Construction Grammar Approach Research Articles

Construction grammar approach to the innovative use of [unless x

This study analyzes the construction [unless X] as based on the Construction Grammar framework (cf. Fillmore et al., 1988; Goldberg, 1995, 2006; Bybee, 2010), in association with the Corpus Linguistics (McEnery; Hardie, 2013; Sinclair, 2005) methodology. The construction [unless X] characterizes as an innovative use of the word “unless”, in which the conjunction isn’t followed by a subordinate clause, as it can be seen in “don’t add Coca Cola unless diet” or “he was so calm unless tried” or “I can never tell the season unless winter”. Motivated by the findings of Mendes Junior and Mattos (2021), who reported high rates of productivity in the construction [because X] (e.g. “I’m excited for my holidays because tired”), we propose a model that accounts for the new constructional properties of “unless”. Data were collected through the iWeb Corpus (Davies, 2018), which contains 14 billion words extracted from about 22 million web pages. Preliminary analysis shows that the construction [unless X] heavily favors verbs in the past participle, adjectives, adverbs and nouns in the [X] slot. Moreover, the [X] slot cannot be filled by interjections, pronouns, conjunctions and prepositions, as opposed to [because X]. Following Fillmore et al. (1988), [unless X] can be understood as codable, formal, extra-grammatical construction. We suggest that [unless X] often behaves similarly to the traditional use of ‘unless’, though it tends to favor reduced clauses and is mainly used in more informal contexts.

The grammaticalization of the existential sign var in Turkish Sign Language: a Construction Grammar approach

Abstract This paper describes the development of the existential sign var ‘there’ in Turkish Sign Language from a synchronic point of view. The sign has been previously described as being restricted to clause-final predicate position and typically used for two main linguistic functions: (i) existential and (ii) possessive. However, abundant corpus evidence indicates that var can also be used for other linguistic functions in post-verbal position, which have not been reported in the literature before. Following Construction Grammar, this study presents a theoretical framework to investigate how the construction [verb + var] arose and what its semantic motivation is, paying particular attention to the notion of possession. It is argued that this construction has three different functions: (i) habitual, (ii) evidential, and (iii) assumptive. According to this account, var originated as an existential marker and subsequently developed into a marker of possession, before evolving to encompass its other linguistic functions in three stages. Using Labov’s Apparent Time Hypothesis (Labov, William. 1963. The social motivation of a sound change. Word 19(3). 273–309), closer examination also revealed that a progressive difference exists between age groups. Younger TİD signers use the construction [verb + var] more frequently, and as the age of the TİD signer decreases, the usage of this construction in the assumptive function increases considerably.

Article Use within of NP in NP of NP in Korean EFL University Students’ Writing: A Usage-based Construction Grammar Approach

Article Use within of NP in NP of NP in Korean EFL University Students’ Writing: A Usage-based Construction Grammar Approach

A reference constructicon as a database

Abstract This article explores the importance of database architecture in building a reference constructicon. Several reference constructicons have been implemented for various languages (FrameNet Constructicon, English Constructicon, Japanese FrameNet Constructicon, German Constructicon, Swedish Constructicon, FrameNet Brasil Constructicon, Russian Constructicon). However, most constructicon projects do not provide explicit information about their implementation or the underlying data model. A recent reference constructicon project dealing mainly with the English language is CASA (Construction Grammar Approach to Syntactic Analysis). In this paper, we present the data model underlying CASA in detail and its current implementation as a relational database and web interface. Relational databases are widely used for many different applications and allow large amounts of data to be stored and managed in a structured and efficient way.

