Blurb:

Juana Marín-Arrese’s chapter deals with the codification of facilitative and spontaneous linguistic types in English and Spanish. The author revisits the characterizing features of inchoative and middle constructions from a cognitive linguistic perspective. Marín-Arrese argues for a non-derivational analysis of these constructions, based on the notions of construal and profiling. A “fuzzy middle area” is posited between the two constructions, which accounts for instances of “blends” and other nonprototypical constructions.