穴構文を映画のデータから再考する : 語彙意味論の知見と教育的活用

抄録

This paper analytically and pedagogically deals with what Levin and Rapport (1988) call "a hole construction." Levin and Rapport argue that hole constructions, just like resultative constructions and one's way constructions, describe results (= a hole) brought about by the action denoted by their verbs. The hole construction may be particularly hard for Japanese learners of English to break in, not only because a construction of this nature doesn't exist in the Japanese language, but also because it comes in many different patterns, even though the basic template seems to be fixed. The author gleans as many as 70 examples of the hole construction mainly by using the movie database version 3 (2009), which was compiled for academic purposes with a few other ATEM Kansai Chapter members. Based on the database results, the author develops a formula and a revised template for the hole construction. The author concurrently suggests a way for teachers and learners to make the most of this so-called polysemous construction in the latter half of the discussion. Given in the appendix is a streamlined list of the 70 hole construction examples, which may come in handy for those who wish to put the seemingly kaleidoscopic and yet versatile construction into action in the classroom settings.