Possessing a process

A cognitive semantic approach to the action nominal construction in Hungarian

Abstract

This paper investigates the semantics of action nominal constructions (ANCs) in Hungarian. The theoretical assumptions concerning grammatical structures are defined in the framework of usage-based construction grammar. ANCs are investigated in the model of conceptual integration. The input spaces of the ANC network are intransitive and transitive constructions characteristic of nominative-accusative languages on the one hand, and nominal possessive constructions on the other. Agent and patient semantic roles correspond to the formal components of certain possessive constructions. The ergative nature of mapping can be explained
by the symbolic structure and grammaticalization of the possessor in Hungarian. Although the use of dative case is claimed in the literature to be a secondary (marked) way to express the possessor, it proved to be dominant before the reform era (1772–1825) according to our corpus analysis. The motivation behind the mapping between constructions can be captured by a generic space. The constructions share a mental path semantic structure and an inflectional pattern that makes the grounding of a person possible. However, the emergent nature of the meaning of ANC is also reflected in grounding, as instead of the asymmetric reference-point structure of possession, it holistically serves to refer to a person or thing. Compression and passivation are further functions that cannot be simply traced back to possessive or verbal constructions. These cognitive advantages might also motivate the use of ANC.