A contrastive study of evidential verbs of appearance in English and Dutch: Probing the syntax-semantics interface by means of a corpus-based investigation of SEEM/APPEAR/TURN OUT and LIJKEN/SCHIJNEN/BLIJKEN-constructions

This project consists in a contrastive study of English and Dutch verbs of appearance, which may serve an evidential function. Adopting a Construction Grammar and grammaticalization theory approach, the project seeks to explore the syntax-semantics interface and to position the constructions on a cline from lexical to grammatical. The constructions’ functions will be characterized in terms of epistemic modality, evidentiality and (inter)subjectivity