Framework Of Construction Grammar Research Articles

English comparative modals and their complements

English comparative modals are combinations of the adverbs rather, sooner and better with an auxiliary. There is recent consensus that the comparative modals rather and sooner have over time developed a different syntax and semantics than better. However, potential differences in the syntax of rather and sooner with respect to patterns of complementation haven’t been explored. This article reports the results of a corpus study of these two modals and finds that rather patterns like object-raising verbs, allowing a range of complements that are unavailable for sooner. Our analysis of these patterns draws on recent work in the Construction Grammar framework, with forays into its formal implementation, Sign-Based Construction Grammar, and we propose that rather differs from sooner in that it constitutes a micro-construction whose features are licensed by both the Modal Construction and the Object-Raising Construction, the latter a subtype of the Transitive Construction.

Diachronic changes in constructional networks

Abstract This study investigates diachronic changes in constructional networks illustrated with examples from the Manchuric branch of Tungusic, an endangered language family spoken in Northeast Asia. Earlier studies have noted pronounced differences between this branch and the rest of the family, such as a reduction in morphological complexity and partial restructuring of the morphosyntactic system. Based on the framework of Diachronic Construction Grammar, this study investigates aspects of nominal morphology, including flagging and indexing. These are especially promising for a better understanding of the evolution of Manchuric and have not often been discussed in terms of Construction Grammar.

The Diachronic Development of Agency Prepositions in Old and Middle English

This article traces the development of agency prepositions in Old and Middle English passives, documenting the most important stages of the process and presenting them against a larger background of linguistic changes after the Norman Conquest. The study is based on large, syntactically annotated corpora of Early English, and takes into account all the main agency prepositions, that is, þurh ‘through,’ fram ‘from,’ mid ‘with,’ bi ‘by,’ and of, analyzing their token and type frequency, textual distribution, diachronic trends, collocational preferences, and use in lexically fixed formulas. The results are interpreted within the Construction Grammar framework, with the agency prepositional phrase treated as an emerging construction undergoing a slow and particularly difficult constructionalization process hindered by the restriction of the long passive to the written mode.

The German geschweige denn construction

Abstract The corresponding German construction to English let alone is geschweige denn with a meaning of ‘and even more/less so’. For present-day German, the construction is described as a coordinating conjunction, the use of which is tied to certain usage conditions, such as negative contexts. The construction is idiomatic and can be described as a form-function pairing in a Construction Grammar framework. This paper describes the origin and development of the idiomatic construction from a diachronic perspective. The data analyzed comes from the core corpus of the German Text Archive (Deutsches Textarchiv; DTA), occasionally complemented by the extension corpora of the DTA. It is shown that the construction evolves from verb phrases such as ich geschweige (‘I remain silent’), which are often used with a genitive complement or a dass-clause complement (‘that-clause’). One crucial aspect of the development of the coordinating conjunction is the loss of the filling of the nominative complement, usually ich (‘I’), with geschweige and the loss of ge- prefixes in inflected verb forms, which gradually leads to a change of the verb form to ich schweige, while the conjunction fossilizes the form prefixed with ge-. Furthermore, over time, the coordinating conjunction denn wins against the competition by dann and other words to form geschweige denn. The paper also traces the development of the idiomatic verb phrase ganz zu schweigen von, which happens in parallel to that of geschweige denn.

From complex prepositions to complex subordinators: challenging generalizations

ABSTRACT This paper presents a first approximation of the relationships within and between complex prepositions and complex subordinators from a cognitive vantage point. Because of the similarities between the two categories at the syntactic and functional levels of analysis, we first hypothesize the existence of a common productive schema that encompasses members of both classes within the framework of Construction Grammar. We then put forward a methodology developed in Diachronic Construction Grammar to analyze the within- and between-category constructional links in complex prepositions and complex subordinators in American English. We use multivariate quantitative methods to highlight the similarities and dissimilarities between the categories and make them visually identifiable. The application of this methodology to historical corpus data reveals that contrary to our expectations, complex prepositions form a relatively stable schema over time, without converging towards a common schema with the loosely connected complex subordinators under scrutiny.

They worked their hardest on the construction’s history: Superlative Objoid Constructions in Late Modern American English

Abstract English verbs can combine with an object-like (or Objoid) element consisting of a possessive and a superlative. These Superlative Objoids do not add a participant to the event but function like manner adverbs (they work their hardest, i.e. they work extremely hard). This paper is the first to use diachronic evidence from a corpus of Late Modern American English to trace the recent history of Superlative Objoid Constructions (SOC). In particular, it aims to assess whether the construction has become entrenched to the extent that it can give rise to analogical extension. Secondly, the evidence is used to model, within the framework of Construction Grammar, the horizontal and vertical links between the SOC and its (potential) relatives in the constructional network of transitivity changing constructions.

