Abstract The present paper explores the network of language-related knowledge about multimodal, stance-related uses of Tell me about it (TMAI) with a particular focus on the co-verbal use of raised eyebrows. Employing a k-prototype analysis, the paper shows that stance-related uses of TMAI form five multimodal clusters. Three of these will be analyzed in more detail regarding their speakers’ use of raised eyebrows. Based on these qualitative analyses, the paper argues that knowledge about TMAI and raised eyebrows is structured as a nested network of uni- and multimodal constructions and, therefore, that a broader definition of the term construction is warranted.

Abstract Two structurally unrelated constructions can affect each other’s realization through a process that has been called constructional contamination. According to this effect, lexemes participating in a grammatical alternation will deviate in their stochastic preference for an alternant if they appear frequently in a contaminating construction that is formally similar to the alternant in question. In the present article, we evaluate whether such contamination effects can also be found between two constructions in Dutch which share the same form, including the verb krijgen ‘to get’ and a past participle, but have distinct meanings (a “receptive” vs. a “resultative” meaning), and, if so, whether these effects occur in both directions. We zoom in on word order differences: if krijgen and the participle appear in a verb cluster, both word orders are possible in the receptive krijgen-construction, while, for the resultative krijgen-construction, the order with krijgen preceding the participle is reported to be ungrammatical in the grammatical literature but is not altogether absent from real-language corpora. Logistic regression analyses, based on data culled from the SoNaR-corpus, show that the word order in both constructions is indeed affected by constructional contamination, thus showing that this phenomenon can be bidirectional. Additionally, we demonstrate that these contamination effects differ between two national varieties of Dutch, viz. Belgian vs. Netherlandic Dutch, and we argue that contamination can sometimes also result in a disambiguating reflex. These results suggest that subtle differences in the organization of the constructional network can result in (partly) different contamination effects.

Abstract This study examines the theoretical status as well as the quantitative distribution of subjects with Definite Null Instantiation (DNI) readings in Standard British English, Hong Kong English, and Singapore English from the perspective of Usage-based Construction Grammar. Following an extensive review of previous theoretical treatments, I propose an alternative formalization of DNI as a both schematic and semantically rich construction. Based on spoken data from the International Corpus of English, random forests and logistic regression models were then fitted to complement the theoretical model of DNI with distributional data, taking into account both intra- and extra-linguistic predictors. The models reveal significant differences between L1- and L2-usage; the extent of these constructional reconfigurations is best explained by a combination of substrate influence and the socio-cognitive stability of the L2-varieties.

Abstract In the generative literature, whether manner/result complementarity is correct or not has been hotly debated. This paper aims to shed new light on the debate by approaching manner/result complementarity from a different angle: polysemy. Our focal example is cut. A detailed frame-semantic analysis of its polysemy reveals that the manner of cut is to be identified as something like ‘to move quickly in a straight line’. Accordingly, what counts as the manner use and what counts as the result use share the same base, differing only in terms of profiling. Thus, manner/result complementarity simply does not make sense.

Abstract Construction Grammar proposes an integrative model of linguistic knowledge, but the status of phonology has long been a black box in the framework. In this article, I consider the question of whether phonemes are constructions. I argue that phonemes are entrenched and conventionalised units emergent from usage, that they are clearly form-function pairs, and that their sensitivity to meaning seems less sporadic than previously assumed. This leads me to argue that assessing the constructionhood of phonemes requires a clear distinction between linguistic function and meaning, as well as a careful consideration of the social meaning of constructions.

Abstract This paper relates two levels of constructional analysis in accounting for the functions of verb-forming suffixation in English: argument structure constructions and suffix schemas. The function of verbal-forming suffixation expressed by the four suffixes in English -ize, -ify, -en, and -ate, has been shown to exhibit a wide range of semantic categories that correspond to a number of argument structure constructions (Laws 2023). The current paper extends that semantic analysis. Firstly, by using a Construction Morphology approach (Booij 2010) to formalize the relationship between argument structure and suffix schemas proposed by Laws. Secondly, a hierarchical view of verb-class and subclass argument structure constructions is articulated by using semantic rules that involve selection and enrichment by coercion within suffix subschemas. Thirdly, it is demonstrated that the motivation for partially opaque complex verbs with these suffixes can be expressed by referring to paradigmatic relationships between these complex verbs and other related words.

Abstract In this paper, we provide an extensive analysis of the formal features displayed by Italian diminutives (especially allomorphy) by using surface alternation patterns automatically extracted from a dataset of base-diminutive pairs. Applying the theoretical tools provided by Construction Morphology (CxM), we take alternation patterns as a proxy for paradigmatic relations and locate them into separate hierarchies, exploiting the mechanism of multiple inheritance in order to express generalizations on different, mutually independent factors at play (i.e., lexical category, gender and final segment of the base and derivative, suffixes and antesuffixal phonological material displayed by the derivative). In doing so, we contribute to the exploration of the formal side of Italian diminutives, which have been so far addressed mostly from a semantic perspective, and to the refinement of the representation of formal phenomena such as allomorphy according to the CxM framework.

Abstract In this paper, we propose a model that accounts for the change in the grammatical status of the members of the Hebrew Ultimate construction family, the only full sentences in Hebrew to undergo lexicalization, from extra-sentential elements to full-fledged words, specifically, flexible modifiers. We propose a specific type of contextual construction — the Anaphoric degree-adverb exclamative — and argue that it is this construction that enables both the grammatical change and the categorial flexibility of the newly evolved words by incorporating the members of the Ultimate construction family as subordinate clauses. Our analysis emphasizes the critical role of network links between the (various) constructions involved in this lexicalization process.