Predicate FEIs

Table 5.8 shows the 12 commonest patterns of predicate FEIs in the database, including variations: the majority are structurally simple. These patterns cover over 90% of all the FEIs, and just 3 patterns account for nearly 70%. No other pattern occurs in more than 1% of cases. The analysis is crude, however, and does not take into account more delicate case relationships: compare

Jackendoff ( 1991: 234), who reports observations by Carrier and Randall concerning resultatives, as in work one's fingers to the bone and eat someone

out of house and home, and compare discussions by Nunberg et al. ( 1994:

525 ff.) on agents, goals, and so on. The following gives examples of FEIs in these patterns:

TABLE 5.8. Commonest structures of predicate FEIs

Frequency Structure

29% subject + predicator + object

27% subject + predicator + object + adjunct

13% subject + predicator + adjunct

5% subject + predicator + complement

3% subject + predicator + adjunct + adjunct 3% subject + predicator + complement + adjunct 2% subject + predicator + indirect object + direct_object 2% subject + predicator + adjunct + object

2% subject + predicator + object + catenated_predicator 2% subject + predicator + object + object_complement 1% (fully lexical) subject + predicator

1% subject + predicator + object + adjunct +_adjunct

-85-

subject + predicator + object X admits defeat

X bends Y's ear X bends the rules X buries the hatchet SOMETHING catches fire X cools X's heels

X has second thoughts X pulls X's weight

X steals Y's thunder X takes aim

subject + predicator + object + adjunct X brings Y to heel

X gets X's act together

X gets SOMETHING off the ground

SOMETHING has a bearing on SOMETHING X keeps tabs on Y

X lays X's cards on the table

SOMETHING lends itself to SOMETHING X puts X's finger on SOMETHING

X takes Y to task

SOMETHING takes X by surprise subject + predicator + adjunct

X comes into X's own X comes to grief

SOMETHING falls on deaf ears X goes to ground

X rises to the occasion X sticks to X's guns

subject + predicator + complement SOMETHING comes true

X's days are numbered X goes bust

SOMETHING is not X's cup of tea SOMETHING is wearing thin the coast is clear

subject + predicator + adjunct + adjunct SOMETHING comes out in the wash

X comes up against a brick wall X gets in on the act

X lives from hand to mouth

subject + predicator + complement + adjunct X falls prey to SOMETHING/Y

X is a credit to Y

SOMETHING is music to X's ears -86-

SOMETHING is uppermost in X's mind

subject + predicator + indirect object + direct object X gives Y Y's head

X leads Y a (merry) dance X shows Y the door

X teaches Y a lesson

subject + predicator + adjunct + object X lets off steam

X pulls out all the stops X puts in an appearance X throws in the towel

subject + predicator + object + catenated predicator X has an axe to grind

X has no business VERBing X makes ends meet

X starts the ball rolling

subject + predicator + object + object complement X calls a spade a spade

X has X's hands full

X keeps X's fingers crossed X sets the record straight subject + predicator

alarm bells ring sparks fly

the penny drops the plot thickens

subject + predicator + object + adjunct + adjunct X gives SOMETHING/Y up as a bad job

X has SOMETHING down to a fine art X pulls Xself up by X's bootstraps

SOMETHING/X rubs Y up the wrong way

5.3.2 Nominal groups

FEIs functioning as nominal groups are problematic since it is not always clear how to distinguish them from noun compounds: see Mitchell ( 1971: 60ff.), Matthews ( 1974: 33ff.), and Bloomfield ( 1935: 227f.), who uses phonology as a criterion. From a lexicogrammatical point of view, civil servant, clothes

horse, grizzly bear, and traffic jam function in the same way as single-word

nouns; possible hyphenation and pluralizability supports their classification as nouns. In contrast, flash in the pan, thin end of the wedge, neck of the woods,

trial and error, and blot on one's escutcheon may be classified as FEIs. This is

partly because they are more complex groups, -87-

partly because they are defective syntagmatically. They tend to be fossilized in particular clause positions or to have restrictions on colligating determiners or prepositions. Defectiveness, whether syntagmatic, inflectional, or collocational, is key in distinguishing between noun compounds and nominal FEIS. In

general, fixed nominal groups classified here as FEIs are metaphorical, and they tend to be evaluative rather than simply descriptive or denotative.Of FEIs functioning as nominal groups, 19% occurred in OHPC in all available clause positions--subject, complement, verbal object, and prepositional object:

a bird's eye view, a --'s eye view bread and circuses

chink in SOMEONE's armour the conventional wisdom the villain of the piece

Where nominal group FEIs were found in only one clause position in OHPC, this was usually that of copular complement: 21% occur only as complements:

a blessing in disguise a dead loss

a foregone conclusion the thin end of the wedge

In all, 25% of nominal group FEIs were found in two clause positions in OHPC, usually two out of complement, object, and prepositional object. (A further 4% occurred in all three of these positions.) Where nominal group FEIs follow prepositions, the choice of preposition was sometimes highly restricted: for example part and parcel of something functioned either as a complement or as the object of as, after a verb such as see:

object or prepositional object a clean sheet

a free hand ivory tower

the straight and narrow

the whys and wherefores of SOMETHING object or complement

a new lease of life a world of difference

light at the end of the tunnel the salt of the earth

the shape (and size) of things to come -88-

complement or prepositional object a wild goose chase

pie in the sky sour grapes Trojan horse

uncharted waters, uncharted territory

The preference therefore seems to be against subject position, and this in turn relates to the discoursal functions of these nominal groups in conveying new information and evaluations--which conventionally follow some sort of copula or are not sentence-initial.