Alternation in the Mandarin disposal constructions: quantifying their evolutionary dynamics across twelve centuries

AbstractDespite extensive research on theba-construction in Chinese, the diachronic change in the alternation between thebaandjiangconstructions has received little attention. The present study takes a multifactorial approach to examine the factors that probabilistically condition the alternation based on diachronic data across twelve centuries. The results suggest two general trends. First, the odds of theba-construction have increased over time at the expense of thejiang-construction. Second, over time, the effect size of the significant preference for thejiang-construction in informal genres has reduced from the 10th to the 19th century, and this preference has disappeared in modern times; accordingly, both informal and formal genres have converged to favor theba-construction in modern times. Regression modeling also shows that there are both stable linguistic constraints (parallelism/syntactic priming, verb type, NP2 animacy, and NP2 length) and fluid constraints (adjunct semantics, and genre). This study advances our knowledge of the two disposal constructions and their evolution, sheds light on the Principle of No Synonymy (Bolinger, Dwight. 1977.Meaning and form. New York: Longman; Goldberg, Adele E. 1995.Constructions: A construction grammar approach to argument structure. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press; Goldberg, Adele E. 2002. Surface generalizations: An alternative to alternations.Cognitive Linguistics13(4). 327–356), and makes a methodological contribution to the empirical testing of hypotheses. It can also provide insight into grammatical alternations in Mandarin.

Experiential constructions in Hindi: the encoding of perceptions and bodily sensations

Abstract In this paper, I offer a description of argument-structure constructions of experiential verbs in Hindi, analyzing their syntactic and semantic properties, with a focus on the encoding of two experiential subdomains: perceptions and bodily sensations, the two most semantically different experiential event types (Luraghi, Silvia. 2020. Experiential verbs in Homeric Greek, a constructional approach (Brill’s Studies in Language, Cognition and Culture 27). Boston: Brill; Malchukov, Andrej L. 2005. Case pattern splits, verb types and construction competition. In Mengistu Amberber & Helen de Hoop (eds.), Perspectives on cognitive science, competition and variation in natural languages, 73–117. Amsterdam: Elsevier; Tsunoda, Tasaku. 2015. The hierarchy of two-place predicates: Its limitations and uses. In Andrej L. Malchukov & Bernard Comrie (eds.), Valency classes in the world’s languages, vol. 2, 1597–1626. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton). I rely on data taken from a corpus consisting of Hindi literary texts of the 20th century, interrogated through Sketch Engine and I follow the approach of Cognitive Construction Grammar (Goldberg, Adele. 1995. Constructions: A construction grammar approach to argument structure. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press; Goldberg, Adele. 2006. Constructions at work: The nature of generalization in language. Oxford: Oxford University Press; Hilpert, Martin. 2014. Construction grammar and its applications to English. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press). The paper is structured as follows: Section 1 is an introduction giving the aim of the paper with some remarks on methodological and theoretical issues. Section 2 is a preliminary introduction on the domain of Experience and its encoding strategies. In Section 3, I give some remarks on case in Hindi, and I discuss the semantic–syntactic interplay in the language and the concept of iconicity, which is central in the paper. In Section 4, I present Hindi data and their analysis, focusing firstly on perception verbs (Section 4.1) and then on bodily sensation verbs (Section 4.2). In the last section (Section 5), I draw some conclusions trying to give an account of the type-frequency of each pattern, in order to evaluate the possible semantic constraints of each construction, and I propose a constructionist explanation of the distribution of Hindi argument-structure constructions across the highly variable range of experiential events.

Vietnamese fictive motion constructions: a construction grammar approach

Vietnamese fictive motion constructions: a construction grammar approach

A corpus linguistic study of constructional equivalence for the Indonesian translation of ROB and STEAL based on the OpenSubtitles Parallel Corpus

Catford’s (1965) classic idea in translation theory indicates the measurability of translation equivalence. Following up on this idea, this paper offers a case study to measure the translation equivalence of English verbal near-synonyms ROB and STEAL (R&S), especially the equivalence at the constructional level. Adopting a quantitative corpus linguistic method and the Construction Grammar approach, we analyse random usage samples of R&S from English-Indonesian parallel corpus for the degree of constructional equivalence along two dimensions: (i) the profiled participant roles and (ii) the grammatical construction types of these verbs. We discover that the Indonesian translations maintain a high degree of equivalences along these dimensions, albeit with few variations. This suggests that the translators attempt to be as faithful as possible to the source texts. Furthermore, our study reveals the translation norms/typicality in how the constructional profiles of the near-synonyms R&S are translated into Indonesian. The paper generally seeks to demonstrate how such a central notion as equivalence in translation studies can be investigated using parallel corpora and the quantitative corpus linguistic method.

