WHEN NOUNS SURFACE AS VERBS 2 page

E. Pieces: Powder the aspirin, crumb the bread, ⁺joint the chicken, cash the check, flake the paint, quarter the carcass, segment the sentence, portion the loot, share the cake, ⁺fission the nucleus, parcel out the land.

F. roducts : ⁺ monolog, cipher, script the movie, fingerprint the immigrant, copy the paper, ⁺alphabet, ⁺cuneiform, number, psalm, Latin the speech; burrow, nest; smoke, leaf out, branch, flower, bud, bloom, blossom, ⁺The stalks eared early this spring; foal, cub, calve, lamb, fawn, kitten, pup, litter, whelp, spawn, child [archaic]; teethe, tear (of eyes), freckle; The trail elbowed, fork, zigzag, spiral; ⁺before the grapes begin to raisin [article on wine].

G. Miscellaneous: sandwich the man between them, cream the butter, lather the soap, flame the pudding, pickle the watermelon, ⁺blot the ink, strand the wool, ⁺ image the scene, ruin the building, treasure the necklace, pawn the ring, quilt the coat, riddle the door with holes, dart across the road, tower over the child, ⁺The neons rainbow the California night [ad.], His hair silvered, The beer frothed, The waves foamed.

The goal verbs labeled human roles in List 6 contrast with the agent verbs in an important way. In John fathered the child, with an agent verb, John is the father; but in John orphaned the child, with a goal verb, the child (not John) is the orphan. But what makes some roles agentive and others factitive? From the examples in List 6, the answer seems clear. For agent verbs, the parent nouns denote roles or professions that people take on deliberately. For goal verbs, however, the parent nouns denote roles conferred on people by external forces, sometimes against their will. It is because butchering is an active role that The school butchered John cannot be taken to mean ‘The school turned John into a butcher’. Yet being a fool is a role that can be either active or receptive, as in Nick fooled around with Asta vs. Nick fooled Nora.

In List 7, piece the quilt together is classified as a source verb on the basis of the rather awkward paraphrase do something to cause it to come about that [the quilt is together out of pieces],i.e. put the quilt together from pieces. Here piece denotes the substance from which the quilt is formed, and is therefore in the source case. Word the sentence carefully and letter the sign may also be source verbs.

List 7: Source verbs

Piece the quilt together, word the sentence, letter the sign.

1.5. Instrument verbs. The commonest of the denominal verbs are those whose parent nouns denote instruments:

(11) John bicycled into town.

(12) John caused it to come about that he was in town by doing the act one would normally expect [one to do with a bicycle].

In 12, bicycle is in the instrumental case; so in 11 bicycle is an instrument verb. Like most such verbs, bicycle has an informal paraphrase, go by bicycle, that reflects what one would ordinarily do with a bicycle, and so it can be classified under the simple verb go. The instrument verbs in List 8 have been similarly classified. The majority fall under the verbs go, fasten, clean, hit, cut (or stab), destroy, catch, block, and follow; the rest, for lack of precise verbs, are listed under such headings as simple instruments, complex instruments, and miscellaneous instruments.

List 8: Instrument verbs

A. Go: (intr.) auto, ⁺sports-car, caravan, ⁺trailer, ⁺tractor, ⁺cablecar, ⁺tram, ⁺trolley, ⁺streetcar, scooter, motorcycle, bicycle, bike, cycle, ⁺tricycle, ⁺van, ⁺cab, taxi, ⁺jitney, ⁺Greyhound, ⁺Buick, ⁺V-8, ⁺limousine, ⁺elevator, ⁺escalator (somewhere); boat, ⁺sailboat, ⁺steamship, ⁺Queen Mary, yacht, punt, ⁺flatboat, ⁺lighter, barge, raft, canoe, kayak (somewhere); jet, ⁺747, ⁺Concorde, sailplane, ⁺glider, helicopter, ⁺chopper, ⁺Zeppelin, balloon, parachute, ⁺TWA, ⁺UA, ⁺Air California, rocket (somewhere); sleigh, sledge, sled, ski, ⁺t-bar, skate, roller-skate, ⁺pogo-stick, ⁺skateboard, water-ski, surfboard, snowshoe (somewhere); pole, ⁺barge-pole, paddle, ⁺oar, scull, ⁺ski-pole, ⁺ice-pick, ⁺pickax, pedal (somewhere); ⁺rope, ⁺crampon (one’s way somewhere); sail, wing, steam, motor (somewhere); ⁺subway to 64^th Street, ⁺BART to Berkeley, thumb to LA, surf onto shore, ⁺whirlwind across the US, ⁺guitar his way across the US, ⁺The police sirened up to the accident [Herb Caen]; (tr.) ⁺ambulance, truck, bus, ⁺trailer, ⁺wagon, cart, ⁺pushcart, ⁺barrow, ⁺stretcher, wheelbarrow (something somewhere); ferry, wherry, ship (something somewhere); telegraph, telephone, wire, cable, ⁺long-distance, ⁺postcard, ⁺semaphore, ⁺flag, radio, beam (a message somewhere); ⁺satellite (news); dial the number; paddle the canoe, pedal the bicycle; wheel the patient into surgery, sail the boat to LA, pipe the oil to Oregon, ⁺tanker the oil to the US.

