Diachronic change in Spanish ‘liking’ constructions

Analyzing quantitative corpus data from the 13th to the 19th centuries, this study applies a usage-based construction grammar approach and an onomasiological approach to the examination of change in argument structure in Spanish verbs of “liking”, focusing on the verb gustar ‘to like.’ This verb went from having a nominative experiencer to having a dative one. I highlight how the semantic properties of the stimuli of liking verbs helped determine the linguistic encoding of the arguments of liking constructions. Furthermore, I argue that a key cause in the change in argument structure of gustar was the analogical extension of the dative-experiencer pattern via a multiplicity of source constructions. This study is the first to consider (a) the verb forms pagarse, ser gusto , and dar gusto and (b) onomasiological profiles for the concept of liking, regarding the change in argument structure of gustar . Results shed light on cross-linguistic variation in argument structures and extend scholarship on the issue of word order in psych-verb constructions.