Psych Light Verb Constructions in Old Catalan: Patterns and Contrasts with Present-Day Catalan

Abstract

This study aims, first, to contribute to our understanding of the regularities of light verb constructions (LVCs) by identifying syntactic–semantic patterns and, secondly, to provide data and reflections on how syntactic analyzability and semantic compositionality interact to shape the diachronic evolution of LVCs. To this end, the paper analyzes and describes, through corpus research, a subset of LVCs from Old Catalan—psych LVC or those denoting emotional states—and compares them with those from Contemporary Catalan. The main contrast between Old Catalan and Contemporary Catalan in this domain is that Contemporary Catalan tends to place the Experiencer in non-localist positions. Localist metaphors no longer structure the form–meaning pairing of Catalan psych LVCs. Once these metaphorical extensions no longer link P(sych)LVCs to their dominating construction, what remains can be described as a situation of vacuous analyzability: linguistic chains that are syntactically analyzable but lack semantic pairing.

1. Introduction

Light verb constructions (LVCs) are interesting to linguistic theory because of their conflicting grammatical status: they seem, at least apparently, to challenge some of the regularities established by syntax (for example, argument selection depends on the verb) and, furthermore, to behave (also at least apparently) both as lexical units and as syntactic constructions. As Brinton states, “In the case of composite predicates [LVCs], we would appear to be dealing with neither fully lexicalized nor fully grammaticalized constructions” (Brinton, 2008, p. 44).1

In recent years, considerable work has been conducted, on the one hand, to detect the points of contact between the grammatical behavior of light verbs and that of full verbs (also called lexical verbs, regular verbs, or ordinary verbs). On the other hand, work has been aimed at discovering, within the world of light verbs (regardless of their relationship as a set with full verbs), syntactic and semantic regularities. These new approaches contrast with the view of traditional grammar, which very often relegated them to the universe of phraseology.

Thus, for example, it has been claimed that light verbs (LVs) share the complement structure of the lexical verb with which they are related (or from which they derive) (Ramchand, 2014; Acedo-Matellán & Pineda, 2019). However, although this claim is well-founded, it is not entirely valid. The lexical verb to have is a dyadic verb that selects a direct object. But in some cases, the Catalan LV tenir ‘have’ appears to select also for a dative complement, as in (1a): the verb apparently selects a direct object (gran afecte) and an indirect object (al general Espartero)—an indirect object that can be pronominalized with the clitic li ‘to him’. The sentence in (1b) would be ungrammatical.2

(1)	a.	L’Aixemús	tenia	gran	afecte	al	general	Espartero
		Aixemús	had	great	sympathy/esteem	to.the	general	Espartero
		‘Aixemús was very fond of the general Espartero’
	b.	*L’Aixemús	tenia	gran	afecte
		Aixemús	had	great	sympathy/esteem

In addition, for full verbs, once the semantic selection features of the verb are known, any noun phrase that meets the relevant requirements can occupy the object position. For LVs, this is true in some cases, but not always. The Catalan LV tenir combines with nouns denoting emotions, as we see in sentences such as (literal translations first; idiomatic translation bracketed) La Laia té ràbia ‘Laia has rage’ (Laia is very angry), La Mila té por dels llamps ‘Mila has fear of lighting’ (Mila is afraid of lighting), La Marta té vergonya de parlar en públic ‘Marta has shame of speaking in public’ (Marta is embarrassed to speak in public), La Júlia té llàstima del Joan ‘Júlia has pity of Joan’ (Júlia feels sorry for Joan) or El Joan té mandra d’aixecar-se d’hora ‘Joan has laziness of getting up early’ (Juan does not feel like getting up early). But there are emotion-denoting nouns that reject it (literal translations): *Té goig d’aquesta americana ‘(He) has joy of this jacket’, *Té impressió d’aquest espectacle ‘*(He) has effect of this show’, *Té patxoca d’estar junts ‘(He) has pleasure of being together’, *Té fúria a la impuntualitat ‘(He) has rage of unpunctuality’, *Té aclaparament per la situació. ‘(He) has burden for the situation’.

Furthermore in order to equate LVs to full verbs and to look for their “standard” grammatical behavior it has also been said that light verbs are always formally the same as regular verbs (Butt, 2010; Butt & Geuder, 2001), and that the inventory of light verbs is constant throughout the history of a language (Butt, 2010; Brinton, 2011). Again, these are statements that can be accepted in general, but the fact is that we find, throughout the history of languages, light verbs that are born and then die, and, above all, LVs that change their syntactic, aspectual, and semantic properties.3

Regarding regularities within the world of LV constructions, it has been claimed, for example, that the LV and the noun must be compatible in terms of Aktionsart. Thus, for Portuguese, Gonçalves et al. (2010, p. 458) highlight that dar ‘give’ may combine with activities but not with stative nouns (see also Pompei & Piunno, 2023). The sentence O João deu um passeio ‘Joao gave a walk’ (Joao took a walk) is grammatical (activity), but *O João deu um gosto (lit. ‘Joao gave a like’) is not (state) (Gonçalves et al., 2010, p. 458). However, once again, we have not reached the end of the story. In Spanish, it is very frequent to use stative nouns with the LV dar, as rabia ‘rage’ in the sentence Al técnico le dan rabia las propuestas ‘the proposals give rage to the technician’ (the technician is annoyed by the proposals) (Cuervo, 2010).

Still within LVCs, on many occasions, the meaning of the LV, when combined with a specific noun, departs from its general meaning as an LV and acquires a sense that is only found with that noun, or even with a few instances of that noun. In Old Catalan, the LV fer ‘do, make’ has a general meaning difficult to define in concrete terms. But, in any case, with the noun manament ‘order, instruction’ it (almost) always is equivalent to ‘to give’ (or ‘to set, to establish’). But this is not the case in (2), where fer means ‘to follow, to obey’.

(2)

Guillem

de

Muntcada […]

no

volch

fer

manament

nostre

e

féu

mal

a

Don Nuno

Guillem

de

Muntcada […]

no

wanted

to-make

order

our

and

made

harm

to

D. N.

‘G. de M. refused to follow our order and harmed Don Nuno’

(Jaume I, Fets: 11r, 14th c.)

