List 8: instrument verbs

A. Go: (intr.) auto, ⁺sports-car, caravan, ⁺trailer, ⁺tractor, ⁺cablecar, ⁺tram, ⁺trolley, ⁺streetcar, scooter, motorcycle, bicycle, bike, cycle, ⁺tricycle, ⁺van, ⁺cab, taxi, ⁺jitney, ⁺Greyhound, ⁺Buick, ⁺V-8, ⁺limousine, ⁺elevator, ⁺escalator (somewhere); boat, ⁺sailboat, ⁺steamship, ⁺Queen Mary, yacht, punt, ⁺flatboat, ⁺lighter, barge, raft, canoe, kayak (somewhere); jet, ⁺747, ⁺Concorde, sailplane, ⁺glider, helicopter, ⁺chopper, ⁺Zeppelin, balloon, parachute, ⁺TWA, ⁺UA, ⁺Air California, rocket (somewhere); sleigh, sledge, sled, ski, ⁺t-bar, skate, roller-skate, ⁺pogo-stick, ⁺skateboard, water-ski, surfboard, snowshoe (somewhere); pole, ⁺barge-pole, paddle, ⁺oar, scull, ⁺ski-pole, ⁺ice-pick, ⁺pickax, pedal (somewhere); ⁺rope, ⁺crampon (one’s way somewhere); sail, wing, steam, motor (somewhere); ⁺subway to 64^th Street, ⁺BART to Berkeley, thumb to LA, surf onto shore, ⁺whirlwind across the US, ⁺guitar his way across the US, ⁺The police sirened up to the accident [Herb Caen]; (tr.) ⁺ambulance, truck, bus, ⁺trailer, ⁺wagon, cart, ⁺pushcart, ⁺barrow, ⁺stretcher, wheelbarrow (something somewhere); ferry, wherry, ship (something somewhere); telegraph, telephone, wire, cable, ⁺long-distance, ⁺postcard, ⁺semaphore, ⁺flag, radio, beam (a message somewhere); ⁺satellite (news); dial the number; paddle the canoe, pedal the bicycle; wheel the patient into surgery, sail the boat to LA, pipe the oil to Oregon, ⁺tanker the oil to the US.

B. Fasten: nails: nail, tack, staple, bolt, screw, paper-clip, pin, rivet, wire, solder (something to something else). glues: paste, cement, glue, gum, ⁺epoxy, tape, scotch-tape, cello-tape, ⁺masking-tape (something to something else), ⁺web his clothes to the wall [Spiderman]. restrainers: shackle, clamp, handcuff, gyve, fetter, manacle, chain, gag, belt, ⁺seat-belt (someone); cord the wood. locks: latch, padlock, bar, lock, ⁺hasp (the door). clothing parts: buckle his belt, clasp his belt, hook her dress, zip the dress, snap the shirt, button the shirt, strap on the skis, ⁺thong the sandals on. lines: tether, cable, anchor (something to something else).

C. Clean: implements: mop the floor, ⁺broom the floor, ⁺floor-sweeper the carpet, Hoover the rug, snowplow the road, rake the grass, filter the wine, bath himself, shower, ⁺floss one’s teeth, ⁺Stimudent one’s teeth. cloths: sponge the window clean, flannel one’s face, chamois the window clean, sandpaper the board smooth, steel-wool the pan, towel himself dry, washcloth his face clean. cleansers: shampoo his hair, ⁺Ajax the bath, ⁺Vim the bath, ⁺Windex the panes, ⁺soap-and-water one’s hands.

D. Hit: hammer the nail into the board, club the man over the head, bat the ball, ⁺shillelagh his cousin, ⁺bottle the tailor, ⁺poleax the intruder, boot the man in the pants, ⁺shoe-heel the nail into the frame, stone the witch, ⁺rock the men, press the tongue, ⁺rawhide his companion, whip the prisoner, bullwhip the dog, cane the child, ⁺rule the child’s hand.

E. Cut, slab: knife the man, bayonet the enemy, ⁺sabre the enemy, ⁺tusk the dogs, ⁺razor off his beard, ⁺scissor through the material, drill the hole, saw the plank, lance the armor, ⁺hatchet the tree down, ax the tree down, ⁺broadax the log flat, hacksaw through the board, ⁺ripsaw the board, spear the fish, scythe the grass, ⁺bill-hook the grass, tomahawk the settlers, machete his way through the jungle, harpoon the whale, ⁺toothpick the clam.

F. Destroy: bomb the village, torpedo the ship, ⁺avalanche the village, grenade the bunker, ⁺napalm the village, shell the fort, gas the soldiers, dynamite the building, torch the house, ⁺frag the sergeant, ⁺TNT the building, fire-bomb the car, gun down the man, ⁺sten down the enemy, ⁺M-1 the sniper, tear-gas the sniper, ⁺Mace the strikers, ⁺carbon monoxide oneself to death, garotte the prisoner.

