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1.4.AgainstRejectingTooSoon
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composed,researchershavebeenstruckbytherelativesparseness
ofwhatcanbeimportant.Amongthethingsthatcanplayaroleare
notionslikeverticality,horizontality,place,region,inclusion,contact,
support,gravity,atachment,dimensionality(point,line,planeor
volume),distance,movement,andpath….Amongthingsthatnever
seemtoplayaroleare,forexample,thecolor,exactsizeorshape,or
smellofthefigureandgroundobjects….(p.422)
Sullivan(2013,p.125)observesthataHcombinationofopen-classitems
…canexpressanyconceptualmetaphor”whileHtheliteralmeanings
ofclosed-classitems…arelimitedtosimplespatial,force-dynamic
andimage-schematicmeanings.”Boas(2010)pointsoutthatGoldberg’s
(1995)ownanalysisisactuallypredicatedontherebeingHatleasttwo
distinctcategoriesoflinguisticinformationthatinteractwitheachother,
namelylexicalentriesandargumentstructureconstructions.”Hegoes
ontoobservethatthisHsuggestsadefactoseparationbetweensyntaxand
thelexicon,despiteherclaimthatIthelexiconisnotneatlydiferentiated
fromtherestofgrammar’”(Boas,2010,p.57).Similarly,VanValin(2007
,
p.236)pointsoutproblemswithGoldberg’s(2006)decisiontofusethe
lexiconwithsyntaxandtoequalizealllanguageforms,asexpressedin
themanifestoHalllevelsofgrammaticalanalysisinvolveconstructions:
learnedpairingsofformwithsemanticordiscoursefunction,including
morphemesorwords,idioms,partiallylexicallyfilledandfullygeneral
phrasalpaterns”(Goldberg,2006,p.5).AsVanValinargues,theclaim
thateverythingisaconstructionhaslitlecontent,whethertheoretical
andempirical.Moreover,ifconstructionsaremerelylearnedform-
-meaningpairings,theycanonlybelanguage-specific.Thispositionis
quiteinconsistentwithandhasnowayofaccountingforcross-linguistic
generalisations.1
1.4.AgainstRejectingTooSoon
Thisstudywillseektodemonstratethatthelexicon-syntacticdividemay
havebeendismissedtoosoon.Eveniftheboundaryisinherentlyandir‑
reparablyfuzzyandnopracticalwayofdemarcatingthetwomagisteria
canbefound,thisisnoreasontoabandonthedistinction.Itisonething
toestablishthefuzzinessoftheboundary,andquiteanothertoconclude
1Infact,Goldberggoessofarastoclaimthatexceptforcognitivegeneralizations,
therearenocross-linguisticgeneralisations.