2. Goals of the Paper

The issues raised in the previous section do not exhaust the list of challenges at stake. I do not intend to resolve them in this paper. I have referred to them only to show the complexity of the subject. My aim is just to contribute to the debate on the regularities of LVCs and the research attempting to identify syntactic-semantic patterns.4 To this end, I have analyzed and described, through corpus research, a subset of LVCs from Old Catalan (11th–16th centuries)—psych light verb constructions (PLVCs) denoting emotional states—and have compared them with those from Contemporary Catalan. The idea was that, if we could detect a change in syntactic-semantic patterns (i.e., not merely changes relating to the creation, preservation, or loss of specific units, specific verb-noun combinations), that would provide evidence in favor of the existence (at least to a certain extent) of an underlying systematic structure in PLVCs and perhaps, more generally, in LVCs. In other words, in line with recent proposals, I try to see if we can make statements concerning syntax and semantics about groups or classes of LVCs—and not just about specific units, i.e., specific verb-noun combinations.5

To this end, I have drawn in part on the concept of construction from the theoretical framework of Goldberg’s (1995) Construction Grammar, although in this paper I do not strictly adopt her technical or terminological tools. What I am particularly interested in highlighting is that her concept of construction allows us to move beyond the impasse of analyzing LVCs solely in terms of the dichotomy “syntactic rule against lexical item”. The proposal that constructions are units which, on the one hand, are stored and, on the other, structure ordered pairs of semantic and morphosyntactic chains that can go beyond the word, seems to me useful for detecting regularities in LVCs. In addition, the claim that the repertoire of constructions forms a structured set, in which constructions are linked by inheritance relations (from micro-constructions to schemas, see Traugott and Trousdale (2013), can help uncover regularities and account for discontinuities.

Furthermore, I also aim to contribute with data and reflections to the study of how syntactic analyzability and semantic compositionality interact and shape the diachronic evolution of LVCs. LVCs may be good material for this line of research. Finally, as has been said, this work also aims to provide a general descriptive approach to the phenomenon of psych light verb constructions in Old Catalan. This is the first approach to an area in which there is still much to be conducted. For this reason, I am sure that some of my descriptive generalizations will be rectified as research progresses.6

Regarding the terminology used in this paper, as has been said, I do not strictly adopt Goldberg’s full technical and terminological apparatus, basically for reasons of brevity and because what I am presenting and discussing here can already be understood without the need for more fine distinctions. Thus, what I call classes of PLVC would correspond to constructional subschemas, and I normally use the term unit to refer to what would be micro-constructions, that is, instantiations of the subschemas at the lower level (Traugott & Trousdale, 2013, p. 14; see also Alba-Salas, 2019b, p. 262).7

Regarding terminology and some theoretical issues related to psych predicates, I have opted for a basic solution that, I believe, can be accepted by the different schools of thought currently working on the subject. The emotional experience denoted in these constructions by the psych noun is generally termed psych(ological) experience (at times abbreviated as PE). I have also used emotion, emotional state, emotional experience, feeling, or others. The person who undergoes the psychological experience is called the Experiencer (usually abbreviated as Exp). The participant (the fact, the thing, the person) that triggers the psych experience of the Exp is referred to as the stimulus. As is well known, there is no general agreement as to the semantic role of this last participant (also known as theme, stimulus, source, trigger, or causer). Surely, the issue is that it does not always bear the same semantic role because it depends on the semantic nature of the particular psych noun. In this sense, Sanromán Vilas (2012), De Miguel (2015), Alba-Salas (2019a, 2020), and other authors have attributed the semantic role of this third syntactic argument in the PLVCs to the different properties of the noun. In this paper, which is general in nature, I will not make use of these distinctions, which I will reserve for a future, more fine-grained description of the data presented.

The structure of the remainder of this paper is as follows. In Section 3, I present the empirical resources used for the research, and I briefly deal with some basic terminological issues. In Section 4, I give a general account of LVCs in Old Catalan. In Section 5, I provide the descriptive results of the specific research on Old Catalan PLVCs. Section 6, Section 7 and Section 8 are devoted to discussion. In Section 6, I try to show that the main contrast between Old Catalan and Contemporary Catalan in the field of PLVCs is that Contemporary Catalan tends to place the Exp in non-localist positions. In Section 7, I deal with the consequences of this property in connection with semantic compositionality and syntactic analyzability. In Section 8, I raise some points for further research. The paper closes (Section 9) with the conclusions.

3. Methodological Issues

The data I have worked with comes from the CICA, a project led by Joan Torruella, Manuel Pérez-Saldanya, and Josep Martines. The CICA (2010, Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic = Computerized Corpus of Old Catalan) is an online corpus of texts written in Catalan that contains works from the 11th to the 18th centuries, although my research is restricted to the 11th–16th centuries. This search tool offers a wide range of options, such as selecting a subcorpus or restricting the results to a specific work or author and selecting for words or combinations of words. However, the CICA currently does not support queries by lemmas or grammatical categories and only works with queries based on tokens.

I have conducted systematic queries for the various forms of Old Catalan LVs listed in Ginebra et al. (forthcoming): fer ‘do/make’, dar/donar ‘give’, haver/tenir ‘have’, prendre ‘take’, venir ‘come’, entrar ‘enter’, caure ‘fall’, portar ‘carry/take’. These queries have provided me with the concordances that have enabled me to carry out the analysis. I have also conducted queries based on some of the most frequent psych nouns in Catalan.8 However, the fact that CICA only supports queries based on tokens makes it practically impossible to obtain all the data related to a lexical or grammatical unit. For the references to the data cited in this paper, I have followed the system established in the CICA itself.

4. LVCs in Old Catalan: General Account

We find LVCs in Catalan from the origins of the written language (11th century). It is assumed that LVCs were more frequent in Old Catalan than they are today (Bartra, 2011, p. 3), but, although this assumption seems reasonable, there is still no empirical study to corroborate it.9 The verbs that work as LVs in Old Catalan are mainly fer ‘do, make’ (3, 4), dar/donar ‘give’ (5), and haver/tenir ‘have’ (6). To a lesser extent, we also find pendre/prendre ‘take’ (7), metre ‘put’ (8), venir ‘come’ (9), entrar ‘enter’ (10), and others (Ginebra et al., forthcoming, pp. 853–855). The question of whether these Catalan LVCs should be accounted for as having formed through a process of grammaticalization or semantic bleaching of the corresponding full verbs is not of interest here.10 This is because they “arrived” in Catalan as LVs from their Latin predecessors.11

(3)	E	ssó	rancurós	de	Guilelm	Arnal	quar	fed	conveniència
	And	(I)am	resentful	of	G.	A.	because	(he)made	deal
	ab	suo	fratre	senes	lo	meu	consel
	with	his	brother	without	the	my	advice
	‘I am complaining about Guillem Arnau because he made a deal with his brother without my consent’
	(Greuges de Guitard Isarn, p. 59, 11th c.)