G. Catch: trap the gopher, bear-trap the man, net the fish, seine the fish, snare the rabbit, hook the fish, lime the bird, lasso the calf, rope the calf, collar the dog, ⁺jaw the swimmer (following the film Jaws).

H. Block: shield the child, screen out the flies, screen the people from view, block the road, blockade the road, barricade the road, cordon off the area, rope off the area, dam the river, sandbag the house, The fishing fleet is iced in [NBC], ⁺mud in (seal the opening to a nest with mud), brick up.

I. Follow: shadow the suspect, track the criminal, trail the deer, tail the spy.

J. musical instruments: ⁺trumpet the music, ⁺bugle reveille, pipe the tune, fiddle the tune, ⁺harp the tune, whistle the tune, ⁺guitar.

K. kitchen utensils: fork the pickle, ⁺teaspoon, spoon, ladle, ⁺tablespoon the soup into the bowl, ⁺chopstick the beansprouts, ⁺spatula the pancakes over, sieve the flour, ⁺blender the soup, ⁺microwave the chicken.

L. places: (tr.) launderette the clothes, ⁺greenhouse the seedlings, ⁺nursery the tomatoes, lobby the congressmen for the bill, school the children, ⁺church the savages, ⁺bargain-counter the Bible [Thurber], market the goods, ⁺she Lincoln Tunneled her way to New York [Vogue]; (intr.) ranch, farm, garden, market; ⁺hotel it, and inn it, and pub it [Jerome].

M. body parts: head the ball, ⁺eyebrow one’s surprise, eyeball the data, eye the guard-dog, bad-mouth someone, mouth the words, tongue the note (brass instruments), ⁺nose the bone, ⁺lip the sugar-lump, ⁺the old man gummed the bread, hand the spoon, ⁺mitt someone (shake hands), finger the material, thumb the pages, ⁺knuckle someone's face, ⁺arm someone out of the way, straight-arm someone aside, shoulder, elbow someone aside, knee someone, jaw the truant, shin up a tree, foot the ball, ⁺heel the broken glass aside, toe the resin.

N. simple tools: lever the door open, wedge the window open, wrench the bolt loose, plane the wood smooth, level the floor, chisel the groove, spade the dirt, shovel the dirt, ⁺trowel the mortar smooth, file the board down, pitchfork the hay into the wagon, plough the field, hose the garden, rake the leaves, hoe the garden, cork on a moustache, pencil in the answer, pen the reply, crayon in the picture, ⁺crayon (up) the walls, charcoal the sketch, chalk on the board, blue-pencil the manuscript, red-pencil the errors, comb her hair, brush her hair, riddle the potatoes, siphon the gas, funnel the gas, ⁺hairpin the lock open, ⁺skeleton-key the door open, ⁺celluloid the lock, ⁺torch the safe open, ⁺shoehorn his shoes on, fan the fire, ⁺anvil the horseshoe, ⁺crutch the branch, ⁺pulley up the pail, helm the boat.

O. complex tools: jack up the car, winch the truck up the slope, brake the car, catapult the rock into the fortress, mill the grain, gin the cotton, ⁺centrifuge the solution, ⁺meter the water, ⁺autoclave the utensils, pump the water, Xerox the article, Ditto the article, clock the race, rack the prisoner, guillotine the criminals, iron the clothes, ⁺steam-iron the clothes, ⁺sewing-machine the torn sail, type the paper, print the newspaper, balance the two sides, Zeppelin the fleet [H. G. Wells].

P. miscellaneous: ⁺school-bell the class to order, gavel the meeting to order, bankroll the venture, ⁺nettle the children’s legs, dye the cloth, ⁺ink someone (sign him on), ⁺Rit the material, ⁺Clairol one’s hair, ⁺straitjacket the patient (restrain), ⁺x-and-m out a word, ransom the child, X-ray the bone, requisition the horses, blackball the applicant, ⁺sir the general, smoke the fish, steam the vegetables, claw the branch, horn in on the conversation, putty the glass, ⁺Christian-named each other [Thackeray], ⁺bad-worded 007 [Kipling], ⁺Carte Blanche it [ad], ⁺86 a customer (throw out for drunkenness by ordinance 86) [Herb Caen].

Most instrument verbs can take a type of reduced complement. Consider bicycle. As 12 shows, 11 expresses (or contains) the complement John was in town, which describes the result that John brought about by his use of the bicycle: he caused himself to be in town by bicycling. But alongside 11, there is the ordinary John walked into town. It contains the same complement; but now the result is brought about by John’s walking: he caused himself to be in town by walking. Sentences like these, then, divide notionally into a causative portion (John caused himself to be in town)and an instrumental portion (by John’s bicycling / walking). Similarly, Julia hammered the nail into the board divides into Julia caused the nail to be in the board and by Julia’s hammering the nail; and George towelled himself dry divides into George caused himself to be dry and by George’s toweling himself. Note that, if Julia had willed, thrown, or shot the nail into the board (or if George had shaken, blown, or walked himself dry), only the instrumental portions of these sentences would have changed.

