Open AccessI love me some Jiminy Glick: The semantic contribution of 'some' in personal dative constructions
Author(s) -
Liela Edel Rotschy
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
lsa annual meeting extended abstracts
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2377-3367
DOI - 10.3765/exabs.v0i0.545
Subject(s) - dative case , semantics (computer science) , object (grammar) , construal level theory , subject (documents) , psychology , linguistics , computer science , social psychology , philosophy , world wide web , programming language
This paper examines the semantics of the I Love Me Some {X} variant of the personal dative construction. Contrary to previous analyses (Horn 2008, 2010), I argue that the sub-construction manifests characteristic personal dative semantics, and that its use of ‘some’ is semantically motivated. When blended with the constructional semantics and with the semantics of ‘love’ (in its ‘desire’ sub-sense), ‘some’ invites a construal of the direct object as a consumable commodity for which the subject experiences a habitual craving.