(4)	lo rey	dit	senyor	d’Aragó	[…]	ha	feta	[…]	e
	the king	called	sir	of-Aragon	[…]	has	made	[…]	and
	fa	guerra	contra	lo	rey	de	Granada
	makes	war	against	the	King	of	Granada
	‘The aforementioned King of Aragon has been and still is at war with the King of Granada’
	(Documents de la Cancelleria d’Alfons III, doc. 39, 14th c.)

(5)	que	si	fos	pres	e	retengut	per	al	seynor
	that	if	(he)was	jailed	and	retained	for	to-the	Sir
	rey	no	dava	escusa	covinent
	King	not	gave	excuse	convincing
	‘He must be taken and imprisoned for His Majesty the King unless he gives a convincing excuse’
	(Llibre de cort de justícia de Cocentaina 1, p. 91, 13th c.)

(6)	Mas	lo	antic	enemic,	so	és,	lo	diable	qui
	But	the	old	enemy,	this	is,	the	Devil	who
	avia	envega	de	la	caritat	que	faýa	En	Romà
	had	envy	of	the	charity	that	(he)did	Sir	Romà
	‘But the old enemy, which is the devil, who was envious of the charity that Romà did’
	(Vides de sants rosselloneses, p. 316, 13th c.)

(7)	vénc	a	nós,	lo	celestial	Negociador,	per	reebre	la
	(He)came	to	us,	the	heavenly	Mediator,	for	receive	the
	onta	e	per	dar	l’onor	e	per	pendre	mort
	shame	and	for	to-give	the-honor	and	for	take	death
	‘And He himself comes to us, the heavenly Mediator, to receive shame and to give honor and to die’
	(Vides de sants rosselloneses, p. 16, 13th c.)

(8)	Johan	[…]	pensà	que	aquesta	donzella	prenia	mal	camí,
	Johan	[…]	thought	that	this	maid	took	bad	way
	e	que	[…]	si	no	la	metia	en	esperança,
	and	that	[…]	if	not	her	put	in	hope
	poria	ésser	possible	aquesta	donzella	se	perdés
	could	be	possible	this	maid	refl.	lose
	‘Johan thought that the maiden was taking a wrong path, and that, if he did not give her hope, the maiden might get lost’
	(Curial e Güelfa, p. 322, 15th c.)

(9)	Los	enamorats	passats,	los	quals	desijaven	de	llur	glòria
	The	lovers	past,	the	who	wished	of	their	glory
	deixar	fama	ab	gran	fatigua,	treballaven	per	venir	en
	leave	fame	with	great	fatigue	worked	for	to.come	in
	alegria
	joy
	‘Ancient lovers, who wished to make their glory famous, toiled with great fatigue to rejoice’
	(Martorell, Tirant, p. 497, 15th c.)

(10)	lo	rey	fo	entrat	en	gelosia	e	hac	suspita
	the	king	was	entered	in	jealousy	and	had	suspicion
	de	sa	muller
	from	his	wife
	‘The king became jealous and was suspicious of his wife’
	(Ramon Llull, Meravelles, p. I-37, 14th c.)

The syntactic structure in which LVCs are most commonly found in Old Catalan is “V + NP (object)”, with a human-referent subject and a bare N, although it is also possible (but less frequent) to find an NP with a determiner (11). Secondly, we also find the structure “V + PP”, also with a human-referent subject. Additionally (Ginebra et al., forthcoming, p. 856), some LVCs have the structure “V + idiom” (12, 13), a fact that raises an interesting issue for semantic compositionality and syntactic analyzability and for certain theoretical approaches, particularly those that do not view idioms as representing nominal events.12

(11)	et	lo	senyor	rey	donà	de	grans	dons	a
	and	the	sir	king	gave	from	big	gifts	to
	tots	los	CL	cavallers	qui	eren	venguts	a	Jacha
	all	the	50	knights	who	were	came	to	Jacha
	per	entrar	en	la	batayla
	for	enter	in	the	battle
	‘And the King gave many presents to the 50 knights who came to Jaca to go into battle’
	(Ramon Muntaner, Crònica, fol. 54vb, 14th c.)
(12)	Johan	[…]	pensà	que	aquesta	donzella	prenia	mal	camí
	Johan	[…]	thought	that	this	maid	took	bad	way
	‘Johan thought that the maiden was taking the wrong path’
	(Curial e Güelfa, p. 322, 14th c.)
(13)	Quant	Déus	vos	donarà	aquest	regne	que	havets	en
	When	God	to-you	will.give	this	kingdom	that	(you)have	in
	cor	de	conquerir
	heart	of	conquer
	‘When God will give you the kingdom you are determined to conquer’
	(Jaume I, Fets: 31r, 14th c.)

The head noun of the NP can take modifiers (5) (dava excusa covinent), and the surface V + NP/PP order is usual but not mandatory—in (14) the coordinated NP nosa ne dan ‘nuisance or harm’ precedes the verb (fassen), and in other occurrences the NP is relativized. The subject of LVCs, in terms of semantic roles, is the agent or the Experiencer (10) and, to a much lesser extent, the causer (14).

(14)	aqueles	rayls	pot	lo	seynor	de	les	cases	taylar
	those	roots	can	the	owner	of	the	houses	to.cut
	e	trencar,	aytant con	dins	lo	seu	ne	trob	que
	and	break	insofar as	inside	the	his	of.them	find	that
	nosa	ne	dan	li	fassen
	nuisance	nor	harm	to.him	do
	‘The owner of the house can cut off the roots of the trees to the extent that they cause him trouble or harm’
	(Costums de Tortosa, p. 167, 13th c.)

With regard to aspectual characterization, LVCs denote activities (usually with fer and dar/donar) (4), accomplishments (also with fer and dar/donar) (3, 5),13 achievements (with pendre/prendre) (7), and states—usually with haver/tenir (6). In some LVCs, the LV has an inchoative value (especially with entrar, prendre, venir, metre or caure) (8, 9, 10, 11, 12).14 The LVC can be followed by complements, which are introduced by prepositions (15) or represented by clitic pronouns—as dative li ‘to him’ in (14).15

(15)	nostre	predecessor	[…],	sens	alcuna	justa	rahó,	féu	venda
	our	predecessor	[…].	without	any	justifiable	reason,	made	sell
	de	les	cases	sobredites
	of	the	houses	aforementioned
	‘Our predecessor, without any justifiable reason, sold the aforementioned houses’
	(Llibre de Cort de Justícia de Cocentaina 2, p. 877, 13th c.)

