hopper 2001 HIGHLOW A. Participants21 B. Kinesisactionnon-action C. Aspecttelicatelic D. Punctualitypunctualnon-punctual E. Volitionalityvolitionalnon-volitional F. Affirmationaffirmativenegative G. Moderealisirrealis H. AgencyA high in potencyA low in potency I. Affectedness of OO highly affectedO not affected J. Individuation of OO highly individuatedO not individuated Mary ate the spaghetti in an hour.

14. SCALAR TRANSITIVITY Hopper & Thompson 1980 Thompson & Hopper 2001 HIGHLOW A. Participants21 B. Kinesisactionnon-action C. Aspecttelicatelic D. Punctualitypunctualnon-punctual E. Volitionalityvolitionalnon-volitional F. Affirmationaffirmativenegative G. Moderealisirrealis H. AgencyA high in potencyA low in potency I. Affectedness of OO highly affectedO not affected J. Individuation of OO highly individuatedO not individuated Mary ate.

15. SCALAR TRANSITIVITY Hopper & Thompson 1980 Thompson & Hopper 2001 HIGHLOW A. Participants21 B. Kinesisactionnon-action C. Aspecttelicatelic D. Punctualitypunctualnon-punctual E. Volitionalityvolitionalnon-volitional F. Affirmationaffirmativenegative G. Moderealisirrealis H. AgencyA high in potencyA low in potency I. Affectedness of OO highly affectedO not affected J. Individuation of OO highly individuatedO not individuated Mary ate spaghetti for an hour.

16. Thompson & Hopper (2001:30) “Transitivity, clause, and argument structure” …transitivity in everyday conversation is very low

17. Spoken BNC (SPOKEN) 10 million words 2623 hits for eat, eats, eating, ate, eaten 934 hits for drink, drinks, drinking, drank, drunk Sample Written BNC (WRITTEN) 90 million words 2,000 random hits for eat, eats, eating, ate, eaten 2,000 random hits for drink, drinks, drinking, drank, drunk EAT and DRINK in the BNC

18. Hits from BNC were brought into Filemaker Pro. Each hit was manually checked and classified: transitive verb (she drank the sherry) intransitive verb (she drinks) noun (she had a drink) adjective (she was drunk) reflexive (she drank herself silly) etc. Managing the data

20. SPOKENWRITTEN EAT82%64% DRINK68%56% “transitivity in everyday conversation is very low” PARTICIPANTS % incidence with 2 participants in the BNC 

21. ASPECT SPOKENWRITTEN EAT13%21% DRINK21%27% EAT5% DRINK6%3% “transitivity in everyday conversation is very low” -ing -en

22. ASPECT SPOKENWRITTEN EAT16%29% DRINK28%37% EAT6% DRINK7%4% “transitivity in everyday conversation is very low”  -ing -en

23. INDIVIDUATION with EAT “transitivity in everyday conversation is very low” 

24. INDIVIDUATION with DRINK  “transitivity in everyday conversation is very low”

25. % all in OBJECT PHRASES “transitivity in everyday conversation is very low” AFFECTEDNESS 

26. “transitivity in everyday conversation is very low” (Rank & incidence of all as collocate in OBJECT PHRASES) 

27. are two highly unusual transitive verbs which generally predicate AFFECTEDNESS of both participants... EAT & DRINK

29. % all in two very different spoken and written corpora FOOTNOTE: A curiosity about searching corpora for syntactic (vs. lexical) phenomena

30. EAT/DRINK Infinitival Collocates with -thing in the BNC

31. something to eat OED In some dialects, something to eat is the common expression for ‘food’: The something to eat at the hotel was very good. (Sheffield)

32. Small corpora, however, can’t return robust or comprehensive information about the lexical semantics of a verb: semantic properties of its collocates semantic inferences in the absence of collocates (e.g., omitted object constructions) Summary of Part I BNC (or even a small corpus) can yield much about the “syntax” of a verb: relative valency distribution TAM preferences extra-propositional cohorts

33. II. What are the most common collocates of EAT and DRINK? The collocates in the object phrases from these examples form the basis of the second half of the talk. 71% (or nearly 4,300) of the total verbal returns in the BNC for EAT & DRINK were transitive.