B. Fasten: Nails – nail, tack, staple, bolt, screw, paper-clip, pin, rivet, wire, solder (something to something else). Glues – paste, cement, glue, gum, ⁺epoxy, tape, scotch-tape, cello-tape, ⁺masking-tape (something to something else), ⁺web his clothes to the wall [Spiderman]. Restrainers – shackle, clamp, handcuff, gyve, fetter, manacle, chain, gag, belt, ⁺seat-belt (someone); cord the wood. Locks – latch, padlock, bar, lock, ⁺hasp (the door). Clothing parts – buckle his belt, clasp his belt, hook her dress, zip the dress, snap the shirt, button the shirt, strap on the skis, ⁺thong the sandals on. Lines – tether, cable, anchor (something to something else).

C. Clean: Implements – mop the floor, ⁺ broom the floor, ⁺floor-sweeper the carpet, Hoover the rug, snowplow the road, rake the grass, filter the wine, bath himself, shower, ⁺floss one’s teeth, ⁺Stimudent one’s teeth. Cloths – sponge the window clean, flannel one’s face, chamois the window clean, sandpaper the board smooth, steel-wool the pan, towel himself dry, washcloth his face clean. Cleansers –shampoo his hair, ⁺Ajax the bath, ⁺Vim the bath, ⁺Windex the panes, ⁺soap-and-water one’s hands.

D. Hit: hammer the nail into the board, club the man over the head, bat the ball, ⁺shillelagh his cousin, ⁺bottle the tailor, ⁺poleax the intruder, boot the man in the pants, ⁺shoe-heel the nail into the frame, stone the witch, ⁺rock the men, press the tongue, ⁺rawhide his companion, whip the prisoner, bullwhip the dog, cane the child, ⁺rule the child’s hand.

E. Cut, slab: knife the man, bayonet the enemy, ⁺sabre the enemy, ⁺tusk the dogs, ⁺razor off his beard, ⁺scissor through the material, drill the hole, saw the plank, lance the armor, ⁺hatchet the tree down, ax the tree down, ⁺broadax the log flat, hacksaw through the board, ⁺ripsaw the board, spear the fish, scythe the grass, ⁺bill-hook the grass, tomahawk the settlers, machete his way through the jungle, harpoon the whale, ⁺toothpick the clam.

F. Destroy: bomb the village, torpedo the ship, ⁺avalanche the village, grenade the bunker, ⁺napalm the village, shell the fort, gas the soldiers, dynamite the building, torch the house, ⁺frag the sergeant, ⁺TNT the building, fire-bomb the car, gun down the man, ⁺sten down the enemy, ⁺M-1 the sniper, tear-gas the sniper, ⁺Mace the strikers, ⁺carbon monoxide oneself to death, garotte the prisoner.

G. Catch: trap the gopher, bear-trap the man, net the fish, seine the fish, snare the rabbit, hook the fish, lime the bird, lasso the calf, rope the calf, collar the dog, ⁺jaw the swimmer (following the film Jaws).

H. Block: shield the child, screen out the flies, screen the people from view, block the road, blockade the road, barricade the road, cordon off the area, rope off the area, dam the river, sandbag the house, The fishing fleet is iced in [NBC], ⁺mud in (seal the opening to a nest with mud), brick up.