A corpus linguistic study of constructional equivalence for the Indonesian translation of ROB and STEAL based on the OpenSubtitles Parallel Corpus

Catford’s (1965) classic idea in translation theory indicates the measurability of translation equivalence. Following up on this idea, this paper offers a case study to measure the translation equivalence of English verbal near-synonyms ROB and STEAL (R&S), especially the equivalence at the constructional level. Adopting a quantitative corpus linguistic method and the Construction Grammar approach, we analyse random usage samples of R&S from English-Indonesian parallel corpus for the degree of constructional equivalence along two dimensions: (i) the profiled participant roles and (ii) the grammatical construction types of these verbs. We discover that the Indonesian translations maintain a high degree of equivalences along these dimensions, albeit with few variations. This suggests that the translators attempt to be as faithful as possible to the source texts. Furthermore, our study reveals the translation norms/typicality in how the constructional profiles of the near-synonyms R&S are translated into Indonesian. The paper generally seeks to demonstrate how such a central notion as equivalence in translation studies can be investigated using parallel corpora and the quantitative corpus linguistic method.

A Usage-Based Constructionist Approach to Evidentiality in Turkish: The Unevidentiality Construction

Coupled with corpora, usage-based construction grammar aims to provide cognitive plausibility for linguistic phenomena. In this vein, this paper combines construction grammar and usage-based approaches to analyze evidentiality in Turkish. While Turkish has been analyzed from a usage-based perspective, evidentiality has not been taken up in a usage-based constructionist approach. By using corpora, association measures, and construction as a notion and a framework, this paper defines the Unevidentiality Construction in a taxonomic space. First, it outlines its semantic properties and then it uses association measures such as faith, delta (∆) p, and ITECX to determine its usage pattern and statistical biases based on corpora. The paper demonstrates a superordinate and lower-level, item-specific instantiations of the construction. The results from association measures and the family of unevidentiality constructions can serve for future linguistic endeavors.

한국인 중국어 학습자를 위한 把구문의 효과적인 교수·학습 연구-구문문법의 활용을 기반으로

The purpose of this study is to discuss the effective pedagogy for teaching Chinese Ba construction for Korean learners. Chinese Ba construction is used in several limited situations both syntactically and semantically as a so-called ‘disposal construction. Many Korean learners often make error sentences, and even advanced learners make errors as well, since Ba construction sometimes behave like a Korean object construction, so learners are confused easily. In order to help Korean learners acquire the exact meaning and correct usage of Chinese Ba construction, this study compares the difference between Korean object construction and Chinese Ba construction. As an effective teaching method, construction grammar approach is used, which points out the importance of scene, network, and prototypical verb in foreign language education. The pedagogy and materials presented in detail in this paper can be used in actual Chinese classes, and also the discussion in this paper will support the result of the previous studies with a new teaching and learning target, namely Korean learners of Chinese.

When past meets future in Persian: A construction grammar approach to futurity

ABSTRACT In Persian, two of the verbal constructions used for expressing futurity – the Past Simple and the Future Simple – are built around the past form of the main verb. This paper seeks to demystify this connection between the past and the future by investigating how these past forms contribute to the expression of futurity and setting this within an overall analysis of the future constructions in this language. Based on the form of the main verb in 940 sentences with verbal future constructions, six constructions were identified and categorized into future-oriented past constructions (FPST), which include the Past Simple and the Future Simple, and future-oriented present constructions (FPRT), which include the Present Simple, the Present Progressive, the Present Subjunctive and the WANT construction. A construction grammar approach together with Reichenbach and neo-Reichenbach terminology was then utilized to distinguish the differing relations between tense, aspect, mood and speaker perspective, and assign syntactic-semantic maps in terms of features such as level of formality, perfectness, intended future, certainty and inner aspect (aktionsart) to each of the FPST and FPRT constructions. It is argued that the use of the past form of the main verb in the Past Simple and the Future Simple (FPST constructions) owes much to aspectual and ontological factors, with the past element indicating certainty, perfectness and a speaker perspective of looking back.

