A Multifactorial Analysis Of The Locative Alternation With "Load" In English ——A Diachronic Perspective

The locative alternation is a kind of argument structure alternations where the locative verb exhibits two argument structure realizations.Extant literature suggests that some factors have an influence on the choice between the two constructions of the locative alternation.However,previous research primarily focuses on the effect of a single factor and the combined effects of these factors remains unclear.In addition,it is revealed that the two constructions differ in their development historically.The evolvement of these two constructions merits a detailed exploration.The present study,from the perspective of Diachronic Construction Grammar and Diachronic Probabilistic Grammar,uses the Corpus of Historical American English（COHA）to investigate the diachronic change of the two constructions of the locative alternation with "load",how probabilistic constraints are combined to influence language users’ choice between the two constructions and how this probabilistic selection changes cross time.The present study attempts to address the following three research questions:1)How do the two constructions of the locative alternation change over time with respect to the relative frequency,the average length of theme and goal,and the frequency of each level of factors?2)What are the probabilistic constraints that influence the language users’ choice between the two constructions of the locative alternation?3)How does time contribute to the probabilistic constraints that influence the choice between the two constructions?The major findings of the present study are:1)From the perspective of relative frequency,the goal-object construction is used much more frequently than the theme-object construction in general.Historically speaking,the goal-object construction occurs relatively less and less frequently while the theme-object construction occur relatively more and more frequently over the past two centuries.As to the length of theme and goal,in general,the average length of the theme is shorter than the average length of the goal in the theme-object construction while the average length of the goal is shorter than the average length of the theme in the goalobject construction.From a diachronic perspective,the average length of the theme is always larger than that of the goal in the goal-object construction.On the other hand,the average length of the goal is not always larger than that of the theme in the themeobject construction.Longer goals don’t occur in the theme-object construction until time period 1922-1971.With regards to the frequency of the levels of factors,both constructions more frequently occur in the active voice during 1972-2019 and have been less metaphorical since time period 1872-1921.Distinct change of frequency has been observed on the goal-object construction in terms of completeness and the definiteness of goal.The goal-object construction is increasingly frequently used in the reduced form and the goal tends to be less definite in the past two hundred years.2)Eight factors significantly influence the choice between the two constructions of the locative alternation,including six language internal factors and two language external factors.Language internal factors are voice,definiteness of theme,definiteness of goal,length difference,action form,metaphoricalness.language external factors are genre and time period.More specifically,passive voice,indefinite themes,definite goals,longer themes than goals,cumulative action,metaphoricalness,the genre of TV or movie and time period 1822-1921 favor the goal-object construction,whereas active voice,definite themes,indefinite goals,shorter themes or same length of themes and goals,simultaneous action,non-metaphoricalness,the genre of newspaper and time period 1922-2019 favor the theme-object construction.3)There is an interaction effect between time period and definiteness of themes.Indefinite themes become less disfavored by the theme-object construction during time period 1922-2019 compared to time period 1822-1921.The present study has both theoretical and practical implications.Theoretically,the present study reveals the development of the two constructions of the locative alternation throughout history,how multiple probabilistic constraints simultaneously influence the choice between the two constructions of the locative alternation and how this probabilistic choice changes across time,which sheds light on the research on the locative alternation and other argument structure alternations.Practically,the findings of the present study in diachronic aspect help EFL teachers and learners acquire a more fundamental understanding of the locative alternation in English,and the findings of multifactorial analysis in its synchronic aspect helps EFL teachers and learners to regulate their usage of the locative alternation.The study is also conducive to natural language processing of the locative alternation in that the statistical model fitted in the present study can be applied for automatic recognition and classification of the locative alternation in English.