Rottet (2021a)

• Rottet, Kevin J. 2021. 'Directional Idioms in English and Welsh: A Usage-Based Perspective on Language Contact', Journal of Language Contact 13:3, 573-611.

 Abstract:
 "The English verb-particle construction or phrasal verb (PV) has undergone dramatic semantic extensions from the expression of literal motion events (the ball rolled down the hill) – a pattern known as satellite-framing – to idiomatic figurative uses (the company will roll out a new plan) where selection of the particle is motivated by Conceptual Metaphors. Over the course of its long contact with English, Welsh – also satellite-framed with literal motion events – has extended the use of its verb-particle construction to replicate even highly idiomatic English PVs. Through a case study of ten metaphorical uses of up and its Welsh equivalent, we argue that this dramatic contact outcome points to the convergence by bilingual speakers on a single set of Conceptual Metaphors motivating the PV combinations. A residual Celtic possessive construction (lit. she rose on her sitting 'she sat up') competes with English-like PVs to express change of bodily posture."