Concerning the radial network view of argument structure: The case of the English caused-motion pattern

On the basis of the analysis of a sample of data drawn from the large English corpus enTenTen13, the present paper provides an account of the caused-motion pattern which calls for caution on the radial network view of argument structure, common among proponents of Construction Grammar In my study, I first analyzed a sample of occurrences which are supposed to instantiate the central sense of this grammatical pattern; then, I considered a few instances of the supposed semantic extensions of the pattern. Based on my findings, I claim that the distinction between a set of different senses is less than convincing. Instead, I propose that the different realizations of the pattern are better characterized as standing in a relationship of family resemblance, sharing a common syntactic structure and only a very general meaning denoting a change of circumstances. This flexible approach allows capturing the peculiarities of the different instantiations by positing a series of low-level generalizations based on specific senses of the lexical items.