Verbes supports et composition sémantique

In this paper I propose a semantic account of light verb constructions (LVC) based on the analysis of the dynamic interaction between the meanings of the noun and the verb in the construction. Traditional accounts claim that in an LVC the verb is usually semantically void and acts as a mere licencer for the noun. By contrast, I propose that in a LVC the verb generally contributes to the semantics of the complex expression and that the noun may act functionally on the verb and license an enriched sense of the verb in context (cf. fare una pressione ‘exert a pressure’), similarly to that which happens in constructions without Action Nominal (i.e. fare una torta ‘bake a cake’). I examine how this idea can be represented informally using the mechanisms of co-composition formulated in Pustejovsky 1995 and 2011 applied to Italian constructions with fare (‘do’).