Alternating argument constructions of Dutch psychological verbs. A theory-driven corpus investigation

peer reviewed ; This article presents the results of a corpus study of the Dutch psychological verbs ergeren ‘to annoy’, interesseren ‘to interest’, storen ‘to disturb’, and verbazen ‘to amaze’. These verbs exhibit a syntactic alternation between their seemingly synonymous transitive and reflexive argument constructions, as in Elizabeth ergert John vs. John ergert zich aan Elizabeth (both: ‘Elizabeth annoys John’). On the basis of current theoretical insights, four hypotheses are formulated predicting the language user’s preferred argument construction. It is argued that the popular agentivity... Mehr ...