There are LVCs that have lexical counterparts and those that do not. Thus, in Old Catalan, there is no full verb for fer penitència (‘to do penance’), fer vergonya (‘to shame’), haver misericòrdia (‘to show compassion’), posar discòrdia (‘to create discord’), posar en dubte (‘to question’), and many others. (Some full counterparts will be coined in later stages of the language’s history, such as avergonyir ‘to shame’ [vs. fer vergonya]; others had a Latin counterpart, like haver misericòrdia—Latin miserere ‘to feel compassion’, lost in the transition to Catalan.) On the other hand, in Old Catalan, some LVCs did have a corresponding lexical verb (in brackets): fer oració (orar), fer una venda (vendre), fer por (espaventar), fer una injúria (injuriar), and many others—in some cases, this occurs with a different root, such as tenir por (lit. ‘to have fear’) (témer and tembre ‘to be afraid’). All these contrasts need further research.

Although we have seen, given the limited scope of this article, that there are regularities in terms of the semantic and aspectual contribution of the LV to the complex predicate, the fact is that we frequently meet with combinations of LVs and eventive nouns that seem (almost) impossible to account for. For example, in the same text, the Crònica of Ramon Muntaner (14th century), we find, with the event noun batalla ‘battle’, and without a clear semantic contrast between them, the expressions (lit. translation in brackets) arrengar batalla (to arrange battle), donar batalla (to give battle), fer la batalla (to make the battle), entrar en batalla (to enter into battle), moure batalla (to move battle), prendre la batalla (to take battle), and venir a batalla (to come to battle). I do not claim that all these expressions are synonymous, nor do I claim that they have different senses (further research is still needed), but I dare say that this variability would not appear in a contemporary text with comparable characteristics. Thus, it really seems that LVCs were more frequent in Old Catalan than they are today or, at least, that Old Catalan had a wider variety of light verbs for certain nouns.

5. General Overview of PLVCs in Old Catalan

To present the data in an orderly fashion, I have classified PLVCs (psych light verb constructions) in Old Catalan according to the syntactic position of the Exp. I have divided the constructions into four classes: class 1 (subject Exp), class 2 (direct object Exp), class 3 (dative Exp), and class 4 (prepositional phrase Exp). In turn, I have divided these four classes into subclasses based on the syntactic position of the stimulus and the constituent that denotes the emotional experience. I will describe them briefly in the next subsections. To specify and formalize these classes and subclasses, I have benefited from contributions from Giry-Schneider (1987), Gross (1989), Bouchard (1995), and various works by Alba-Salas (2016, 2017, 2019a)—although none of these authors attempted specifically to outline the syntactic patterns of PLVCs.16

5.1. Class 1: Subject Exp

In class I psych LV constructions, the Exp is realized as the subject. The argument denoting the psych experience is realized as the complement. The third constituent, the stimulus, is not necessarily expressed (but see the end of this subsection). There are two subclasses. In class I.1, the complement is a direct object. The pattern is shown in (16) and exemplified in (17).

(16)	S Exp + v + DO psych experience [‘X experiences psych experience Y’]
(17)	a.	sapiatz	qe	[…]	qi	à	caritad	no	à	paor
		(you)must.know	that	[…]	who	has	charity	no	has	fear
		‘You must know that he who has charity is not afraid’
		(Homilies, p. 118, 13th c.)
	b.	la	Esgleya	avia	aüda	gran	tristor	per	la	persecució
		the	Church	had	had	great	sadness	for	the	persecution
		d’él
		of.him
		‘The Church had been very sad because of his persecution’
		(Vides de sants rosselloneses, p. 203, 13th c.)

Class I.1 constructions are aspectually stative. The verb used is haver/tenir ‘have’. Microconstructions with haver/tenir are very frequent and productive in Old Catalan. It combines with amor ‘love’, alegria ‘happiness’, avarícia ‘greed’, esperança ‘hope’, caritat ‘charity’, dolor ‘sorrow’, enveja ‘envy’, goig ‘joy’, ira ‘anger’, temor ‘fear’, tristesa ‘sadness’, pahor/por ‘fear’, and many other psych nouns. These microconstructions with tenir retain their full vitality in today’s Catalan (the verb haver lost its lexical value and functions only as an auxiliary verb).

The CICA also contains occurrences with portar ‘carry, bring’, though they have low frequency and very restricted distribution: almost only with amor ‘love’ (18).

(18)	La	filla,	per	la	molta	amor	que	al	pare
	The	daughter,	for	the	much	love	that	to-the	father
	portava,	[…]	rebé	la	aflegida	donzella
	brought,	[…]	received	the	grieving	maiden
	‘The daughter, because of her great love for her father, welcomed the grieving maiden’
	(Martorell, Tirant, p. 1097, 15th c.)

In addition, but with a number of instances that could be considered marginal, we find the pronominal verb donar-se ‘give + reflexive pronoun’ (19). Ginebra (2024, p. 291) states that this unit with donar-se is inceptive/inchoative. At present, I am not sure that this is the case. What I think is that it denotes a certain active participation on the part of the individual to whom the subject refers. More research is needed.

(19)	E	Nostre	Seyor	li	respòs:	—O	Pere,
	And	Our	Lord	to.him	answered:	“Oh	Pere,
	penses-te	que	eu	t’aja	desemparat?	A	la
	(you)think.refl	that	I	to.you.have	forsaken?	To	the
	mia	bontat	fas	enjúria	si·t	penses	que
	my	goodness	(you)make	injury	if.refl	(you)think	that
	eu	te	desempar.	Ni·t	dóns	temor:
	I	to.you	forsaken.	Nor-refl	(you)give	fear:
	sàpies	que	aparelat	és	sel	qui	ajudarà
	(you)know	that	prepared	is	that	who	will.help
	a	la	tua	misèria
	to	the	your	misery
	‘And Our Lord answered him: “Oh, Peter, did you think that I have forsaken you? You do injury to my goodness if you think that I forsake you. Do not be afraid: you must know that the person who will help (you avoid) your misery is already prepared”’
	(Vides de sants rosselloneses, p. 275, 13th c.)

Finally, the CICA provides a single occurrence (or two occurrences) with other verbs (dur ‘carry’, posar ‘put’), but for the time being, I will set them aside.

