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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 January 2010
In place of simple verbs like look, bite or hug, speakers of English can use constructions that combine a semantically reduced or ‘light’ verb like have, take or give with the indefinite article and a deverbal noun, as in:
(I) a.“I'd just like you to have a look at one of the patients – I'm a bit worried.” [F-LOB P24]
b. She took a sip now and eyed him over the rim of her glass. [F-LOB P23]
c. […] he grabbed hold of her and gave her such a hug the goldfish slopped out of the bowl […]. [F-LOB K10]
The verb have combines with deverbal nouns such as chat, drag, drink, escape, fall, glance, glimpse, laugh, look, nap, puff, shower, stroll, talk, taste and walk, to give but a few examples. This variety of possible combinations suggests that we are dealing with a fairly productive constructional type. The fact that deverbal nouns like neglect, eat, jump, open, close or shut cannot be used in the construction indicates that the productivity is limited to a certain extent by collocational restrictions. In other words, the topic of this chapter is a phenomenon at the borderline between syntax and the lexicon. This may be one reason why linguists have not paid much attention to verb–noun combinations of the have a look type.
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