An analysis of lexicogrammatical development in English textbooks in Turkey: A usage-based construction grammar approach

Abstract This article measures the syntactic development indices in grade 5-12 English textbooks in Turkey. Through a usage-based construction grammar approach, it argues that the textbooks show an inconsistent development in verb-argument constructions (VAC) and other usage-based indices. The study employs an automatic software tool that detects variations in these indices and runs a statistical analysis on a corpus compiled by the author. Statistically significant results demonstrate that textbooks lack lexicogrammatical variation. As such, learners who use these textbooks are likely to experience a limited array of VACs that are limited in lemma-construction combinations. Findings also indicate that learners may not be exposed to the conventional usage patterns and frequencies of VACs when compared against a reference corpus. These findings may have an influence on the learners’ generalization process, their low-proficiency level in English, and poor idiomatic uses of the language.

Treatment of theWay-Construction in English-Chinese Learners’ Dictionaries: A Construction Grammar Approach

AbstractThis article focuses on the treatment of the way-construction (work one’s way through, find one’s way to, etc.) in English-Chinese learners’ dictionaries (ECLDs). Despite its complexity in structure and meaning, little research has been conducted into the systematic organization of the way-construction in learners’ dictionaries. Adopting a construction grammar approach, we subdivide the way-construction into three interpretations. We suggest that the ‘path-creation’ interpretation is the basis, while the ‘manner’ and ‘accompaniment’ interpretations are its subtypes, and provide evidence for these claims. We then identify the deficiencies in addressing the way-construction in current ECLDs. In addition, we conduct an acceptability judgement test and a translation test to pinpoint the difficulties that Chinese EFL learners might encounter in acquiring the way-construction. Finally, we propose a refined version for ECLDs concerning the treatment of the way-construction. This study is not only intended to optimize the entry of the way-construction for ECLDs, but also to offer a possible solution through which constructions can be systematically organized in learners’ dictionaries.

A peculiar Lithuanian particle mat or Mat ją bala, irgi mat dalelytė!

In this paper, we discuss the morphosyntactic properties and the functional contribution of the discourse-structuring element mat in Lithuanian, which was largely overlooked in previous research. We demonstrate that in each function mat is associated with peculiar morphosyntactic behaviour. We argue that it is the construction in which it occurs as a whole that bears meaning, rather than mat as a lexical unit on its own. In our analysis, we invoke insights and some apparatus of Construction Grammar approaches, which fit well with our observations in their focus on non-compositional aspects of linguistic structure.

Constructing a protolanguage: reconstructing prehistoric languages in a usage-based construction grammar framework

Construction grammar is an approach to language that posits that units and structures in language can be exhaustively described as pairings between form and meaning. These pairings are called constructions and can have different degrees of abstraction, i.e. they span the entire range from very concrete (armadillo, avocado) to very abstract constructions such as the ditransitive construction (I gave her a book). This approach has been applied to a wide variety of different areas of research in linguistics, such as how new constructions emerge and change historically. It has also been applied to investigate the evolutionary emergence of modern fully fledged language, i.e. the question of how systems of constructions can arise out of prelinguistic communication. In this paper, we review the contribution of usage-based construction grammar approaches to language change and language evolution to the questions of (i) the structure and nature of prehistoric languages and (ii) how constructions in prehistoric languages emerged out of non-linguistic or protolinguistic communication. In particular, we discuss the possibilities of using constructions as the main unit of analysis both in reconstructing predecessors of existing languages (protolanguages) and in formulating theories of how a potential predecessor of human language in general (protolanguage) must have looked like. This article is part of the theme issue 'Reconstructing prehistoric languages'.

