Where does lexical diversity come from? Horizontal interaction in the network of the Late Modern English Reaction Object Construction

Abstract

This paper provides further insight into the Reaction Object Construction (she nodded intelligence) as a case of constructional contamination, a phenomenon that describes the relation between two or more constructions such that usage frequencies of one construction influence the patterns of variation in another one (Pijpops and Van de Velde 2016). Earlier research has shown that the frequencies of structures of the type she gave a nod of intelligence explain part of the lexical diversity that is found in the object slot of the nineteenth-century British ROC. These findings are now contrasted with American data to explore whether the phenomenon has gone beyond British English and, if so, examine how this is manifested in diachrony. The results show clear similarities with the British data, confirming that horizontal interaction in the network of the Late Modern English ROC played a role in the diverse configuration of this construction.