Usage-based Construction Grammar Research Articles

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

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.

Introducing Construction Semantics (CxS): a frame-semantic extension of Construction Grammar and constructicography

Abstract Construction Semantics (CxS) uses FrameNet frames to capture the semantic properties of grammatical constructions. It closes a gap between Frame Semantics and usage-based Construction Grammar as well as providing a uniform format to implement frames into constructicographic work. This article provides an overview of three core features of CxS. Starting point is (i) the modeling of semantic properties associated with constructions in terms of three types of frames. This makes possible (ii) the analysis of structural parallels between constructions and frames, in particular the semantic motivation of elements of a construct by frame elements. Lastly, (iii) an inventory of semantic parameters of constructions serves as a toolkit for generalizing over semantic properties of single constructs. A driving force behind CxS is the concept of frame proximity: a network of frames which allows one to distinguish lexically evoked frames that are related or unrelated to a frame associated with a construction.

What-clefts with adjectives in English: A corpus-based analysis

This paper aims to investigate the what-cleft construction with adjectives and establish its structural, semantic, and distributional features by adopting frame semantics and usage-based construction grammar, exploiting the data from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), and applying quantitative corpus-based methodology. To this end, the author extracts the occurrences of the What be ADJ be-construction from a large corpus of naturally-occurring data, determines its structural, semantic, distributional, and discourse-functional properties, and identifies adjectives that are strongly associated with the construction in question. The paper makes a significant contribution to a growing body of literature on the what-cleft construction by conducting a qualitative and quantitative analysis of one of its variants, a grammatical pattern with adjectives that has not been hitherto investigated in much detail.

Construction Grammar Meets Language Testing and Evaluation: Redefining & Ensuring Construct Validity

<p>Theoretical linguistics and teaching are concurrent, that is, neither can exist without the other. In other words, decisions made in (foreign) language teaching will inevitably affect how language testing and evaluation as a concept is designed and administered. For example, if a curriculum states that the English as a foreign language teachers need to make a distinction between a gerund and an infinitive in the classroom and teach it as such, then, this distinction will be tested or evaluated in one way or another. In this article, language testing and evaluation (LTE), an important component in language teaching, is combined with construction grammar (henceforth CxG), a salient theory of language with ample evidence to support its claims. Specifically, this article discusses how construct validity, test items, and rubrics can be reimagined from the perspective of usage-based construction grammar. </p>

English detached adjectival constructions with an explicit subject: A quantitative corpus-based analysis

Abstract This article reports on the quantitative corpus-based investigation into the form-function interplay of the English detached adjectival construction with an explicit subject. Taking Usage-based Construction Grammar as its theoretical framework, this paper investigates the patterns of attraction of lexical items that appear in the main slots of the grammatical construction. The data obtained substantiate the constructional status of the construction and determine its semantic and functional specification in present-day English.

Revisiting German two-way prepositions

AbstractGerman two-way prepositions have long troubled grammar writing. Unlike most other German prepositions, they occur with both accusative and dative case. Their case is difficult to predict and has been attributed to different underlying meaning construals. Recent exploratory corpus studies propose that, in addition, their case depends on multiple co-occurring contextual variables. Following this approach, this study uses multivariate regression and collostructional analysis to investigate what determines the case of two-way prepositions in a large sample of authentic language use. Based on the results, this study then attempts to provide a usage-based description of the case of two-way prepositions. Contrary to expectations, none of the proposed variables had much influence on case, suggesting that the effects observed in the literature only hold for specific contexts. Instead, the results indicated associations of accusative and dative with individual prepositions and specific lexical items in the context. Framed in terms of usage-based construction grammar, this is interpreted as item-specific constructional prototypes that emerge from typical usage patterns and, once established, determine case based on form-meaning overlap with the current context of use. In line with recent usage-based research on grammar, a first attempt is made to describe case as part of a network of associative links between constructions and lexical items.

Training flexibility in fixed expressions in non-fluent aphasia: A case series report.