I. Follow: shadow the suspect, track the criminal, trail the deer, tail the spy.

J. Musical instruments: ⁺trumpet the music, ⁺bugle reveille, pipe the tune, fiddle the tune, ⁺harp the tune, whistle the tune, ⁺guitar.

K. Kitchen utensils: fork the pickle, ⁺teaspoon, spoon, ladle, ⁺tablespoon the soup into the bowl, ⁺chopstick the beansprouts, ⁺spatula the pancakes over, sieve the flour, ⁺blender the soup, ⁺microwave the chicken.

L. Places: (tr.) launderette the clothes, ⁺greenhouse the seedlings, ⁺nursery the tomatoes, lobby the congressmen for the bill, school the children, ⁺church the savages, ⁺bargain-counter the Bible [Thurber], market the goods, ⁺She Lincoln Tunneled her way to New York [Vogue]; (intr.) ranch, farm, garden, market; ⁺hotel it, and inn it, and pub it [Jerome].

M. Body parts: head the ball, ⁺eyebrow one’s surprise, eyeball the data, eye the guard-dog, bad-mouth someone, mouth the words, tongue the note (brass instruments), ⁺nose the bone, ⁺lip the sugar-lump, ⁺The old man gummed the bread, hand the spoon, ⁺mitt someone (shake hands), finger the material, thumb the pages, ⁺knuckle someone's face, ⁺arm someone out of the way, straight-arm someone aside, shoulder, elbow someone aside, knee someone, jaw the truant, shin up a tree, foot the ball, ⁺heel the broken glass aside, toe the resin.

N. Simple tools: lever the door open, wedge the window open, wrench the bolt loose, plane the wood smooth, level the floor, chisel the groove, spade the dirt, shovel the dirt, ⁺trowel the mortar smooth, file the board down, pitchfork the hay into the wagon, plough the field, hose the garden, rake the leaves, hoe the garden, cork on a moustache, pencil in the answer, pen the reply, crayon in the picture, ⁺crayon (up) the walls, charcoal the sketch, chalk on the board, blue-pencil the manuscript, red-pencil the errors, comb her hair, brush her hair, riddle the potatoes, siphon the gas, funnel the gas, ⁺hairpin the lock open, ⁺skeleton-key the door open, ⁺celluloid the lock, ⁺torch the safe open, ⁺shoehorn his shoes on, fan the fire, ⁺anvil the horseshoe, ⁺crutch the branch, ⁺pulley up the pail, helm the boat.

O. Complex tools: jack up the car, winch the truck up the slope, brake the car, catapult the rock into the fortress, mill the grain, gin the cotton, ⁺centrifuge the solution, ⁺meter the water, ⁺autoclave the utensils, pump the water, Xerox the article, Ditto the article, clock the race, rack the prisoner, guillotine the criminals, iron the clothes, ⁺steam-iron the clothes, ⁺sewing-machine the torn sail, type the paper, print the newspaper, balance the two sides, Zeppelin the fleet [H. G. Wells].

P. Miscellaneous; ⁺school-bell the class to order, gavel the meeting to order, bankroll the venture, ⁺nettle the children’s legs, dye the cloth, ⁺ink someone (sign him on), ⁺Rit the material, ⁺Clairol one’s hair, ⁺straitjacket the patient (restrain), ⁺x-and-m out a word, ransom the child, X-ray the bone, requisition the horses, blackball the applicant, ⁺sir the general, smoke the fish, steam the vegetables, claw the branch, horn in on the conversation, putty the glass, ⁺Christian-named each. other [Thackeray], ⁺bad-worded 007 [Kipling], ⁺Carte Blanche it [ad], ⁺86 a customer (throw out for drunkenness by ordinance 86) [Herb Caen].

Most instrument verbs can take a type of reduced complement. Consider bicycle. As 12 shows, 11 expresses (or contains) the complement John was in town, which describes the result that John brought about by his use of the bicycle: he caused himself to be in town by bicycling. But alongside 11, there is the ordinary John walked into town. It contains the same complement; but now the result is brought about by John’s walking: he caused himself to be in town by walking. Sentences like these, then, divide notionally into a causative portion (John caused himself to be in town)and an instrumental portion (by John’s bicycling/walking). Similarly, Julia hammered the nail into the board divides into Julia caused the nail to be in the board and by Julia’s hammering the nail; and George towelled himself dry divides into George caused himself to be dry and by George’s toweling himself. Note that, if Julia had willed, thrown, or shot the nail into the board (or if George had shaken, blown,or walked himself dry), only the instrumental portions of these sentences would have changed.