On the other hand, in class I.2, the complement denoting the psych experience is a prepositional phrase (from now on PP). The pattern is shown in (20) and exemplified in (21–24). Class I.2 constructions are aspectually inchoative. The verbs used are venir ‘come’ (21 [=9]), entrar ‘enter’ (22 [=10]), caure ‘fall’ (23), and metre’s ‘put oneself’ (24).

(20)	S Exp + v + PP psych experience [‘X begins to experience psych experience Y’]
(21)	Los	enamorats	passats,	los	quals	desijaven	de	llur	glòria
	The	lovers	past,	the	who	wished	of	their	glory
	deixar	fama	ab	gran	fatigua,	treballaven	per	venir	en
	leave	fame	with	great	fatigue	worked	for	to.come	in
	alegria
	joy
	‘Ancient lovers, who wished to make their glory famous, toiled with great effort to rejoice’
	(Martorell, Tirant, p. 497, 15th c.)
(22)	lo	rey	fo	entrat	en	gelosia	e	hac	suspita
	the	king	was	entered	in	jealousy	and	(he)had	suspicion
	de	sa	muller
	from	his	wife
	‘The king became jealous and was suspicious of his wife’
	(Ramon Llull, Meravelles, p. I-37, 14th c.)
(23)	Molt	fortment	se	meravellà	lo	sant	hom,	com	ten
	Very	strongly	refl	(he)amazed	the	holy	man,	how	so
	sobtosament	era	caut	en	tristícia
	suddenly	was	fallen	in	sadness
	‘The holy man was absolutely amazed, how he had so suddenly fallen into sadness’
	(Ramon Llull, Meravelles, p. III-66, 14th c.)
(24)	E	sabets	què	fa,	regina,	vostre	fill?	Met-se	en
	And	(you)know	what	does,	Queen,	your	son?	(he)puts.refl	in
	amor	d’algunes	velletes	pobres
	love	of.some	old.women	poor
	‘Do you know what your son does, My Queen? He falls in love with some poor old women’
	(Llibre de Santa Maria, p. 90, 14th c.)

Lastly, regarding the phrase denoting the stimulus, clarification must be made. We have noted that the stimulus, in both class I.1 and class I.2, is not necessarily expressed. But, in fact, it depends on the specific LVC. The predicate haver/tenir por/paor ‘to be afraid’ is found with an additional PP complement (e.g., hé por de la resposta, lit. ‘I have fear of the answer → ‘I am afraid of the answer’) or without it. But it seems that portar amor (lit. ‘to bring love’ → ‘to love’) always requires a dative complement.

5.2. Class II: Direct Object Exp

In Class II psych-LV constructions, the Exp is realized as the direct object. The argument denoting the psych experience is realized as a PP complement. The subject expresses the causer/stimulus. The pattern is shown in (25) and exemplified in (26–27). Verbs used in this construction are metre ‘put’ (26), moure ‘move’, and posar ‘put’ (27), and occasionally others. This is not a very common pattern in Old Catalan, but it is not unusual either.17

(25)	S causer/stimulus + v + DO Exp + PP psych experience [X causes Y to experience Z]
(26)	e	quant més	trob,	lavors	me	va	pus	mal/
	And	the.more	(I)write,	then	to.me	goes	more	bad/
	pel	pensament,	qui·m	met	en	gran	follia
	for.the	thought,	who.to-me	puts	in	big	madness
	‘And the more I write [poems], the more things get worse for me and my mind, and then my mind drives me mad’
	(Ausiàs March, Poesies, poem 101, 15th c.)

(27)	car	saber	e	pensar	què	és	Déu	de continent	posa
	because	to.know	and	to.think	what	is	God	all at once	puts
	la	pensa	de	l’hom	en	gran	maravella,	e	la
	the	mind	from	people	in	great	marvel	and	the
	maravella	posa	hom	en	pahor
	marvel	puts	people	in	fear
	‘Because knowing and thinking about what God is causes the mind to marvel greatly, and marvel frightens man’
	(Dotzè del crestià, I.I, p. 20, 15th c.)

5.3. Class III: Dative Exp

Class III of psych-light verb constructions can be divided into three subclasses. In Class III.1, the subject denotes the causer/stimulus, and the direct object denotes the psych experience. The pattern is depicted in (28). An example is shown in (14), repeated here as (29), and in (30).

(28)	S causer/stimulus + v + DO psych experience + Dat Exp [X causes Z to experience Y]
(29)	aqueles	rayls	pot	lo	seynor	de	les	cases	taylar
	those	roots	can	the	owner	of	the	houses	to.cut
	e	trencar,	aytant con	dins	lo	seu	ne	trob	que
	and	break	insofar as	inside	the	his	of.them	find	that
	nosa	ne	dan	li	fassen
	nuisance	nor	harm	to.him	do
	‘The owner of the house can cut off the roots of the trees to the extent that they cause him trouble or harm’
	(Costums de Tortosa, p. 167, 13th c.)
(30)	lo	rey	en	açò	cogitava,	[…]	e	crexia	la
	the	king	in	this	thought,	[…]	and	grew	the
	pena	que	la	ira	li	donava
	pain	that	the	rage	to.him	gave
	‘The King was thinking about it, and the pain that anger gave him grew’
	(R. Llull, Llibre de meravelles, p. IV-5, 14th c.)

The LVCs in (29), with the verb fer ‘do, make’, and in (30), with the verb donar ‘give’, are aspectually stative. In (29), a dative pronoun (li ‘to him’) denotes the Exp. The OD nosa ne dan ‘nuisance or harm’ denotes the psych experience, and the subject aqueles rayls ‘those roots’ denotes the causer/stimulus. In (30) there is also a dative pronoun (li ‘to him’) for the Exp, an OD for the psych experience (la pena ‘pain’), and the subject expressing the causer/stimulus (la ira ‘rage, anger’).18 The CICA also contains dynamic change-of-state tokens of LVCs with fer and donar, with an agent-stimulus subject or a causer-stimulus subject.19 It is worth noting, for the entire class III, that the surface order of constituents very often does not coincide with the one I conventionally show in (28), since the dative can occupy the initial position and the causer/stimulus the final position.

On the other hand, in subclass III.2, the constituent conveying the psych experience, unlike what is found in subclass III.1, is not realized as the direct object of the LV but as the subject—the pattern in (31), and example (32), with the verb venir ‘come’, and (33), with entrar ‘enter’. The stimulus is not expressed. These PLVCs are inchoative.

