Polysemy in the Compound Construction Formed as [X be-VPRES]: An Analysis in Construction Morphology

The purpose of this paper is to study the compound construction [X be-Vpres] in Persian within the framework of Construction Morphology. In this study a construction-based approach has been used to determine the different possible meanings drawn from the [X be-Vpres] construction, its schemas, subschemas and the hierarchical structure of this construction in Persian lexicon. The proper data for this study were collected from farhang-e bozorg-e sokhan [The Great Sokhan Dictionary] (Anvari, 2002) and in some cases they have been checked in loqat-nāme-ye dehkhodā [The Dehkhoda Dictionary] (2012). Whenever the meaning of words were unclear, riše-šenāsi-ye tārixi-ye estelāhāt-e fārsi [Etymology of Persian Idioms) (Partovi Amoli, 2013) was used. Accordingly, thirty-nine words were extracted and studied. This study followed a usage-based, construction-based approach. The data in this study have been analyzed within the framework of Construction Morphology (CM). In order to analyze the data, the meaning of each word was studied in a real sentence found in our corpus. In addition, we paid attention to the thematic relation of the non-verbal and verbal parts of each data. Accordingly, our data were categorized in five different semantic categories illustrating agent, benefactory, patient, property and theme. In other words, one single form was corresponded to five different semantic roles. The findings of this study revealed that the [X be-Vpres] construction is polysemous in Persian, that is, the polysemy can be seen at the level of construction. In fact, the polysemy found in this research is constructional.  Analysis of the different meanings revealed that they all related to the thematic  relationships between two parts of the compound. In line with this  finding, we showed that the most abstract meaning of [X be-Vpres] is "an entity with relation (R) to XV". It was the most schematic meaning whose characteristics were inherited by five other subschemas which determined each semantic category.