A "lexicographic portrait" of 'forgetting'

Abstract

This study aims to provide a detailed analysis of the English verb 'forget'. It examines its three main clausal complement types ('to'-complement, e.g. 'I forgot to lock the door', 'that'-complement, e.g. 'I forgot that the door was locked', and 'wh'-complement, e.g. 'I forgot where I put the key'), NP-complements, and several more specialised constructions. The picture which emerges is of a set of interrelated lexicogrammatical constructions, each with a specific meaning, forming a polysemic "lexical family". Although the study concentrates on English alone, the semantic differences between the various constructions it has identified make it rather clear that one cannot expect a similar range of meanings to "map across" to apparently similar lexemes in other languages. The method of semantic analysis is the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach.