A Lexical-constructional Approach to the Complex Complementation of the English Verb Make

The English verb make with an immediate noun phrase can be followed by a noun phrase for object complement, as in she made him a good husband, or a noun phrase for subject complement, as in she made him a good wife. These two particular forms of complex complementation once attracted special attention but have since received little analysis though showing no shortage of issues. This article presents an approach to these two clauses and their contrast in copular relation between him and a good husband and between she and a good wife. It takes a constructional view that make-plus-complement combinations are semantic and grammatical units between whose constituent parts an object can be interposed. It is also lexical in that each unit is listed in the lexicon as a template with make, such as make-N, and with a distinct constructional meaning. The ideas of constructional idiom, complex predicate and representational modularity are implemented for a proposed analysis.