Cues to identifying support verb constructions: A corpus-based study of [Verb + EXAMINATION]

Abstract

This paper describes a corpus survey of [Verb + EXAMINATION] to explore the formal specifications of support verb constructions (SVCs). Previous studies described the properties of SVCs by focusing on the apparent semantic and syntactic paucity of support verbs (Brugman, 2001; Newman, 1996; Wierzbicka, 1982) and the process of argument transfer triggered by the complements (Grimshaw & Mester, 1998; Grimshaw, 1990). However, these verb-centered approaches face the issue of ambiguity between light and heavy senses in context (e.g., make_light a diagnosis, make_heavy a certificate), and coverage of low frequency support verbs (e.g., sustain an injury). To address these issues, we point out the need for formal specifications of SVCs targeted on their compliments. Our corpus analysis of [Verb + EXAMINATION], in which the deverbal noun examination possesses its own argument structure, revealed the types of verbs preferred in SVCs and the grammatical properties of examination (e.g., the occurrence of an of-phrase).