Funktionsverbgefüge: Familien und Komposition (FFK) / Light verb constructions: Families and composition (first phase: October 2020 - September 2023; second phase: April 2025 - March 2028)

Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

In the project, I investigate German light verb constructions (LVCs) from a corpus linguistic perspective. The central research question of both project phases is: To what extent can we describe LVCs compositionally?

In the first project phase, the focus was on examining LVC families, which are defined as follows: LVCs belong to the same family if they differ only in their nominal element and exhibit the same interpretation pattern. Families are thus defined by their form (the same light verb and – if present – the same preposition) and meaning (the same interpretation pattern). The focus of the project was on investigating LVCs formed with the light verb stehen 'stand'. Among other things, the event passive family and the state passive family were examined in detail. Both are formed with stehen and the preposition unter 'under', but they differ in that they can be paraphrased using different passive constructions.

Families can serve as evidence for the compositional formation of the constructions. A thorough investigation of the families reveals which components contribute to which aspects of meaning. The passive meaning arises from the preposition, the denoted eventuality is contributed by the noun, and the state meaning comes from the light verb. By assigning an identifiable meaning to all components, a compositional description is not only possible but also meaningful.

While the first project phase aimed to describe the meanings of the prepositions and nouns, as well as their grammatical properties – for example, regarding article variation – the second project phase focuses on the light verbs. On one hand, it seeks to investigate the specific contributions that light verbs make to meaning. Until now, they have only been classified into general categories – stative, inchoative, causative. However, each category includes several verbs, and it is unclear how they semantically differ from one another. If they only contribute general semantic features like 'stative,' then all verbs in this class should be synonymous. Preliminary investigations suggest that this is not the case.

In addition to the meanings of the light verbs, the project also aims to examine their emergence. This is particularly interesting given that different verbs can be used both as light verbs and as more grammatically entrenched auxiliaries. Is it possible to distinguish the use of light verbs from auxiliary verb usage? Do light verbs represent a step in the process of grammaticalization into auxiliaries, as occasionally claimed in the research literature?

The project primarily focuses on German, but also includes other languages such as Dutch, Afrikaans, Persian, as well as Bantu languages like Gikuyu and Swahili.

Project papers & Manuscripts

Fleischhauer, Jens & Anna Riccio (eds.). under contract. Light verb constructions from a cross-linguistic perspective. Berlin: De Gruyter. [Open Access, expected Autumn 2024]

Fleischhauer, Jens. accepted. The syntactic flexibiliyt of light verb constructions - An RRG analysis. In Zahra Ghane & Vaki Rezai (eds.). The Springer Handbook of Applying Role and Reference Grammar in Persian. Berlin: Springer.

Fleischhauer, Jens. 2024. Eine datengesteuerte Untersuchung deutscher Funktionsverbgefüge. Artikelvarianz in stehen-Funktionsverbgefügen. Lingue e Linguaggi 65: 233-265. doi: 10.1285/i22390359v65p233.

Bogaards, Marten & Jens Fleischhauer. 2023. Prospective aspect constructions in West Germanic. A comparative corpus study of German and Dutch. Leuvense Bijdragen - Leuven Contribution in Linguistics and Philology 104: 5-37.

Fleischhauer, Jens. 2023. Prospective aspect and current relevance - A case study of the German prospective 'stehen vor NP' construction. Journal of Germanic linguistics 35 (4): 371-408.

Wiskandt, Niklas & Dila Turus. in press. Verb-LVC pairs with experiencer objects in German: Differences in usage and meaning. In Jóhanna Barðdal, Gauthier Delaby, Torsten Leuschner & Anaïs Vajnovszki (eds.). How to Do Things with Corpora – Methodological Issues and Case Studies. Empirical and Theoretical Linguistics Series. Berlin: J.B. Metzler.

Wiskandt, Niklas & Dila Turus. 2023. Wie man Linguisten in Begeisterung versetzt: Drei Muster von Funktionsverben mit Objekt-Experiencern. Germanistische Werkstatt 12: 149-162.

Fleischhauer, Jens & Stefan Hartmann. 2023. Der Weg von kommen zum Funktionsverb. In Christian Braun & Elisabeth Scherr (eds.). Methoden zur Erforschung grammatischer Strukturen in historischen Quellen, 117-138. De Gruyter: Berlin. 

Fleischhauer, Jens. 2023. German light verb constructions with non-eventive nouns. In Jean-Pierre Colson (ed.). Phraseology, constructions and translation. Corpus-based, computational and cultural aspects: 387-398. Louvain: Presses Universitaires de Louvain.

Fleischhauer, Jens. 2022. stehen unter-Funktionsverbgefüge und ihre Familien. Zeitschrift für germanistische Linguistik 50 (2), 247-288.

Fleischhauer, Jens & Dila Turus. 2022. Families of Light Verb Constructions in German Legal Language Contexts: A Case Study on the 'Passive'-Family of stehen unter-Light Verb Constructions. In Daniel Green & Luke Green (eds.). Contemporary Approaches to Legal Linguistics, 173-198. Münster: LIT Verlag.

Fleischhauer, Jens. 2021. Warum steht der Fußballspieler unter Vertrag? - Eine Fallstudie zu Funktionsverbgefügen des Typs 'stehen unter NP'. Sprachwissenschaft 46 (3): 343-374.