But what about the instrumental portions of John bicycled, оr Julia hammered the nail, or George toweled himself? These are simple instrumental verbs, as can be illustrated for John bicycled. As 12 shows, this means simply ‘John did the act one would normally expect [one to do with a bicycle]’. In this paraphrase, the bicycle is an instrument for moving; the moving is not itself instrumental in accomplishing something else.

To make things difficult, however, locatum and location verbs often look very much like instrument verbs. Take Ned leashed the dog:is leash a locatum verb (‘Ned caused the dog to have a leash on it’), or an instrument verb (‘Ned caused the dog to be restrained by doing the act one would normally expect to do to a dog with a leash’)? Or take Bob netted the fish: is it a location verb (‘Bob caused the fish to be in a net’), or an instrument verb (‘Bob caused the fish to be captive by doing the act one would normally expect to do to the fish with a net’)? Indeed, both sentences could be ambiguous, or both could be vague. Fortunately, there are several criteria that generally distinguish locatum and location verbs from instrument verbs.

The first criterion is that locatum and location verbs have resultant states in which the parent noun plays an intrinsic role – as the thing placed or the location at which it is placed – whereas instrument verbs do not. Compare plaster the wall (witha locatum verb) to trowel the plaster onto the wall (with an instrument verb). The resultant state for both is Plaster is on the wall. This contains plaster,the parent noun of the locatum verb, but not trowel, the parent noun of the instrument verb. In trowelling the plaster onto the wall, the trowel is necessary for accomplishing the final result, but is not itself part of that result. The contrast between bottle the beer (with a location verb) and siphon the beer into the bottle (with an instrument verb) works the same way. The resultant state, the beer is in a bottle, contains bottle but not siphon. This criterion, however, must be applied with care. Plaster the wall, one might argue, is really ‘cause the wall to have a cover on it by plastering it’, and so plaster is really an instrument verb. But in this paraphrase cover is really the superordinate of plaster, and merely conceals the fact that the plaster is an inherent part of the resultant state.

Watt provides further evidence for this criterion, at least for location verbs. He notes that do it can be used to refer to the ‘fasten’ part of the meaning of nail, as in 13:

(13) Dognog wanted to nail the boards together, but Gripsnake made him

do it with tape.

This sort of anaphora appears possible for most instrument verbs, but not for what we are calling location verbs:

(14) Dognog wanted to bottle the home-brew, but Dead wood wanted to do

it in PICKLE-BARRELS.

And 14 is no better if in is replaced by with. Watt argues, therefore, that bottle the beer does not mean ‘containerize the beer with/in bottles’, but rather ‘put the beer into bottles’. The bottles aren’t instruments by which a result is accomplished, but an intrinsic part of the result itself – the beer’s being in the bottles. So while instrument verbs are generally paraphrasable as ‘do it with X’, location verbs are generally paraphrasable as ‘do it in/on/at X’. Watt’s evidence adds credence to the first criterion, and to the idea that there is a genuine distinction between ‘pure’ cases of instrument and location verbs.

Instrument verbs are also distinguishable from locatum and location verbs in the way they form antonyms. De- and dis-, Marchand observes (1969:134-5), can be used with locatum and location verbs. When added to locatum verbs, they result in ‘privative verbs’ like defrost and disarm; when added to location verbs, they result in ‘ablative verbs’ like deplane and disbar. In effect, they add a negative to the parent clause of the positive verbs frost, arm, and plane (barcannot stand alone). But de-and dis- cannot be added to instrument verbs. To make these verbs ‘reversative’, one must add un-, as in unglue and unshackle (although one can also add un- to location verbs, as in unsaddle); thus, debuttoning a shirt should be different from unbuttoning it, and it is. In debuttoning, one takes buttons off; but in unbuttoning, one unfastens them, reversing their usual instrumental effect[10]. So instrument verbs are distinguished on morphological grounds too.

