The lexicon-grammar continuum

Abstract We argue for the lexicon-grammar continuum by looking into the separability of Persian complex predicates, an open class of verb constructions for which it has been argued that the components are either separable or inseparable. We contend that separability is best described as a scalar rather than an all-or-nothing phenomenon. Our analysis of zadan ‘to hit’ within the framework of Construction Grammar yields a semantic description of zadan complex predicates as a radial category. We measure both the frequency of zadan complex predicates and their rate of separation based on corpus attestations. We explore the relationships between meaning, frequency, and separation rates and the implications of our findings for cognitive linguistics and construction grammar. We find that semantic compositionality and lower frequency are associated with a higher rate of separation. Overall, our data points towards separability as a continuum rather than a binary opposition.