¡Lo que yo de cura! El «antiprototipo» en las construcciones comparativas intensificadoras desde un punto de vista construccionista

This paper analyzes the intesifying comparative construction [SN VTENER de ADJ lo (mismo) que X (de Y)]: ‘not being ADJ at all’, which allows for the creation of structures such as «Pues te digo: esos jóvenes tienen de solidario lo que yo de cura». In such a construction, intensification is achieved by means of a semantic and pragmatic incongruence between the slots X and Y (as in the example: yo vs. cura), whereby the standard of comparison Y (cura) becomes an «antiprototype», as opposed to what occurs in most stereotyped comparisons (e. g. dormir como un lirón). Within the framework of Construction Grammar, the main goal is to demonstrate, through corpus analysis (esTenTen18 corpus), that the antiprototype is not fixed at the lexical level, but through a cognitive core. A qualitative study of the slot Y of the standard of comparison is carried out in order to find out which cognitive clusters promote pragmatic incongruence, as well as to explore how the maximum level of extravagance is reached.

Possessing a process

This paper investigates the semantics of action nominal constructions (ANCs) in Hungarian. The theoretical assumptions concerning grammatical structures are defined in the framework of usage-based construction grammar. ANCs are investigated in the model of conceptual integration. The input spaces of the ANC network are intransitive and transitive constructions characteristic of nominative-accusative languages on the one hand, and nominal possessive constructions on the other. Agent and patient semantic roles correspond to the formal components of certain possessive constructions. The ergative nature of mapping can be explainedby the symbolic structure and grammaticalization of the possessor in Hungarian. Although the use of dative case is claimed in the literature to be a secondary (marked) way to express the possessor, it proved to be dominant before the reform era (1772–1825) according to our corpus analysis. The motivation behind the mapping between constructions can be captured by a generic space. The constructions share a mental path semantic structure and an inflectional pattern that makes the grounding of a person possible. However, the emergent nature of the meaning of ANC is also reflected in grounding, as instead of the asymmetric reference-point structure of possession, it holistically serves to refer to a person or thing. Compression and passivation are further functions that cannot be simply traced back to possessive or verbal constructions. These cognitive advantages might also motivate the use of ANC.

Wetin una dey yan: Variation in the use of copula dey in Nigerian Pidgin English

The present study shows variability in Nigerian Pidgin English (NPE) through its frequently used copula dey. Previous works on copulas in NPE have rarely shown the extent to which the copula varies, the extent to which attested variation is complex, or the extent to which the simple or complex variation found is related to processing both the verb phrase in which the copula operates and the overall sentential context it scans. Contributing to this question, the study shows that copula dey exhibits complex variability, which is strongly related to the difficulty in processing the meaning and interpretation of both the verb phrase and that of the overall sentence. The article also shows that variants of dey (i.e. deh and de) are unrelated to the exhibition of this complex variability, though their choice of use is related to formality or text type. Framed within a construction grammar theoretical framework, the article identifies and classifies five contextual scenarios showing creative movement and placement of the copula, including how structural variability (or lack thereof) distinguishes between copula dey, verbal dey and metaphoric dey.

Analogical Interference in Constructionalization: The Emergence of the Hebrew Desiderative ba le-X Y

Abstract This paper investigates the constructionalization of the Hebrew desiderative ba le-X Y (‘X feels like Y’; lit. ‘come.prs.m.sg to-X Y’), which exemplifies the less frequent pathway from motion to desire. Drawing on Diachronic Construction Grammar framework, we provide an account that considers both the construction’s ancestor and similar desiderative constructions existing at the time of emergence. Based on qualitative and quantitative analyses, we suggest ba le-X Y evolved via partial realization of a metaphoric construction conceptualizing experiencers as the goals of emotional forces, e.g. desires and urges. We further argue that this deviation in realization was modeled after a semantically similar, superficially resembling, desiderative construction which is more syntactically compacted. The motivation for this analogical interference is explained by the production and comprehension advantages of the resulting target construction. This paper then provides support for analogy-based interference effects in the formation of form-meaning pairings.