(31)	S psych experience + v + Dat Exp [Y begins to experience psych experience X]
(32)	que	a vegades		li	venia	·I-a	alegria	tan	gran,
	that	sometimes		to.him	comes	one	happiness	so	hugh
	que	qui	no·l	conegués,	no·s	pensara	que	fos	aytal
	that	who	no.AC	know,	no.refl	think	that	was	that way
	‘That sometimes such great joy came over him that anyone who did not know him would not think it possible’
	(St. Gregori, Diàlegs, f. 43r, 14th c.)

(33)	E	si	amor	tanta	com	vull	no	m’entra
	And	if	love	as much	as	(I)want	no	to-me enter
	‘And if I don’t receive as much love as I want’
	(Ausiàs March, Poem 105, 15th c.)

Finally, subclass III.3 is rarely attested. This pattern encodes the stimulus as the subject, and the psych experience as a PP (34). At this time, we have only found it with the verb venir amb the noun grat ‘pleasure’ (in the collocation de grat, lit. ‘of pleasure’) (35), and once (together with de grat) with plaer ‘pleasure’ (in the collocation en plaer, lit. ‘in pleasure’) (36). As one of the reviewers points out, it could be a literal translation from Italian.

(34)	S stimulus + v + PP psych experience + Dat Exp [X causes Z to be in Y state]
(35)	Lo	quall,	ben	vestit	e	ben	aresat	en	arnès,
	The	who	well	dressed	and	well	fitted	in	harness,
	lo	gentil	hom	Català	serví	axí	bé	e	endresadament,
	the	gentle	man	Català	served	so	properly	and	orderly
	que	li	vench	molt	bé	de	grat
	that	to.him	came	very	well	of	pleasure
	‘He, well dressed and with his harness properly fitted, served the gentleman Català so well and neatly that it greatly pleased him’
	(Decameró, 1a part, p. 179, 15th c.)
(36)	lo	jorn	e	la	nit	eren	en		una	taverna
	the	day	and	the	night	were	in		a	tavern
	ara	en	altra	anant	bevent	sens	mesura,		[…]	solament
	now	in	another	going	drinking	without	restraint		[…]	only
	los	vingués	de	grat	e	en	plaer
	to.them	came	of	pleasure	and	in	delight
	‘They spent day and night in taverns, one tavern after another, drinking without restraint whenever they felt like it’
	(Decameró, 1a part, p. 12, 15th c.)

5.4. Class IV: PP Exp

Class IV expresses the Exp as a PP, and the psych experience as the subject—the pattern in (37); an example withthe verb entrar ‘enter’ in (38).

(37)	S psych experience + v + PP Exp [Y begins to experience X]
(38)	Tanta	de	amor	entrà	entre	lo	[…]	senyor	rey
	Such-amount	of	love	entered	between	the	[…]	lord	king
	En	Pere	e·l	rey	de	Ffrança	que	de	una
	Sir	Pere	and-the	king	of	France	that	from	one
	hòstia	sagrada	combregaren	abdosos
	host	sacred	took.communion	both
	‘Such love arose between King Pere and the King of France that they both took communion with a single host’
	(Muntaner, Crònica, fol. 26va, 14th c.)

Moreover, though very rare, such constructions can be found where the psych-experience is denoted by the direct object, and the stimulus by the subject (39). In these cases, the sentence is not inchoative but causative. The pattern would be (40).

(39)	Ý	en	tan	gran	strem	stava	la	sua	carn	amagrida,
	And	in	so	high	level	was	the	his	flesh	emaciated,
	que	portava	dolorosa	misericòrdia	a	qualsevol	cruel	que	miràs
	that	brought	painful	compassion	to	any	cruel	who	looked
	‘His flesh was so emaciated that it moved even the heart of cruel men to pity when they looked upon him’
	(Vida de santa Caterina de Sena, fol. 32v, 15th c.)20
(40)	S stimulus + v + OD psych experience + PP Exp [X causes Z to experience Y]

Finally, the PP Exp appears in construction like the one shown in (41). This PP Exp differs syntactically from those of (38) and (39) because it is a subjective genitive of the noun denoting the psych experience, and because it cannot be seen as a place or as a recipient—we will return to this point later.21

(41)	don	Alfonso	[…]	près	Darocha	[…]	e	totes	aquelles
	Sir	Alfonso	[…]	took	Daroca	[…]	and	all	those
	partides	de	Tudela.	E	fetes	aquestes	preses,	donà	en
	lands	of	Tudela.	And	made	these	conquests,	gave	in
	gelosia	de	sa	muller
	jealousy	of	his	wife
	‘Don Alfonso took Daroca and all those lands of Tudela. And once all these conquests had been made, his wife became jealous of him’
	(Pere Miquel Carbonell, Cròniques, p. 263, 16th c.)

It is worth noting, to avoid confusion, that this construction and the construction in class I.2 may appear superficially identical, but they differ structurally and semantically. This is a case of syntactic homonymy (leaving the verb aside). In sentence (20) (lo rey fo entrat en gelosia e hac suspita de sa muller), the subject (lo rey ‘the king’) denotes the Exp, and the complement of gelosia ‘jealousy’ (de sa muller ‘of his wife’) denotes the stimulus: “the king became jealous and suspicious of his wife”. In contrast, in (41), the subject (don Alfonso) denotes the stimulus, and the complement of gelosia (de sa muller) denotes the Exp: “his wife became jealous of Don Alfonso”.

6. Contrast with Contemporary Catalan

In contemporary Catalan, the construction corresponding to class I.2 (the pattern in which the Exp is realized as the subject and the psych experience is expressed by means of a PP) is rarely attested. Units such as (my creation) *entrar en alegria, *entrar en por, *entrar en ira, *venir en ràbia, *venir en amor, *venir en tristesa would sound strongly odd or overly bookish.22

Constructions corresponding to class II (with the Exp expressed as the direct object) are also highly unusual today. Thus, a sentence such as (my creation) *El vaig posar en vergonya parlant a tothom del seu mal comportament ‘I put him to shame by telling everyone about his bad behavior’ would be perceived as ungrammatical.

The same applies to constructions corresponding to class IV, with the Exp expressed as a PP. A sentence such as *Aquest fet ha despertat en el Joan una ràbia terrible ‘This fact has awakened in Joan a terrible rage’ would sound strange. (I am not referring, however, to constructions with the subjective genitive, which are not frequent, but neither are they rare.)

On the other hand, class I.1, essentially with the verb tenir (42a, 42b), and classes III.1 (42c) and III.2 (42d) (with several verbs) are very common in contemporary Catalan. As we have seen, in these classes, the Exp is encoded as the subject or as a Dat.