Yet some instrument verbs appear to work by virtue of their being locata or locations. Let us return to leash and net. As a locatum verb, leash (the dog)means ‘put a leash on the dog’. But dictionaries also list what amounts to ‘cause the dog to be restrained by putting a leash on the dog’, as if leash the dog were actually leash the dog restrained with the restrained implicit. In this interpretation, leash is an instrument verb, but one that works by virtue of its first being a locatum verb. Leash the dog should therefore be ambiguous, and it is. Unleash means to reverse the constraints, bashed on the instrument reading; deleash means to take the leash off, based on the locatum reading, although both are accomplished by the same action. Note that leash the dog to the post forces the instrument reading – so, while one can unleash the dog from the post, one cannot deleash it from the post. Similarly, net the fish seems ambiguous. It can be a location verb, ‘cause the fish to be in a net’, or an instrument verb, ‘cause the fish to be captive by causing it to be in a net’, which works by virtue of its first being a location verb.

1.6. Miscellaneous verbs. Besides the main verb types already discussed, there are several miscellaneous types, shown in List 9.

List 9: Miscellaneous verbs

A. Meals: lunch, luncheon, breakfast, ⁺brunch, snack, ⁺cheeseburger, supper, picnic, banquet, feast (somewhere on something), ⁺I dinner'd wi’ a lord [Burns], ⁺nightcap, ⁺liquor, booze, wine, ⁺grub, nosh, ⁺You could come and tea with me [Dickens].

B. Crops: ⁺blackberry in the woods, ⁺nut in the woods, hay the top field, ⁺timber off the hills, log the west slopes, ⁺crab, fish, shrimp, ⁺shark, whale, ⁺pearl, ⁺sponge (for a living); ⁺mouse, ⁺ termite.

C. Parts: ⁺His ball lipped the cup (failed to go in, golf); ⁺The shot rimmed off the basket (basketball), wing the bird, ⁺kneecap the businessman, ⁺rear-end the van, ⁺rim the glass with salt, bean the catcher (baseball), ⁺blindside a player (hit on the blind side).

D. Elements: rain, snow, hail, sleet.

E. Other: ⁺We housed [hawst] your wife’s steak (put the steak ‘on the house’).

The first type has parent nouns that are meals or foods:

(15) Jeff lunched on a hotdog and a coke.

(16) Jeff ate a lunch of a hotdog and a coke.

In 16, lunch is in the objective case, so the verb lunch could be called an object verb. The category, however, is much more restricted than the name ‘object verb’ suggests.

The next type is much like the locatum verb with negative prepositions:

(17) Roger hayed the top field.

(18) Roger caused it to come about that [hay was not in the top field].

But these crop verbs differ from the earlier locatum verbs in that the location does not have to be mentioned, e.g. Roger hays for a living; the emphasis is more on collecting hay than on ridding the field of it. It is as if these verbs, like leash and net, are instrumental, in that collecting the hay is achieved in part by taking it from the field. In any case, their meanings are more complex than those of locatum verbs with negative prepositions like pit and core.

The third type is another variety of object verb, but one in which the verb denotes an action that happens to the entity denoted by the parent noun that itself is part of the entity denoted by the surface object:

(19) The car rear-ended the van.

(20) The car did to the rear-end that belonged to the van the action one would normally expect [a car to do to a rear-end].

With lip and rim, the ball and shot careened off these parts; with rear-end, the car crashed into that part; and with wing and kneecap, the agent injured these parts. But clearly these paraphrases do not do justice to the surplus meanings in each expression.

Finally, there are a few element verbs, which are still another kind of object verb, since they denote the activities characteristic of rain, snow, hail, and sleet. It is raining might be paraphrased ‘It (the weather) is doing the activity that one would normally expect [rain to do].

These categories don’t really do justice to denominal verbs. Many examples don’t fit neatly into these categories, and others have the characteristics of more than one category at a time. For example, instrument verbs like leash and net seem to have properties of both instrument and locatum or location verbs, and the crop verbs hay and log combine properties of negative locatum and part verbs. Smoke, as in George smokes the pipe, provides another example. Because George causes the pipe to produce smoke, it could be a goal verb. Because he extracts smoke from the pipe, it could be a locatum verb with a negative preposition. And because he does what one would do with smoke – namely, inhale and exhale – it could also be an instrument verb, though of an odd sort. Smoke seems to belong to all three categories at once. Its complexity probably has a historical explanation. It may once have had clear limits but with time has become specialized for the particular activity we call smoking. Its origins as a noun are recognizable only on reflection. The same process has worked on many other denominal verbs as well; so it isn’t surprising that they don’t fit neatly into these categories.