Fleischhauer, Jens. 2021. Light Verb Constructions and Their Families - A Corpus Study on German stehen unter-LVCs. In: Proceedings of the 17th Workshop on Multiword Expressions (MWE 2021), 63-69. Online: Association for Computational Linguistics.

Fleischhauer, Jens & Dila Turus. 2021. Der Angeklagte steht unter Schutz, wird er aber auch geschützt? Eine Analyse passivischer Funktionsverbgefüge vom Typ stehen unter. In Gabriela Jelitto-Piechulik et al. (eds.). Germanistische Werkstatt 11, 73-84. Oppeln: Uniwersytet Opolski.

Fleischhauer, Jens & Stefan Hartmann. 2021. The emergence of light verb constructions: A case study on German kommen 'come'. In Yearbook of the German Association of Cognitive Linguistics 9, 135-156. Berlin/ Boston: de Gruyter.

Fleischhauer, Jens. 2020. Predicative multi-word expressions in Persian. In Proceedings of the 34th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation, 552-561. Association for Computational Linguistics: Hanoi, Vietnam.

Fleischhauer, Jens & Dila Turus. 2022. Leitfaden zur Identifikation von Funktionsverbgefügen in Korpusdaten. Universität zu Köln/ Heinrich-Heine Universität Düsseldorf. [Download]

Project presentations

Boogards, Maarten, Jens Fleischhauer & Roné Wierenga. A prospective sandwich: Prospective aspect in German, Dutch, Afrikaans and English. Germanic Sandwich 9, Lancaster.

Boogards, Maarten, Jens Fleischhauer & Roné Wierenga. A corpus-based analysis of periphrastic prospective constructions in West-Germanic. Chronos 15, Toulouse.

Fleischhauer, Jens. 2024. On the presence versus absence of articles in German light verb constructions. Grammatical and semantic determination: categorization, cognition and acquisition. Amiens, France.

Fleischhauer, Jens. 2023. The 'principle of no synonymy' and light verb constructions –  A case study on German stative light verbs. ICLC 16. Düsseldorf, Germany.

Fleischhauer, Jens. The non-synonymy of German light verbs – A case study on stehen and sein. CogLing Days 2022. Tilburg, The Netherlands.

Wiskandt, Niklas & Dila Turus. 2022. Systematic semantic differences between object-experiencer LVCs and corresponding simplex verbs in German. Grammar and Corpora 2022. Ghent, Belgium.

Boogards, Maarten & Jens Fleischhauer. 2022. Prospective aspect constructions in Dutch and German. A Germanic Sandwich 2022. Cologne, Germany [online].

Wiskandt, Niklas & Dila Turus. 2022. Bringing experiencers into rage and excitement: Light verb constructions with experiencer object in German. Forum for Germanic Language Studies. Reading, Great Britain.

Fleischhauer, Jens. 2022. Semantic restrictions on German causative light verb constructions. The Grammar of Causation III. Paris, France.

Fleischhauer, Jens. 2022. Stellen or setzen - The distribution of causative light verbs in German. 9. DGKL. Erfurt, Germany.

Fleischhauer, Jens. 2021. A data-driven (bottom-up) approach to German light verb constructions. CLAVIER 21. Modena, Italy (online).

Fleischhauer, Jens. 2021. Light verb constructions and their families - A corpus study on German stehen unter-LVCs. 17th Workshop on Multiword Expressions. Bangkok, Thailand (online).

Fleischhauer, Jens. 2021. Families of light verb constructions - A corpus study on German stehen unter-LVCs. Europhrase 2021. Louvaine, France (online).

Fleischhauer, Jens & Stefan Hartmann. 2021. The desemantisation of German kommen and the emergence of light verb constructions. 12th International Corpus Linguistics Conference. Murcia, Spain.

Fleischhauer, Jens. 2021. LVC-families across languages. 9. International Contrastive Linguistics Conference. Santa Margherita-Protofino, Italy.

Hartmann, Stefan & Jens Fleischhauer. 2021. Zur Analyse emergierender Funktionsverbgefüge im Mittelhochdeutschen - Methodische Herausforderungen und Lösungsansätze. Grammatische und textgrammatische Strukturen in alt- und mittelhochdeutschen Quellen. Graz, Austria.

Fleischhauer, Jens. 2021.The use of spatial metaphors in German light verb constructions. RaAm 14: Metaphor and Space. Volnius, Lithuania.

Fleischhauer, Jens. 2021. The expression of prospective aspect in German. New perspectives on aspect: from the 'Slavic model' to other languages. Paris, France. [Video of the presentation]

Fleischhauer, Jens. 2021. The syntactic expression of prospective aspect in German. DGfS Workshop Encoding aspectuality in Germanic languages – empirical and theoretical approaches. Freiburg, Germany.

Fleischhauer, Jens. 2020. Light uses of 'stehen' - A corpus-study on German light verb constructions. 56th Linguistics Colloquium. Athene, Greece.

Fleischhauer Jens & Dila Turus. 2020.  'Der Angeklagte hat unter Alkoholeinfluss gestanden' – Funktionsverbgefüge in der Rechts- und Alltagssprache. 9. Internationale Germanistische Werkstatt. Oppeln, Polen.

Fleischhauer, Jens. 2020. Predicative multi-word expressions in Persian. PACLIC Workshop on Multiword Expressions in Asian languages. Hanoi, Vietnam.