A Frame-Semantic Approach to Verb-Verb Compound Verbs in Japanese: A Case Study of V-toru

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt:

This paper claims a semantic constraint on Japanese [V1+V2]V compound verbs1 (henceforth JCVs), such as osi-taosu (push-topple) ‘topple by pushing’, is that V1 and V2 must constitute a coherent semantic frame. In order to support this claim, a corpus-based analysis of JCVs with V2 tor(-u) ‘get/remove’ was conducted in the framework of Frame Semantics (Fillmore 1982, 1985, Fillmore & Baker 2010, Goldberg 2010, inter alia). V2 toru is a polysemous word, which generally carries two meanings, ‘get’ and ‘remove’.