34. Eating and Drinking Habits

35. Favourite Foods in the BNC

36. Top food objects with inflected EAT forms in spoken BNC

37. 20 top trigrams from EAT objects

38. Favourite Drinks in the BNC

41. Top 20 beverage objects with DRINK

42. Dictionary practice - DRINK American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1981) drink -tr. 1. to take into the mouth and swallow (a liquid). 2. To soak up (liquid or moisture); absorb; imbibe. 3. To take in eagerly through the senses or intellect; receive with pleasure. Often used with in. 4. To swallow the liquid contents of a vessel. 5. a. To give or make (a toast). b. To toast (a person or occasion, for example). –intr. To swallow liquid. 2. To imbibe alcoholic liquors, especially excessively or habitually. 3. To salute a person or occasion with a toast. Used with to.

43. Favourite Drinks in the BNC

44. % alcoholic object consumption in SPOKEN BNC % alcoholic object consumption in (sampled) WRITTEN BNC 27% vs. 73% 43% vs. 57%

45. Top 20 beverage objects with DRINK

46. Alcoholic beverages with inflected DRINK forms in spoken BNC

47. Top 20 trigrams from DRINK objects

48. Dictionary practice - EAT American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1981) eat –tr. 1. To take into the mouth, chew, and swallow (food). 2. To consume, ravage, or destroy by or as if by eating. Usually used with away or up. 3. To erode or corrode. 4. Vulgar Slang. To perform fellatio or cunninglingus upon. –intr. 1. To consume food; have or take a meal or meals. 2. To wear away or corrode by or as if by eating or gnawing.

49. 20 top food objects with EAT

50. % consumption in SPOKEN BNC % consumption in (sampled) WRITTEN BNC

51. FOOD/MEAL objects with inflected EAT forms in spoken BNC

52. He eats.He drinks. He has to eat.He has to drink. He’s eating.He’s drinking. He ate.He drank. He’s eaten.He’s drunk. EAT (FULL MEAL)?DRINK (ALCOHOL)? INTRANSITIVE INFERENCES  #    #  ?? He eats out.He drinks out. He’s eating again.He’s drinking again.   #

53. Summary of Part II Transitivity is certainly scalar, but the transitivity of individual verbs or even individual verbs in specific inflections (or even in different registers) is idiosyncratic. Likewise, the semantics. EAT and DRINK (two rather comparable verbs which largely define a semantic field) are quite different in their selection of objects across valency alternations. The intransitive usages, for example, invite different kinds of inferences (e.g., alcohol (specific), meal (generic). This idea that each inflected form warrants attention and behaves differently is commonplace in the corpus linguistic tradition. Unfortunately, it’s an idea that has been slow to find acceptance in theoretical linguistics, even in cognitive linguistics.

54. Variation in Semantic/Frequency Distribution EAT (s)IntrTr-ActTr-AARefl inf 3sg prog past perf

55. Variation in Semantic/Frequency Distribution EAT (w)IntrTr-ActTr-AARefl inf 3sg prog past perf

56. Thompson & Hopper (2001:44) “Transitivity, clause, and argument structure” …among the things speakers know about verbs is the range of forms they collocate with according to the different senses they have. …the more different types of uses of language speakers are exposed to and participate in, the wider the range of options for a given verb sense they are likely to have entered and stored. …some collocations involving specific verb senses develop lives of their own.

57. Newman & Rice (2003) …some collocations involving specific verbs in specific inflections develop lives of their own.

58. John.Newman@ualberta.ca Sally.Rice@ualberta.ca thank you