Register-Specific Collocational Constructions in English and Spanish: A Usage-Based Approach

Abstract

Abstract: Constructions are usage-based, conventionalised pairings of form and function within a cline of complexity and schematisation. Most research within Grammar has focused on the monolingual description of schematic constructions: Mainly in English, but to a lesser extent in other languages as well. By contrast, very little constructional analyses have been carried out across languages. In this study we will focus on a type of partially substantive construction from the point of view of contrastive analysis and translation which, to the best of our knowledge, is one of the first studies of this kind. The first half of the article lays down the theoretical foundations of the study and introduces Grammar as well as other formalisms used in literature in order to provide a construal account of collocations, a pervasive phenomenon in language. The experimental part describes the case study of V NP collocations with disease/enfermedad in comparable corpora in English and Spanish, both in the general domain and in the specialised medical domain. It is provided a comparative analysis of these constructions across domains and languages in terms of token-type ratio (constructional restriction-rate), lexical function, type of determiner, frequency ranking of the verbal collocate and domain specificity of collocates, among others. New measures to assess construal bondness will be put forward (lexical filledness rate and individual productivity rate) and special attention will be paid to register-dependent equivalent semantic-functional counterparts in English and Spanish and mismatches.Keywords: Grammar, Corpus Linguistics, Phraseology, Collocations, TranslationIntroductionThe term Grammar (CXG) refers to a family of closely related grammars (or constructionist approaches) which are in contrast to Chomskyan's views on language and idiomaticity. CXG aims at providing a comprehensive account of language that explains all aspects of a speaker's knowledge about their language. As Hoffmann (2013: 326) puts it, Construction Grammar does not only focus on the idiosyncratic periphery of language, but [that] is a full-fledged grammatical theory that it is observationally, descriptively as well as explanatorily adequate.Within constructional approaches, linguistic knowledge is acquired through repeated experience with actual instances of constructions and their generalisations. Usage frequency appears to play a crucial role in the emergence of constructions or cognitive schemata (mental representations) and their storage strength in memory (entrenchment).Contrary to mainstream Generative Grammar, constructions are not the result of a limited set of transformations or derivations, but symbolic units which are linked to each other and constitute complex networks (Goldberg, 1995; 2006). Thus, language is conceived as an idiomatic continuum of which constructions are the building blocks and general patterns and idioms stand on an equal footing (Kay and Fillmore, 1999: 1).In this study we will adopt a constructionist approach to collocation in line with CXG postulates. In addition, we will take an observational stance toward a corpusbased analysis of constructions in English and Spanish, with a special emphasis on equivalent semanticfunctional counterparts and potential mismatches.This paper is organised as follows. Section 2 (On the Construal Nature of Collocations) provides a theoretical framework for collocation within competing linguistic approaches. As we will argue, collocations have a clear construal nature, as evidenced by their lexical filledness restrictions, semantic dependency and coercion along a cline of complexity and schematisation. Section 3 (Constructions in Contrast: A Case Study) furnishes a fine-grained characterisation of the V NP construction with disease/enfermedad in two comparable reference and specialised medical corpora in English and Spanish. …