Chapter 18 Lexical Functions: Description of Lexical Relations in a ...

—Chapter 18. Lexical Functions— 57
man-Russian). Now the reader has a detailed account of support verbs based on Spanish (Alonso
Ramos 2004).
Let us now return to the survey of verbal LFs.
46-48. Phasal Verbs
The LFs 46-48 represent the meaning of what are often called phasal verbs:
Incep [Lat. incipere] carries the meaning (begin),
Cont [Lat. continuāre] means (continue),
and Fin [Lat. finīre] means (cease).
They are semantically full and linked by obvious semantic relations:
Fin(P) = Incep(NonP) [(He ceased to sleep) = (He began not to sleep)];
Cont(P) = NonFin(P) = NonIncep(NonP) [(He continues to sleep) = (He does not cease to sleep)].
Once again, one can easily see the reason for a tripartite organization of these LFs (the initial
Incep plus two possible negative ‘derivations’).
The three phasal LFs are applicable to verbs or verbal expressions only. Therefore, to apply
one of them to a noun, even a predicate noun, a support verb is needed: (begin negotiations) must
be written as IncepOper 1 (negotiations), etc.; as a result, they are most often used in combina-
tion with other LFs, i.e. in complex LFs, see below, 3.1, p. 00. A phasal verb takes L as its
DSyntA II: Incep−II→L, etc.
Examples
IncepOper 1(fireN [shoot]) = open [~ on NY]
IncepOper 2(power) = fall [under the ~→of NX]
FinOper 1(power) = lose [one’s ~→over NY]
ContOper 1(power) = retain [one’s ~→over NY]
[The expression ‘~→NP’ in the reduced Government Pattern means that the NP in question
syntactically depends on the key lexeme L and not on the support verb.]
ContFunc 0(offer) = stands
ContFunc 0(smellN) = lingers [Locin N], lingers on [here, we see an obligatory circumstan-
tial (locative or temporal), which is by no means a DSyntA of SMELL]
However, in principle, these LFs can be used as well outside of complex LFs, i.e., directly
with verbal keywords, if the language allows for this: Rus. Incep(goret´ (burn [intrans.])) =
//za+goret´+sja, Incep(plakat´ (cry)) = //za+plakat´, Incep(spat´ (sleep)) = //za+snut´,