7.2.2. Semantic Parsimony

Another advantage of the constructional approach to meaning is that its semantic explanations are less stipulative. Goldberg illustrates this with the verb slide (12):

(7.6) a. She slid Susan/*the door the present.
b. She slid the present to Susan/to the door.

In lexical accounts, two senses for slide have to be stipulated: one involving a physical change of place, and another involving a transfer of possession. Only with the latter, the double object is possible. One sense would constrain its goal to be animate, while the other would not have such a constraint.

Instead of placing such constraints in the individual lexical items, it is much more parsimonious to have them in the construction. The ditransitive construction would have as one of its requirements that the goal argument must be animate.

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