Abstract
This paper is a corpus analysis of the syntactic distributions of . We examine the 198 most common usages of based on Corpus of American Soap Operas (CASO) databanks, a subset of the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). We also provide 12 subcategorization frames to account for all the syntactic environments in which occurs in the database. This comprehensive investigation confirms that is unique among all English verbs by the sheer number of complements that it selects. Its varied uses and its frequency of occurrence in everyday English make a hard verb to master for native and non-native speakers alike. Non-native speakers may not understand many of the idiomatic expressions and collocations involving . Native speakers, on the other hand, may not be aware that a fair amount of its usages and collocations are too informal. Consequently, care should be used when appears in academic writing. We first analyzed the numerous uses of , only then did we categorize usages from CASO/ COCA. Some of the usages that we did not find in either CASO or COCA.
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Recommended Citation
Kennedy, Barbara; Koffi, Ettien; and Perschke, Glynis
(2018)
"A Corpus Analysis of the Syntactic Distributions of the Verb 'GET' : Meanings and Usages,"
Linguistic Portfolios: Vol. 7, Article 3.
Available at:
https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/stcloud_ling/vol7/iss1/3
Author Bio
Barbara Kennedy, M.A. in Hispanic Literature and Culture from the University of Minnesota and B.A. in Spanish from Macalester College, teaches Spanish and ESL at Century College, MN. She has also designed and taught French and Women’s Studies courses and co-designed a global studies program and introductory course. As an interpreter/translator, she translated anthropological and other documents into Spanish and interpreted for medical appointments. During the 1980s, she was a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural public health in Ecuador. She can be reached at barbara.century@gmail.com.
Ettien Koffi, Ph.D., is a professor of Linguistics at St. Cloud State University, Minnesota, USA. His current research interests center around sociophonetic variations in Central Minnesota English, acoustic phonetic accounts of intelligibility in L2 English, and general acoustic phonetic descriptions of Anyi, a West African Language spoken in Cote d'Ivoire. He is the author of four books and numerous papers covering topics as varied as syntax, sociolinguistics, translation, Linguistic Portfolios–ISSN 2472-5102 –Volume 7, 2018 | 49 language planning and policy, orthography, and indigenous literacy training manuals. He can be reached at enkoffi@stcloudstate.edu.
Glynis Perschke, MA-candidate in TESL at St. Cloud State University, Minnesota, has a BS in Environmental Studies from St. Cloud State University, a BFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design, as well as AA degrees in Computer and Interactive Graphics and Water Environment Technologies. She has designed and taught science classes for the St. Paul Science Museum, art classes for the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and numerous classes for other programs. As an AmeriCorps volunteer, she has served as a reading tutor. She can be reached at gperschke@gmail.com.