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Description:
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This is really two books in one: a valuable reference resource, and a
groundbreaking case study that represents a new approach to constructional
semantics. It presents a detailed descriptive survey, using extensive examples
collected from the Internet, of German verb constructions in which the
expressions 'durch' (‘through’), 'über' (‘over’), 'unter' (‘under’), and 'um' (‘around’)
occur either as inseparable verb prefixes or as separable verb particles. Based
on that evidence, the author argues that the prefixed verb constructions and
particle verb constructions themselves have meaning, and that this meaning
involves subjective construal processes rather than objective information. The
constructions prompt us to distribute focal attention according to patterns that
can be articulated in terms of Talmy’s notion of “perspectival modes”. Among
the other topics that play an important role in the analysis are incremental
themes, reflexive trajectors, fictive motion, “multi- directional paths”, and
“accusative landmarks”.
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