A2 - Dimensional verbs
The project explores dimensional verbs such as wiegen ‘weigh’ or wachsen ‘grow’ which encode a dimension (weight and size, respectively) and in addition allow for the external specification of a value along this dimension as in 10 Kilogramm wiegen ‘weigh 10 kilograms’ and um 1 Meter wachsen ‘grow 1 meter’. The investigation considers different subclasses of dimensional verbs (dynamic vs. stative, transitive vs. intransitive) and their relation to non-dimensional verbs. The phenomenology of dimensional verbs will be approached from a comparative perspective for German, French, Georgian, and Korean. With respect to French and Georgian we also focus on the historical development of dimensional verbs. We will examine the different semantic and syntactic processes which lead to dimensional verbs and elucidate the relation between dimensional verbs and functional nouns.