From <i>movement into action</i> to <i>manner of causation</i>: changes in argument mapping in the <i>into</i>-causative

Abstract Over the last 300 years, into -causative ( he talked his father giving him money ) increased in frequency and lexical diversity. Changes of this kind are often taken as evidence functional expansion. From a Construction Grammar (CxG) perspective, paper argues that what appears to be loss restrictions on verbal slot results from changes argument mapping links. As construction provides roles by semantics (causer, causee, result) onto syntax (subject, object, oblique), stronger links increasingly facilitated use verbs semantically syntactically atypical for expression causation. Data Corpus Historical American English confirm three predictions hypothesis with respect shifts (i) semantic classes matrix verbs, (ii) their general structure preferences, (iii) voice-marking. The provide subtle change movement action manner causation . increase productivity hence explained consequence syntactic form becoming more reliable cue causative meaning. We discuss implications models language against background current issues Diachronic (DCxG) pertaining constructionalization vs. constructional