| The verb HAVE heads a diverse set of distinct but related syntactic constructions in English. The dissertation shows how these constructions are related to one another and how those relations can be expressed via a multidimensional network of senses.;The inventory of HAVE-constructions includes the semantic subtypes Causative, Resultant State/Event, "Depictive", Attributive-Existential, and Affecting Event. I show that these all instantiate a single constructional schema, though they cannot be reduced to that schema. I also show that the complex semantics of individual constructions is a product of three dimensions of simple semantic factors: the semantics of individual constituents, of constructions as a whole, and of the use of constructions in larger environments.;The distinctness of the constructions can be seen in a sentence like I had my moped stolen, which is three-ways ambiguous. We can detect the presence of three constructions here by noting that the ambiguity cannot be resolved either by making reference to different constituent structures or by assigning different meanings to its individual constituents (particularly HAVE). Instead, the semantic differences lie at the level of the construction. |
