This study examines the use of the give light-verb-construction which consists of the light verb give and a verbal noun derived from an intransitive verb. There are two types of those constructions: ditransitive GIVE1 (e.g., give him a look.) and monotranistive GIVE2 (e.g., give a laugh). Based on one of the central tenets of Construction Grammar (Goldberg 1995), and employing Gries and Stefanowitsch’s collexeme analysis and distinctive collexeme analysis, this study examines the preferential associations between the constructions and the verbal nouns. Three things were found: GIVE1 attracts the verbal nouns of visual actions and of favorable facial/bodily motions more than GIVE2 does; GIVE2 attracts the verbal nouns of bodily actions accompanied by sound and of short voluntary or involuntary gestures more than GIVE1 does; both of the constructions are used to communicate between the subject and the (specified or sometimes unspecified) object, conveying the subject’s condition or attitude to the object.