Of absent mothers, strong sisters and peculiar daughters: The constructional network of English NPN constructions

Abstract This paper analyzes symmetric NPN constructions (e.g., day to day, face to face, step by step) qualitatively and quantitatively by examining data from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (Davies, Mark. 2008–. The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA): 570 million words, 1990–present. http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/). The constructions’ frequency and productivity, as well as their semantics and extension potential (i.e., modification, complementation) is investigated (e.g., by conducting collostructional analysis). In terms of theoretical modeling, the paper takes a Usage-based, Cognitive Construction Grammar approach (UCCxG) and sketches the constructional network of this constructional family, postulating various constructional templates on different levels of specificity – among others – the existence of the following subtypes [CNsg,time i after CNsg,time i]Cx (e.g., day after day, night after night), [CNsg,measurement i by CNsg,measurement i]Cx (e.g., inch by inch, step by step) or [CNsg,bodypart i to CNsg,bodypart i]Cx (e.g., skin to skin, shoulder to shoulder). We show how these templates are vertically and horizontally connected to each other. Ultimately, we argue that in a usage-based model which strives for cognitive plausibility it is not always feasible to postulate the entrenchment of an abstract overarching schema (i.e., a ‘mothernode’) like [CNi P CNi]Cx or even [N P N]Cx high up in the network. It is unlikely that speakers abstract such a general schema in a bottom-up acquisition process for this family. Rather, the NPN group is a constructional family characterized by many sister ties and by the absence of mother nodes from which information can be inherited.

A computational construction grammar approach to semantic frame extraction

Abstract This paper introduces a novel methodology for extracting semantic frames from text corpora. Building on recent advances in computational construction grammar, the method captures expert knowledge of how semantic frames can be expressed in the form of conventionalised form-meaning pairings, called constructions. By combining these constructions in a semantic parsing process, the frame-semantic structure of a sentence is retrieved through the intermediary of its morpho-syntactic structure. The main advantage of this approach is that state-of-the-art results are achieved, without the need for annotated training data. We demonstrate the method in a case study where causation frames are extracted from English newspaper articles, and compare it to a commonly used approach based on Conditional Random Fields (CRFs). The computational construction grammar approach yields a word-level F1 score of 78.5%, outperforming the CRF approach by 4.5 percentage points.

Cognitive reality of constructions as a theoretical and methodological challenge in historical linguistics

Abstract This squib discusses empirical challenges incurred by assuming cognitive reality as a defining feature of constructions and the constructional network, as done in most usage-based, cognitive construction grammar approaches. Specifically, it zooms in on the methodological challenges in identifying cognitively plausible constructions in historical data, in particular when taking a highly exploratory, bottom-up approach with very little pre-selection or pre-analysis. I illustrate this issue with the example of a current project on PPs in the history of English, and the various functions these have in combination with verbs (from prototypical adjuncts to complements). I argue that the constraints of historical data make it necessary to find different, new ways to determine which abstractions and distinctions are likely to have been represented in minds of historical language users, and to furthermore identify changes in constructional networks over time.

An AI Using Construction Grammar to Understand Text

This paper describes an AI that uses construction grammar (CG)—a means of knowledge representation for deep understanding of text. The proposed improvements aim at more versatility of the text form and meaning knowledge structure, as well as for intelligent choosing among possible parses. Along with the improvements, computational CG techniques that form the implementation basis are explained. Evaluation experiments utilize a Winograd schema (WS)—a major test for AI—dataset and compare the implementation with state-of-the-art ones. Results have demonstrated that compared with such techniques as deep learning, the proposed CG approach has a higher potential for the task of anaphora resolution involving deep understanding of the natural language.