But what about the instrumental portions of John bicycled, оr Julia hammered the nail, or George toweled himself? These are simple instrumental verbs, as can be illustrated for John bicycled. As 12 shows, this means simply ‘John did the act one would normally expect [one to do with a bicycle]’. In this paraphrase, the bicycle is an instrument for moving; the moving is not itself instrumental in accomplishing something else.

To make things difficult, however, locatum and location verbs often look very much like instrument verbs. Take Ned leashed the dog: is leash a locatum verb (‘Ned caused the dog to have a leash on it’), or an instrument verb (‘Ned caused the dog to be restrained by doing the act one would normally expect to do to a dog with a leash’)? Or take Bob netted the fish: is it a location verb (‘Bob caused the fish to be in a net’), or an instrument verb (‘Bob caused the fish to be captive by doing the act one would normally expect to do to the fish with a net’)? Indeed, both sentences could be ambiguous, or both could be vague. Fortunately, there are several criteria that generally distinguish locatum and location verbs from instrument verbs.

The first criterion is that locatum and location verbs have resultant states in which the parent noun plays an intrinsic role — as the thing placed or the location at which it is placed — whereas instrument verbs do not. Compare plaster the wall (witha locatum verb) to trowel the plaster onto the wall (with an instrument verb). The resultant state for both is Plaster is on the wall. This contains plaster, the parent noun of the locatum verb, but not trowel, the parent noun of the instrument verb. In trowelling the plaster onto the wall, the trowel is necessary for accomplishing the final result, but is not itself part of that result. The contrast between bottle the beer (with a location verb) and siphon the beer into the bottle (with an instrument verb) works the same way. The resultant state, the beer is in a bottle, contains bottle but not siphon. This criterion, however, must be applied with care. Plaster the wall, one might argue, is really ‘cause the wall to have a cover on it by plastering it’, and so plaster is really an instrument verb. But in this paraphrase cover is really the superordinate of plaster, and merely conceals the fact that the plaster is an inherent part of the resultant state.

Watt provides further evidence for this criterion, at least for location verbs. He notes that do it can be used to refer to the ‘fasten’ part of the meaning of nail, as in 13:

(13) Dognog wanted to nail the boards together, but Gripsnake made him do it with tape.

This sort of anaphora appears possible for most instrument verbs, but not for what we are calling location verbs:

(14) Dognog wanted to bottle the home-brew, but Dead wood wanted to do it in pickle-barrels.

And 14 is no better if in is replaced by with. Watt argues, therefore, that bottle the beer does not mean ‘containerize the beer with/in bottles’, but rather ‘put the beer into bottles’. The bottles aren’t instruments by which a result is accomplished, but an intrinsic part of the result itself — the beer’s being in the bottles. So while instrument verbs are generally paraphrasable as ‘do it with X’, location verbs are generally paraphrasable as ‘do it in/on/at X’. Watt’s evidence adds credence to the first criterion, and to the idea that there is a genuine distinction between ‘pure’ cases of instrument and location verbs.

Instrument verbs are also distinguishable from locatum and location verbs in the way they form antonyms. De- and dis-, Marchand observes [...], can be used with locatum and location verbs. When added to locatum verbs, they result in ‘privative verbs’ like defrost and disarm; when added to location verbs, they result in ‘ablative verbs’ like deplane and disbar. In effect, they add a negative to the parent clause of the positive verbs frost, arm, and plane (barcannot stand alone). But de- and dis- cannot be added to instrument verbs. To make these verbs ‘reversative’, one must add un-, as in unglue and unshackle (although one can also add un- to location verbs, as in unsaddle); thus, debuttoning a shirt should be different from unbuttoning it, and it is. In debuttoning, one takes buttons off; but in unbuttoning, one unfastens them, reversing their usual instrumental effect[1]. So instrument verbs are distinguished on morphological grounds too.

Yet some instrument verbs appear to work by virtue of their being locata or locations. Let us return to leash and net. As a locatum verb, leash (the dog) means ‘put a leash on the dog’. But dictionaries also list what amounts to ‘cause the dog to be restrained by putting a leash on the dog’, as if leash the dog were actually leash the dog restrained with the restrained implicit. In this interpretation, leash is an instrument verb, but one that works by virtue of its first being a locatum verb. Leash the dog should therefore be ambiguous, and it is. Unleash means to reverse the constraints, bashed on the instrument reading; deleash means to take the leash off, based on the locatum reading, although both are accomplished by the same action. Note that leash the dog to the post forces the instrument reading — so, while one can unleash the dog from the post, one cannot deleash it from the post. Similarly, net the fish seems ambiguous. It can be a location verb, ‘cause the fish to be in a net’, or an instrument verb, ‘cause the fish to be captive by causing it to be in a net’, which works by virtue of its first being a location verb.

1.6. miscellaneous verbs. Besides the main verb types already discussed, there are several miscellaneous types, shown in List 9.