That is, these expressions are VPs in whichthe NP and PRT are lexicallyfixed and the V is a free variable.We should
also notetheidiomeat one's heart out, whichhas thefor mof (19) but afixed verb and an idiomaticmeaning‘experience
envy.’
The next case has afixed NP and a free Vand PP: the way-construction (Jackendoff 1990a; Marantz 1992; Goldberg
1995),exemplified by(20). Here theverbcanbejustabout anythingthatdenotesa continuous process, and thePP can
be any expression of path in space, time, or even metaphor.
(20) Bill belched his way out of the restaurant.
Frank drank his way across the country.
Sue sang her way through dinner.
Sosa and McGwire have homered their way into the hearts of America.
Chew your way to a cleaner, fresher mouth. [ad for gum]Again it is crucial that the verb have no syntactic argument of its own aside from the subject: one cannot drink beer
one's way across the countryorhit home runs one's way into the hearts of America. Evidently, paralleltotheclassin(19),proe's way
occupies direct object position.
The meaning of the construction is roughly‘traverse the path PP while/by doing V.’(Goldberg 1995) has a detailed
discussion of the semantics.) Again, it would not make sense to say each verb combines withway“in the lexicon”to
form an idiom; this would mean that when one learns a new intransitive verb, one also adds to memory itswayform
(in addition to itsheart outandup a stormforms!). Rather, we are again dealing with free combination, this time
combining a verb and a PP with a lexical item of the structure (21).
(21) [VPv NP pp]: V proe's way PP,‘go PP while/by V-ing’This construction too has more specialized versions, includingwend one's way PP(where the verbwendoccurs only in
this construction),worm one's way PP(wherewormoccurs as a verb only in this construction), and the metaphoricalsleep
one's way to the top.
This case blatantly violates the Head Constraint of section 5.9. The PP is a syntactic argument of the VP. But it does
not express a semantic argument of the verb. Rather, it expresses a semantic argument of theconstruction—as does the
verb. Moreover, the phrase headed bywayis a syntactic argument, specifically a direct object, but it is not a semantic
argument of anything. In order to admit such cases we must treat the Head Constraint as a default rather than a rigid
condition.
The next case is exemplified in (22) (more details in Jackendoff 1997b).