Semi-Lexicality: Studies on Light Verbs, Periphrases and Other Constructions

This collection of articles deals with semi-lexicality in the verbal domain. Different types of verbs and verbal constructions that are on the borderline, sharing characteristics from lexical and functional categories, are explored. The reader will find studies on light verbs, sometimes compared to light nouns and others to auxiliaries and pseudo-copulatives verbs, as well as articles about infinitive, periphrastical and reflexively marked constructions. The languages studied arc Spanish, French, comparisons between Spanish and French and between Italian and Finnish. Unlike previous volumes on the same topic, the variety of phenomena examined in this book is addressed from different frameworks, including generative, functionalist and cognitive approaches. In addition to this, a diachronic review of different questions accompa­ nies the general synchronic perspective of the volume.