Too female to be ruthless and too pregnant to argue: Semantic conflict and resolution in the [too ADJ to V]-construction

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

Taking usage-based construction grammar as its theoretical framework, this paper addresses the interplay between construal operations and semantic conflict resolution in anomalous instances of the relatively unexplored English [too ADJ to V]-construction. Drawing on a questionnaire analysis in which native-speaker respondents offer their readings of anomalous instances of the construction, the paper discusses strategies of semantic construction-lexeme conflict resolution with a view to inferring construal operations involved therein.
Original languageEnglish
JournalSuvremena Lingvistika
Volume40
Issue number77
Pages (from-to)1-26
ISSN0586-0296
Publication statusPublished - 15 Jun 2014

    Research areas

  • Faculty of Humanities - adjectives, adjectival constructions, construction grammar, cognitive linguistics, construction-lexeme interaction, scalar semantics, construal, meaning construction, image schemata, qualitative analysis, constructional semantics, cognitive semantics, semantic conflict, semantic shift, semantic resolution, constructional anomalies, construal operations, semantic conflict resolution, scalar adjectival constructions, English language, American English

ID: 164297671