On the predictability of light verbs

International audienceIn the two main frameworks studying light verb constructions (LVCs) in French, namely Lexicon-Grammar and DEC (Dictionnaire Explicatif et Combinatoire), the idiosyncratic nature of the light verb (LV) for a given predicative noun has been emphasized. In this paper, while acknowledging some idiosyncratic cases, we want to highlight the existence of a continuum between LVCs and ordinary constructions involving heavy verbs and, as a consequence, the partial predictability of the combination of a given LV with a predicative noun. We debate these issues with examples both in French and Persian