Situation-bound utterances and constructional networks: The evolution of the Hebrew see-farewell family

Greetings and wishing farewell are examples of cultural norms that are essential to the proper conduct of social interactions. The role and function of the linguistic units performing these rituals have been extensively studied. However, little research has been conducted to investigate the historical evolution of such situation-bound utterances (SBUs). Using the framework of Diachronic Construction Grammar (DCxG), this paper aims to contribute to the diachronic account of SBUs by exploring how a family of such units may develop and evolve through time. Focusing on a revived language that presents a case of recent, ongoing paradigmaticization, the paper examines the different paths of change of three Hebrew see-farewell patterns existing during the 20th century: lehitraot (see.recp.inf), nitrae (see.recp.fut.1.pl), and nitrae panim (see.recp.fut.1.pl face). Corpus data reveal that this family has evolved through changes in its members’ degree of entrenchment. Qualitative and quantitative analyses indicate that each member underwent different processes affecting this reorganization, e.g. routinization, attraction, and substitution, due to varying degrees of intra-family similarity. Overall, the findings suggest that linguistic items may be more prone to specific types of change depending on the level of likeness to other paradigmatic units.

Chinese idioms as constructions

AbstractChinese Quadrisyllabic Idiomatic Expressions (henceforth QIEs) are highly productive in the modern language. They can be used to understand the cognitive processing of structure and meaning during reading comprehension, as in the patterning of [qian-A-wan-B] ‘1k-A-10k-B’ (e.g. one-thousand army ten-thousand horse). However, little is known about the underlying mechanisms of QIEs during reading comprehension. Adopting the framework of Construction Grammar, in the present study, we aimed to study the convergence and divergence between native speakers and L2 learners in the processing of Chinese idiomatic constructions.In the present study, twenty-three native university-level Mandarin speakers and twenty-three L2 learners of intermediate and advanced levels of Mandarin, all speakers of the non Sinosphere, participated in the experiment, and were instructed to make a semantic congruency judgment during the presentation of a QIE. Our results showed that, for both native speakers and L2 learners, semantically transparent idiomatic constructions elicited much shorter RTs than semantically opaque idiomatic constructions. Our behavioral results also showed that native speakers processed low frequency QIEs faster than high frequency ones, implying semantic satiation to impede the interpretation of high frequency idioms. For L2 learners, it was semantic transparency, rather than frequency, that played a more prominent role in idiom processing.

Particle verbs with weg- in German: a constructional analysis

The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of German particle verbs with the particle weg- ‘away’ as in Tattoos weglasern (lit. ‘to laser tattoos away’ within the framework of Construction Grammar (Goldberg, 1995, 2006; Ziem & Lasch, 2013). The meaning of German weg-verbs often being non-compositional, morpho-lexical approaches turn out to be unable to properly account for the meaning of weg-constructions. The constructionist approach allows us to shed light on the relationship between morphology and syntax within weg-constructions and to account for both lexicalised and non-lexicalised instances of verbs with weg-. The analysis is based on the distinction between transitive and reflexive weg-constructions, which can occur as caused-motion and resultative constructions. The discussion of various variants of the German weg-construction suggests that the weg-constructions under investigation are linked to each other in a family of constructions.

The Development of long in Early Modern English: Impersonal Verbs of Desire in Focus

The class of English verbs of Desire in Present-Day English comprises verbs such as long or thirst, several of which are attested in earlier English in impersonal constructions characterised by the lack of a grammatical subject. In English, the impersonal construction decreased in frequency between 1400 and 1500, and effectively went out of use during the sixteenth century. Previous research has suggested that there is a need for a corpus-based study of not just Middle English, but also Early Modern English, in order to explore the different path(s) of development followed by individual impersonal verbs. The present article, therefore, investigates the development of the impersonal verb long (< OE langian) with the following objectives: a) to determine when long ceases to occur in impersonal constructions; b) to provide a diachronic overview of the personal syntactic patterns that came to replace impersonal constructions in Early Modern English; and c) to identify, within the framework of Construction Grammar, factors that may account for the development of long as a prepositional verb.

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'.

From order to approval

Abstract The article discusses the development of the Hebrew polysemous construction bɛsɛdɛr (the prefixed preposition bɛ ‘in’ + the noun sɛdɛr ‘order’). An analysis within the framework of Construction Grammar (Traugott & Trousdale, 2013) as well as tendencies of (inter)subjectification (Traugott, 2010, 2012) suggest that the construction developed through fusion and host-class expansion from an objective meaning of concrete and abstract order into an adverb, and later into a fully substantive lexical construction conveying subjective positive evaluation and to an intersubjectified discourse function expressing agreement and approval. The article further supports the proposal that both processes of grammatical and lexical constructionalization are evident in the constructionalization of beseder. Moreover, the analysis suggests that the different meanings which developed are interrelated, as they all derive from the original concept of order and organization, which at some point began to be desirable and appreciated, leading eventually to the development of discourse functions of approval and consent.

