PRILOG SINTAKSIČKOM OPISU KOMPLEMENATA GLAGOLSKIH IDIOMA
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE SYNTACTIC DESCRIPTION OF COMPLEMENTS OF VERB IDIOMS

Author(s): Ismail Palić
Subject(s): Theoretical Linguistics, Syntax, Lexis, Phraseology
Published by: Filozofski fakultet Univerziteta u Sarajevu
Keywords: verb idiom; verb phrase; semantic predicate; complementation; predicative; object;
Summary/Abstract: The treatise in this article was devoted to some aspects of verb idiom complements. Verb idioms are defined as established verb phrases whose meaning is not a simple sum of their components’ meanings and the relations between them, but they are rather structures with the so-called globalized meaning. The focus was on dependents in such structures that function as complements. The main division of these dependents is made according to whether these are (1) stable (very limitedly variable) components that, together with the head, form the lexical minimum of the verb idiom, or whether they are (2) lexically variable components of idioms. The former have the syntactic function of the predicative, while the latter have the syntactic function of object. The analysis of stable dependents of verb idioms as predicatives is justified by the fact that they participate together and equally with their heads, in constructing a semantic predicate, thus clearly distinguishing verb idioms from non-idiomatic verb phrases. For similar reasons, objects in verb idioms are not dependents of verbs, but of whole idioms, which again distinguish such constructions from non-idiomatic verb phrases. The differentiation of objects of verb idioms into direct and indirect objects is not consistently feasible because the appropriate criteria cannot be applied as in verb phrases and clauses.

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