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Complex predicates formed of a semantically ‘light’ verbal head and a noun which contributes the major part of the meaning are frequently referred to as ‘light verb constructions’ (LVCs). In the paper, we present a case study of LVCs with the German posture verb stehen ‘stand’. In our account, we model the syntactic as well as semantic composition of such LVCs by combining Lexicalized Tree Adjoining Grammar (LTAG) with frames. Starting from the analysis of the literal uses of posture verbs, we show how the meaning components of the literal uses are systematically exploited in the interpretation of stehen-LVCs. The paper constitutes an important step towards a compositional and computational analysis of LVCs. We show that LTAG allows us to separate constructional from lexical meaning components and that frames enable elegant generalizations over event types and related constraints. 1 Light verb constructions Light verb constructions (LVCs) are complex predicates consisting of – at least – two lexical elements forming a joint predication. The grammatical head of the construction is a semantically light verb which does not express the same predicational content as it does in its non-light (‘heavy’) uses. Rather, the predicational content is mainly contributed by a nominal element which is either realized within an NP or as a PP as illustrated by the German examples in (1-a) and (1-b), respectively. (1) a. ein Bad nehmen ‘to take a bath’ b. unter Beobachtung stehen ‘to be under surveillance’ In its light use as in (1-a) the verb nehmen ‘take’ does not express a change of possession as it does in its heavy use: ein Bad nehmen ‘take a bath’ does not denote an event in which an individual is taking possession of a bath. Instead, the LVC in (1-a) denotes an event of bathing with the meaning mainly contributed by the noun Bad ‘bath’. Likewise unter Beobachtung stehen in (1-b) does not refer to a situation in which someone exhibits the particular posture specified by stehen ‘stand’ in its heavy use but rather means that someone is the undergoer of the activity expressed by the eventive noun Beobachtung ‘surveillance’. As illustrated by the examples, the nominal element used in an LVC is characteristically an eventive noun which determines the event denoted by the LVC as a whole. In this regard, Butt and Geuder (2001) state that light verbs make a (often just subtle) semantic contribution to the predication and are not able to denote full-fledged events of their own (in contrast to their heavy pendants). Various authors (e.g. Fleischer 1997; Fellbaum et al. 2006) consider LVCs as idioms since constructions of this type often have a conventionalized interpretation and especially the light verb cannot be interpreted literally. In their discussion of idioms, Nunberg et al. (1994) argue that idiomaticity does not contradict semantic compositionality. The authors distinguish between ‘idiomatic expressions’ (e.g. kick the bucket) on the one hand and ‘idiomatically combining expressions’ on the other hand. Idiomatically combining expressions (ICEs) are semantically compositional and most LVCs fall into that class. After

Towards a Compositional Analysis of German Light Verb Constructions (LVCs) Combining Lexicalized Tree Adjoining Grammar (LTAG) with Frame Semantics