Book excerpt: Constructions such as 'make an accusation against', or 'give one's approval for' can be seen as 'stretched' versions of simple verbs, such as 'accuse' or 'approve of'. What is the precise linguistic nature of stretched verbs, and how many basic types are there? What kinds of grammatical connections are involved, and what lexical limits are there on these constructions? What is their precise semantic value? These are some of the questions that this book sets out to answer in its investigation of stretched verb constructions.