Many speakers with non-fluent aphasia (NFA) are able to produce some well-formed word combinations such as 'I like it' or 'I don't know', although they may not use variations such as 'He likes it' or 'I don't know that person'. This suggests that these utterances represent fixed forms. This case series investigation explored the impact of a novel intervention aimed at enhancing the connected speech of individuals with NFA. The intervention, motivated by usage-based principles, involved filling open slots in semi-fixed sentence frames. Five participants with NFA completed a 6-week intervention programme. The intervention trained participants to insert a range of different lexical items into the open slots of high-frequency phrases such as 'I like it' to enable more productive sentences (e.g., 'they like flowers'). The outcomes and acceptability were examined: The primary outcome measure focused on changes in connected narrative, and the availability of trained constructions (e.g., 'I like it') was explored through a story completion test. Two baseline measures of behaviour were taken prior to intervention, and outcomes assessed immediately after intervention and at a 6-week maintenance assessment. A pre-/post-treatment comparison of connected speech measures showed evidence of enhanced connected speech for two of the five participants (P2 and P5). An analysis of story completion test scores revealed positive change for two participants (P1 and P2). Findings were mixed with regard to baseline stability of outcome measures and post-intervention stability of language changes. The intervention was acceptable to all participants. While this pilot study yielded promising findings with regard to the intervention's acceptability and increased connected speech for some participants, the findings were mixed across the sample of five participants. This research helps inform hypotheses and selection criteria for future studies. What is already known on the subject Despite difficulties producing grammatically correct sentences, many speakers with aphasia are able to produce well-formed utterances, often representing familiar expressions such as 'I don't know' and 'I like it'. In usage-based Construction Grammar (CxG) theories, familiar utterances are assumed to be processed as one unit and are therefore more resilient to brain damage. CxG assumes that residual utterances such as 'I like it' map onto more abstract sentence frames (e.g., '[REFERENT] like-TENSE [THING]'). What this paper adds to existing knowledge Sentence therapy, informed by CxG principles, is novel in aphasiology, and usage-based interventions need to be evaluated with regard to their impact on language processing at the connected speech level. This case series report explores the acceptability and outcomes of a usage-based sentence therapy. We also introduce and explore the value of an automated, frequency-based analysis tool for evaluating connected speech outcomes in aphasia therapy. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? The findings inform further development of usage-based aphasia interventions targeting word combinations.

Trends and Recent Change in the Syntactic Distribution of Degree Modifiers: Implications for a Usage-based Theory of Word Classes

This paper examines the syntactic distribution of degree modifiers in both spoken and written English. The results of the empirical case studies show that degree modifiers, both amplifiers (e.g., very, extremely) and downtoners (e.g., quite, pretty), are generally more often used in predication than in attribution, a result that is in line with earlier observations of the distribution of individual modifiers. This synchronic trend is also evident in diachronic developments: corpus data show that the recent frequency increase of intensifying this and that has largely taken place in predication, and the adjectivization of a class of -ed participles (e.g., interested, scared) can also be connected to their frequent co-occurrence with degree modifiers after be. Finally, the connection between degree modifiers and predicative usage has recently become stronger for a subset of modifiers (e.g., so, this, that) due to the decline of the “Big Mess” construction (e.g., so good an idea). From a theoretical perspective, this paper promotes a dynamic, usage-based model of word classes where frequency of use plays a role in categorization. The data investigated in the article are mainly discussed from the perspective of usage-based Construction Grammar, and the theoretical implications of the findings are examined both in light of a more traditional Construction Grammar network model of language and some recent ideas of overlapping word classes.

What is an alternation?

AbstractAn important subset of the empirical research conducted within usage-based construction grammar is formed by alternation studies. Still, it is not always clear what exactly qualifies as an alternation. This paper takes stock of six possible ways of defining an alternation. Three of these definitions are argued to be particularly suitable for the research program of usage-based construction grammar. The paper zooms in on those and discusses their practical consequences and (dis)advantages.