(42)	a.	El nen té por.
		The boy has fear
		‘The boy is afraid’
	b.	El Joan té enveja de la Marta.
		The Joan has envy of the Marta
		‘Joan is jealous of Marta’
	c.	Al Joan li fan por els llamps.
		to-the Joan to-him make fear the lightning
		‘Joan is afraid of lightning’
	d.	Al Joan li agafa por.
		to-the Joan to-him takes fear
		‘Joan gets scared’

7. About the Diachronic Contrast: The Loss of Localist Roles

The most frequent PLVC classes in Contemporary Catalan are those that formalize the Exp as the subject or as the dative. In the case of the dative, it should be noted that this dative does not correspond to the traditional indirect object of ditransitive verbs such as lliurar ‘deliver’ (e.g., El Joan lliura el paquet al vigilant ‘John delivers the package to the guard’), but rather to what has been called the dative subject, the true element of the sentence on which the predication in these cases is made—and which I will refer to here as the high dative (41c, 41d).23 The diachronically increasing prominence of the high dative in general—and in the field of psych predicates in particular—has already been noted for a language such as Spanish by various authors (Flores & Melis, 2015; Alba-Salas, 2016). This trend can also be observed in Catalan.

As for the ordinary subject (leaving now the high dative aside), it is, on the one hand, a syntactic position that typically accommodates the Exp (in all kinds of predicates). In this sense, the Exp subject is a core element of both Old Catalan and Contemporary Catalan. However, what distinguishes Contemporary Catalan PLVCs from their counterparts in Old Catalan is the loss (or residualization) of class I.2 constructions—i.e., those in which the subject is a Figure subject (in Talmy’s terms) (19, 20, 23, 24). I will return to this point later.

From a broader perspective, the clearest statement that can be made about the contrast between Old Catalan and Contemporary Catalan in the field of PLVCs is that Contemporary Catalan tends to place the Exp in non-localist positions. Thus, it should be noted that the constructions that have become obsolete are those that can be explained through localist metaphors; that is to say: in all these classes the syntactic distribution of constituents can be accounted under the localist hypothesis (semantic domains are structured in terms of spatial relations) and in terms of a metaphorical approach, in line with Cognitive Linguistics and other theoretical frameworks (Anderson, 1971; Goldberg, 1995; Talmy, 2000; Morimoto, 2001; Croft & Cruse, 2004; Montserrat, 2007, pp. 132–180; Landau, 2010, among many others).

Hence, if it is assumed that semantic domains can be structured in terms of spatial relations, like location and movement, the Exp, the psych experience, and the stimulus can be seen as semantically recategorized. Thus, in class I.2 constructions (Els amants venen en alegria ‘the lovers become joyful’), the working metaphorical extension is the following: a change of (emotional) state is a change of location. Thus, the subject Exp (els amants) is categorized as a physical object (a Figure), such that it can “be placed”. The Figure moves to a goal or to a location, and the psych experience (alegria) is categorized as a place: the goal or the final location. This metaphor, in addition, accounts for the inchoative value of the construction.

In class II psych-LV constructions like la meravella posa hom en pahor (lit. marvel puts man in fear ‘marvel frightens men’)—where the Exp is realized as the direct object, the constituent denoting the psych experience is realized as a PP complement, and the subject expresses the causer/stimulus—the underlying structural metaphor is the same (a change of emotional state is a change of location), but the change is externally caused. Thus, there is an added item: the carrier or the taker. The carrier (la meravella) takes the Figure (hom) to the final location (pahor).

In class IV (where the Exp is expressed as a PP and the psych experience as the subject), we find the same underlying metaphor but a different semantic recategorization process. In this case, the psych experience is the Figure (the moving physical object), and the Exp is semantically recategorized as a place or as a recipient, where the psych experience goes or is located (Cifuentes Honrubia & Llopis Ganga, 1996; Landau, 2010; Alba-Salas, 2016, among many others). Thus, in a sentence such as L’amor entrà en el rei en Pere (lit. Love entered into King Peter ‘King Peter fell in love’), the Figure (L’amor) enters into the place (el rei en Pere). Alba-Salas (2016) calls this Exp (en el rei en Pere) locative Exp.

Moreover, as has been said, class IV can realize the psych experience as a direct object, and the causer/stimulus as the subject. In this case, there is also an added participant in the scene: the carrier or taker. In a sentence such as La seva carn portava misericòrdia a qualsevol cruel (lit. her flesh carried compassion to any cruel man), the carrier (La seva carn) takes the Figure (misericòrdia) to the final location (qualsevol cruel).24

In summary, what we do not find in Contemporary Catalan PLVCs (or what we find only peripherally or residually) are localist categorizations of the conceptual scene related to the human experience of emotions. We do not find the Exp as Figure (classes I.2 and II) or as Place—the locative Exp (class IV). We also do not find the psych experience as Place (classes I.2 and II) or as Figure (class IV). Nor do we find the stimulus as a carrier that takes the Figure toward its final location (classes II and IV).25

Now, to return to the contrast between the subject of class I.1—El rei té por ‘(lit. the king has fear ‘the king is afraid’)— and the subject of class I.2—el rei entra en por (lit. the king enters into fear ‘the king becomes afraid’), my claim is that there is no localist metaphor supporting class I.1 constructions. Contrary to what has been argued by several authors, I do not think it is an interesting analysis to see the subject Exp of class I.1 as a place or a recipient. As is well known, an idea originating with Benveniste holds that the verb to have is in fact a “disguised” locative preposition, which locates the referent of the direct object in a place represented by the subject. Following this analysis, a sentence like El rei té por should be given a localist interpretation: the king is the place where the fear (the Figure) is located (Benveniste, 1966; Hale & Keyser, 1993, 2002; Kayne, 1994; Longa et al., 1998; Rigau, 2001; Fernández Soriano & Rigau, 2009, among others). However, it seems to me more consistent with both the data and intuition to propose that the subject Exp of El rei té por is not a place (nor a recipient). For this reason, I have characterized it as a holder.26 In this way, we can partly explain why the subject Exp of class I.1 (holder subject) behaves, in historical terms, differently from the subject Exp of class II.2 (Figure subject). The former has been preserved, whereas the latter, in Contemporary Catalan, has been lost or survives marginally as a residual—like all Exp arguments that appear in localist constructions. In PLVCs, Contemporary Catalan reduces the formal expression of the Exp to a high dative or to a holder subject.

