Resultative

STUB

Definition

Verbs which denote an activity may be combined with a predicate to render a so-called resultative interpretation:

(i)   He smashed [the vase to pieces]
(ii)  They talked [him out of it]
(iii) She washed [the dirt off her face]
(iv)  The gardener watered [the flowers flat]

The brackets in (i)-(iv) reflect the small clause analysis of resultative constructions. This analysis has not remained unchallenged.

Links

• Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics

References

• Carrier, J. & J.H. Randall 1992. The Argument Structure and Syntactic Structure of Resultatives, Linguistic Inquiry 23,
• Hoekstra, J. 1988. Small Clause Results, Lingua 74,