A Quantitative Study on the English Locative Alternation Construction from the Perspective of Prototype Theory

Based on Prototype Theory, this paper quantitatively explores the categorization of English locative alternation construction in terms of the collostruction strength through distinctive collexeme analysis.It identifies the prototypical verb members of the figure locative construction such as stick and plant, and those of the ground locative construction such as flood and line.The semantic features of the two types of construction vary from each other: the prototypical semantic tendency of the figure locative construction displays the feature of "putting", whereas the prototypical semantic tendency of the ground locative construction exhibits the feature of "covering" or "filling".The two variants display a continuum from the perspective of prototypical effect representations.