8. Semantic Compositionality and Syntactic Analyzability

Why has a unit such as venir a tristesa ‘come into sadness’ (and all the others) disappeared? It is reasonable to think that Exp’s increasing frequency in the holder-subject and high-dative positions led to its retreat from the figure-subject and locative-subject positions, and finally to the deactivation of constructions in which these Exps were located. The decline of a pattern is usually tied to the rise of another (see, e.g., Traugott & Trousdale, 2013, pp. 65–67), including among PLVCs (e.g., Alba-Salas, 2019b, pp. 280–281).

But, in addition, I believe it is worth asking about the mechanics of this process of loss. At first glance, the phrase venir a tristesa is syntactically analyzable. The speakers recognize the parts. We can clearly separate its components: a motion verb (venir) selects for a locative PP complement (a PP consisting of a directional preposition and a noun). We can even, as analysts or as language users, establish what meaning it would have: ‘to become sad’ (which is, after all, the meaning we know it had in Old Catalan). However, in Contemporary Catalan, this construction does not work. The structure of “venir a [noun]” to express the transition to an emotional state no longer aligns with current Catalan grammar (the same works for classes II and IV).

In the framework of Construction Grammar, the chain venir a tristesa would be described as a structured form–meaning pair. It is syntactically analyzable and semantically transparent, and it is (or was) a stored unit, a construction (or microconstruction). Thus, we could make a simple statement: it is no longer a construction because this pairing of form and meaning that existed in Old Catalan has been lost, has become obsolete, because it has been displaced by other constructions (of the PLVC type) with the same inchoative meaning, but with a different morphosyntactic form. The semantics of the microconstruction—that is, the metaphorical extension that linked it to the more abstract construction from which it inherits—has ceased to function.

But it is not simply that a specific construction has become obsolete because a particular metaphor has stopped functioning. Rather, it seems that, in the field of PLVCs, Contemporary Catalan has moved away from localist metaphorization when it comes to expressing (changes in) emotional states. It is not only that the structural metaphor a change of (emotional) state is a change of location has been lost, but also the various basic-level metaphors (emotional states are locations, experiencers are locations, emotional states are moving objects, etc.) that led to the formation of three specific constructions (class I.2, class II, and class IV). From the point of view of syntactic analyzability, what can be said, then, is that the state of the language no longer legitimizes the syntactic analysis of the linguistic chain, even if such an analysis can still be carried out in strictly formal terms.

Although it should be clear, we need to distinguish the cases under consideration from other instances of (a certain degree of) mismatch between semantic compositionality and syntactic analyzability. Thus, in an idiom, there is reduced or no semantic compositionality and reduced syntactic analyzability (Amaral & Delicado Cantero, 2022, p. 122), but a pairing between form (as an indivisible whole) and (unitary/idiomatic) meaning remains. On the other hand, in a sentence like the one shown in (2), Guillem de Muntcada no vol fer manament nostre (lit. ‘G. de Muntcada does not want to make our order ’ [=‘G. de Montcada refused to follow our order’]), the following occurs: the syntactic analyzability (light verb + predicative noun) apparently clashes with (lack of) semantic compositionality, because the verb fer cannot receive its predictable interpretation (‘do, make’). However, the pairing works, given that in this case, fer means ‘follow, obey’ because it collocates with manament (as it has been pointed out in the literature on LVCs and collocations—for example, in Mel’čuk’s framework—the noun can select for the verb to convey a certain meaning). Therefore, the construction is semantically compositional and syntactically analyzable to some extent, although it also shows a degree of idiomaticity.

However, in the patterns under analysis (PLVCs with localist Exp), the pairing between semantic compositionality and syntactic analyzability can no longer be established, since the element that supported it no longer functions. What results, then, is a situation of vacuous analyzability. It is as if the entire semantic layer of the construction had been removed, leaving parts that are syntactically analyzable from a formal point of view but that, in fact, behave as if they were empty pieces.27

9. Additional Issues

Finally, attributing the ungrammaticality of PLVCs with a localist semantic foundation in contemporary Catalan to the deactivation of the localist metaphorical system raises at least two questions. Although I will not attempt to answer them, I believe they should be acknowledged.

First, the deactivation of the localist metaphorical system in relation to psych-predicates with LVs does not seem to imply the deactivation of the same system in relation to predicates with LVs linked to other semantic domains. Although, as has been said, predicates such as *entrar en alegria, *entrar en por, *entrar en ira, *venir en ràbia, *venir en amor, and *venir en tristesa are no longer available today, there are—quite robustly—LV predicates such as entrar en contacte, entrar en escena, entrar en vigor, entrar en conflicte, and many others. This forces us to ask whether PLVCs display syntactic and semantic behavior that distinguishes them from other, more general, LVCs.

Secondly (and directly connected to the previous point), it would be premature to conclude from the deactivation of the localist metaphorical system in psych-predicates with LVs that localist metaphors have disappeared from the cognitive system of Catalan speakers. This issue touches on a complex question that goes far beyond the scope of this work. As is well known, some influential linguists argue that it is not only the linguistic representation of reality that is subject to localist metaphorical patterns, but that the mental representation of reality in general—that is, the universal human cognitive system—is also structured by them.28 In connection with this, the following question arises: Have speakers of Catalan stopped conceptualizing emotional experience in spatial terms?

10. Conclusions

The general description of Old Catalan PLVCs, when compared with Contemporary Catalan psych-light verb constructions, reveals syntactic–semantic patterns that have undergone change. Dealing with patterns and with changes in patterns means dealing with regularities. Thus, in line with work carried out in recent years, it can be claimed that the world of LVCs is not entirely one of idiosyncrasies and isolated units that can only be stored as lexical items lacking syntactic analyzability and semantic compositionality.

The main contrast between Old Catalan and Contemporary Catalan in the field of PLVCs is that Contemporary Catalan tends to place the Exp in non-localist positions. This means that localist metaphors no longer structure the form–meaning pairing of PLVCs. In Contemporary Catalan PLVCs, we do not find (or find only peripherally or residually) localist categorizations of the conceptual scene related to the human experience of emotions.

In Contemporary Catalan, PLVCs are no longer based on localist metaphorical extensions. Once these metaphorical extensions no longer link PLVCs to their dominating construction, the non-metaphorical localist construction, what remains are linguistic chains that are syntactically analyzable from a formal point of view but lack semantic compositionality. The result is a situation of vacuous analyzability.

Finally, it should be noted that the study of PLVCs in Old Catalan provides a great deal of data supporting the idea that this is an area full of peculiarities and discontinuities. Future research will determine to what extent, as mentioned at the beginning, we are dealing in these cases with lexical or grammatical constructions.