Diagnostics for Determining Compatibility in English Support-Verb-Nominalization Pairs

Leslie Barrett, Anthony R. Davis

Abstract: This paper describes the results of a study on the semantics of socalled support-verb-nominalization (SVN) pairs in English. These constructions consist of a semantically impoverished verb and a complement nominalization sharing an unexpressed role with the verb. The study builds on the results of Davis and Barrett (2001), where it was argued that the semantic roles of the support-verb have a compatibility constraint with respect to the roles present in the nominalization. The results of the present study point to additional constraints based upon the Aktionsart category of both the support-verb and the verb from which the nominalization is derived.