2. Innovations. These categories, rough as they are, suggest that denominal verbs might be accounted for by derivation. Several linguists have argued just that. As Marchand says ‘Denominal verbs are verbalized sentences.’ McCawley, for example, suggests (28-9) that 21 be derived from 22:

(21) John nailed the note to the door.

(22) John caused a nail to hold the note on the door.

In this derivation, the capitalized words in 22 conflate to form the verb nail in 21. Green (221-2) proposes a similar analysis. Although McCawley and Green have not investigated the full range of denominal verbs, presumably they would derive the rest of them from sources not too different from our paraphrases.

But is this the right approach? For many common denominal verbs, derivations lead to problems. First, the noun origins of many verbs have been completely lost. How many people go back to Captain Boycott, Judge Lynch, and writing slates on hearing boycott the store, lynch the prisoner, and slate the event?These verbs have become opaque idioms. Second, even the more transparent verbs have interpretations that, strictly speaking, don’t contain the parent noun. If land and park truly meant ‘put onto land’ and ‘put into a park’, how could one land on a lake and park in a garage? Third, denominal verbs usually have semantic idiosyncrasies. Why should land the plane mean ‘put down’ and ground the plane ‘keep down’, instead of the reverse? That is, most common denominal verbs seem to be full or partial idioms. Their meanings have become fully or partially specialized, and are not fully predictable by an across-the-board process of derivation.

Innovative denominal verbs, however, do not have these problems. Bydefinition they are not idioms; therefore they must be accounted for by some productive mechanism. But what is the mechanism like? We will be in a position to offer an answer to this question once we have considered the special properties of innovative verbs.

2.1. Contextual expressions. Most semantic theories distinguish what we will call purely denotational expressions (man, blue, walk, day, bachelor)from indexical or deictic expressions (he, over there, yesterday, the bachelor). For an expression to be purely denotational, it must have a fixed sense and denotation. Bachelor, for example, has a fixed sense, say ‘unmarried man’, and denotes unmarried men in every real or imaginary world. Most English nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are of this type. For an expression to be indexical, however, it must have a fixed sense and denotation, but a shifting reference. He,for example, has a fixed sense, say ‘male person’, and denotes male people in every real or imaginary world. But the particular person it refers to – its referent – changes with the time, place, and circumstances of its utterance. The referential shifting is critical. Note that while bachelor is purely denotational, the bachelor is indexical because its referent will change from one use to another. What about innovative verbs? We will argue that they are neither purely denotational nor indexical, for they have a shifting sense and denotation. They constitute a new category that we will call CONTEXTUALS.

To identify contextuals, one must be able to distinguish shifting from fixed sense and denotation. For that, we suggest three interrelated criteria.

(a) Number of senses. Purely denotational and indexical expressions normally have more than one fixed sense and denotation. Bachelor, according to Katz & Fodor 1963, for example, has four: ‘unmarried man’, ‘young knight’, ‘person with baccalaureate degree’, and ‘mateless breeding fur seal’. In expressions like this, the number of senses is always small. Ambiguity of this type does not constitute shifting sense. To get some idea of what does, consider shifting reference. He,depending on the context, can be used to refer to any of an indefinitely large number of male humans – past, present, and future. Its referents cannot be enumerated. A distinguishing characteristic of something that shifts, then, is that it has an indefinitely large number of possibilities. So contextuals should possess not a small finite number of potential senses, but an indefinitely large number of senses.

(b) Dependence on context. When expressions have a fixed sense and denotation, ‘these do not change with context (except for disambiguation). What about expressions with shifting sense and denotation? Once again we get a clue by considering shifting reference. The referent of he doesn’t merely change with the context. Listeners cannot hope to identify that referent without consulting information provided by the context – facts about the time, place, and circumstances of the utterance. This is a logical requirement for most uses of he. Because their referents cannot be identified from the sentence alone, they must be identified from the other facts associated with the utterance of that sentence, namely the context. So if contextuals have a shifting sense and denotation, these should depend on any, occasion on the context too.

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 671