The network of reflexive dative constructions in South Slavic

Abstract This paper analyses a number of constructions with a reflexive marker on the verb and a dative argument, using the framework of Construction Grammar. In these constructions the predication is ascribed in various modes to the experiencer argument. We focus on these constructions in the South Slavic languages in which they have a wide distribution, Macedonian, Bulgarian and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS). The following basic types are identified: Emotional processes and states, Accidental, Perception/Cognition and Stative Reflexive-Dative Construction (SRDC). The specific clusters of features in each one are due to the inheritance properties from a reflexive construction, indicating a valence reduction, in combination with the features of affectedness and lack of control, characteristic of a dative argument. This results in varied but multiply linked patterns that create a complex network of constructions. The study aims at defining the relations between these constructions and in particular at determining the place of SRDC in this network.

INTERPRETING DETACHED CONSTRUCTIONS WITH EXPLICIT SUBJECT THROUGH THE PRISM OF RELATED TERMS

This article provides a comprehensive account of the English detached nonfinite and nonverbal constructions with the explicit subject within the framework of construction grammar. The study overviews the terms utilized in Western grammatical studies to nominate the investigated syntactic structures. Depending on the ontological and gnoseological assumptions of a particular linguistic approach, the analyzed terms highlight specific aspects of the syntactic structures under study (morphosyntactic features, syntactic functions, the subject’s case, coreference with the matrix clause, intonation and punctuation marking), and, therefore, cannot fully reveal the nature of the given syntactic phenomenon. The paper discusses the advantages of the term “detached nonfinite and nonverbal constructions with the explicit subject” for cognitive and quantitative operationalization and theoretical substantiation of the examined structures. The component construction is used in the interpretation of the cognitive construction grammar and defined as a noncompositional language sign, a complex pairing of form and meaning, where some aspects of the forms or the meanings cannot be derived from the form and the meaning of its components or from other existing constructions. In present-day English detached [aug/øaug[SubjNP] [PredNF/VL]] constructions constitute a taxonomic constructional network represented through a multiple hierarchy of adjunct clauses combined with the plane of detachment. The network of the analyzed constructions is developed around the constructional schema, represented by the construction of the highest degree of schematicity and abstraction (macro-construction). The features of the macro-construction are inherited by the constructions of a lower level – meso-constructions and individual micro-constructions and are reflected in the specific realized constructions – constructs.

영어와 한국어의 논항구조 구문 대조 연구

This paper aims to propose a contrastive analysis of English and Korean argument structure constructions (ASCs) in the framework of Construction Grammar. Although Construction Grammar is best known for its thesis that ASCs can exist independently of argument taking verbs in English, it has yet to be investigated whether the equivalent patterns of argument structures or ASCs are available in Korean. In order to find the equivalent patterns, the present paper examined 7 types of English ASCs (of Goldberg 1995, 2019) and their Korean counterparts. As a result, it turned out that Korean equivalents of English examples of ASCs with coercion effects do not involve coercion effects. However, this does not indicate that Korean ASCs can not exist independently of argument taking verbs because it is observed that transitive construction exceptionally produces coercion effects, and case marking postpositions and verb endings are playing a pivotal role in the emergence of ASCs and other constructions in Korean.

Construction grammar for monkeys?

AbstractIn recent years, multiple researchers working on the evolution of language have put forward the idea that the theoretical framework of usage-based approaches and Construction Grammar is highly suitable for modelling the emergence of human language from pre-linguistic or proto-linguistic communication systems. This also raises the question of whether usage-based and constructionist approaches can be integrated with the analysis of animal communication systems. In this paper, we review possible avenues where usage-based, constructionist approaches can make contact with animal communication research, which in turn also has implications for theories of language evolution. To this end, we first give an overview of key assumptions of usage-based and constructionist approaches before reviewing some key issues in animal communication research through the lens of usage-based, constructionist approaches. Specifically, we will discuss how research on alarm calls, gestural communication and symbol-trained animals can be brought into contact with usage-based, constructionist theorizing. We argue that a constructionist view of animal communication can yield new perspectives on its relation to human language, which in turn has important implications regarding the evolution of language. Importantly, this theoretical approach also generates hypotheses that have the potential of complementing and extending results from the more formalist approaches that often underlie current animal communication research.