apprehensional (sem)

Type meaning
http://example.org/cx/hasExample I grabbed a stick lest he attack me
http://example.org/cx/hasExample Grab a stick or he will attack you
Definition the semantic relation between two events where one event serves as the opposite of the intended outcome of bringing about the other event. In this respect, the apprehensional relation is a negative version of the purpose relation. Examples: I grabbed a stick lest he attack me is a figure--ground construal of the simultaneous relation in an adverbial clause construction, and Grab a stick or he will attack you is a complex figure construal of the relation in a coordinate clause construction. In the figure--ground construal, the negatively intended event is construed as the ground. As with the purpose relation, the apprehensional event is unrealized; the complex figure construal is possible because the matrix clause event is also unrealized. (Section 15.3.1)
See section (in Croft 2022) 15.3.1
Function of apprehensional construction
Subtype of event relation

Source

The Model of Comparative concepts for Constructicon Alignment (MoCCA; Lorenzi et al. 2024) proposes to connect constructions across and within languages using Comparative Concepts as a shared base of comparison. It adopts the set of Comparative Concepts provided by Croft (2022).

Croft, William. 2022. Morphosyntax: Constructions of the World’s Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/highereducation/books/morphosyntax/1AAB4F5F9C553F675170DCA3F03F82E2#contents. (14 October, 2025).
Lorenzi, Arthur, Peter Ljunglöf, Ben Lyngfelt, Tiago Timponi Torrent, William Croft, Alexander Ziem, Nina Böbel, Linnéa Bäckström, Peter Uhrig & Ely E Matos. 2024. MoCCA: A Model of Comparative Concepts for Aligning Constructicons. In Proceedings of the 20th Joint ACL - ISO Workshop on Interoperable Semantic Annotation @ LREC-COLING 2024, 93–98. Torino, Italia: ELRA and ICCL. https://aclanthology.org/2024.isa-1.12/. (22 July, 2025).

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