ABSTRACT
English is not well known as a noun-incorporating language. However, native speakers of the language are observed to frequently construct NV compound verbs in which the N clearly bears a semantic/grammatical relation (agent/subject, patient/object, etc.) to the V. This paper focuses on Object-Incorporation (OI), whereby the head of a direct object noun phrase is moved from behind the verb to immediately in front of it and forms a compound verb with it (e.g. to raise funds vs. to fundraise). OI operates through productive word formation processes and is hence a productive morphosyntactic operation itself. A few NV forms are lexicalized (e.g. brainwash, earmark), but most do not exist in, nor are likely to enter into, the English lexicon. They are created by speakers in the act of speaking, seemingly for onetime use only. While OI is part of the English grammar, it is grammatically optional in the language. The propositional content coded through OI can also be coded with the verb and its direct object remaining in their canonical forms and positions. Even the semantic discourse considerations that necessitate OI in other languages (Mithun 1984) do not seem to warrant the operation in English. This paper suggests that OI is motivated to background direct object referents, i.e. to reduce the noteworthiness of patient/objects. It further argues that the OI operation is a linguistic response to a cognitive demand for managing attention.
Keywords: Object-incorporation, Cognitive, Functional, Backgrounding, English.