The information structure constraints on the productivity of English ditransitive constructions
Constructional productivity is a challenging topic in the study of Construction Grammar.This paper takes English ditransitive constructions as examples,based on Goldberg's(2019)"Explain-Me-This"ditransitive puzzle,to explore the constraints of information structure on the productivity of constructions.The study reveals that the information structure constraints of English ditransitive constructions manifest not only in the restrictions on the indirect object(old information)and the direct object(new information)but also in the coordinated interaction of information flow among the verb,indirect object,and direct object.The information flow in English ditransitive constructions follows the"Principle of Deliberateness,"whereby a more complex and semantically rich information fragment within a given discourse is more likely to capture the attention of the listener/reader and become the focus.According to this principle,ditransitive verbs cannot impede the information flow of ditransitive constructions to maintain the focal status of a direct object.The main reason for the"Explain-Me-This"ditransitive puzzle is that the semantic information of the verb"explain"is richer than the direct object"this,"resulting in"this"being unable to become the focus.
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