SEMIPRODUTIVIDADE CONSTRUCIONAL

A literatura em Gramática de Construções Baseada no Uso – entendida aqui como a vertente cognitivo-funcional da Gramática de Construções – menciona três mecanismos possíveis para explicar como o falante evita a supergeneralização: o conhecimento gramatical, o enraizamento e o bloqueio estatístico. Este artigo busca avaliar a realidade psicológica de cada um desses mecanismos a partir da análise de uma construção específica do português brasileiro: a Construção de Complementação Sentencial (por exemplo, “Ela disse que sairia”). Após uma análise baseada em corpus, da qual derivamos três hipóteses relativas à representação mental da construção em pauta, relatamos um experimento de produção induzida. Os resultados confirmam a atuação de um mecanismo baseado em conhecimento gramaticale de um mecanismo baseado em conhecimento estatístico em termos de enraizamento. Por outro lado, não foi possível comprovar a atuação do bloqueio estatístico.

Interview with Florent Perek

Professor Florent Perek has a PhD in English and General Linguistics (University of Freiburg) and is a Lecturer in Cognitive Linguistics at the Department of English Language and Applied Linguistics at University of Birmingham, UK. Professor Perek is the author of several articles in international peer-reviewed journals and has, among his most important publications, the 2015 book, Argument structure in usage-based construction grammar: experimental and corpus-based perspectives, edited by John Benjamins.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ENTREVISTA COM FLORENT PEREKFlorent Perek é Doutor em Inglês e Linguística Geral (Universidade de Freiburg, Alemanha) e Professor da área de Linguística Cognitiva do Departamento de Língua Inglesa e Linguística Aplicada na Universidade de Birmingham, no Reino Unido. Perek é autor de uma série de artigos em revistas renomadas internacionalmente e tem, entre suas importantes publicações, seu livro de 2015, o qual foi intitulado Estrutura argumental na gramática de construções baseada no uso: perspectivas experimental e baseada em corpus e foi editado pela John Benjamins.---Original em inglês.

As construções comparativas assimilativas com 'tipo' e 'igual' à luz da gramática de construções baseada no uso

Este artigo busca descrever e analisar uma das possibilidades de materialização do processo cognitivo da comparação: a construção comparativa assimilativa (CCA), especialmente quando instanciada pelos conectores tipo e igual, no Português do Brasil, com base nos estudos de Thompson (2019). O aporte teórico central desta investigação baseia-se nos preceitos da Gramática de Construções Baseada no Uso (GOLDBERG, 1995, 2006; DIESSEL, 2015), modelo teórico que tem como premissa básica a ideia de que a experiência de uso da língua afeta suas representações cognitivas. Para fins de descrição semântica, recorremos, também, à Semântica de Frames. Como fonte para nossa coleta de dados de usos linguísticos reais, utilizamos três diferentes corpora: o Corpus Oral Brasil, o Corpus Brasileiro e o Corpus do Português. Nossa análise evidenciou que as CCA instanciadas pelos conetores tipo e igual verdadeiramente constituem casos de materialização do processo de comparação. Além disso, manifestam-se no nível sintagmático, sentencial e intersentencial, contrariando a descrição dos estudos tradicionais em geral.Palavras-chave: Construções comparativas assimilativas; tipo; igual; Gramática de Construções Baseada no Uso.

A semântica da construção ditransitiva em perspectiva diacrônica

Este artigo tem como foco a construção ditransitiva do português do Brasil, com o objetivo de examinar sua evolução semântica. Para tanto, compara manifestações dessa construção nos séculos XVIII e XX a fim de investigar se houve mudança em sua morfossintaxe e na classe semântica dos verbos que a instanciam. A abordagem teórica conjuga pressupostos e categorias analíticas da Linguística Funcional Centrada no Uso (FURTADO DA CUNHA, M. A.; BISPO, E. B.; SILVA, 2013a) e da Gramática de Construções (GOLDBERG, 1995; TRAUGOTT; TROUSDALE, 2013; HILPERT, 2014). Os resultados obtidos indicam que, tanto no século XVIII como no século XX, em seu sentido prototípico, a construção ditransitiva conceitualiza um evento de transferência física, em que um participante animado (Sujeito) transfere um objeto (Objeto Direto) para uma entidade humana (Objeto Indireto). Além disso, não foi constatada mudança na classe semântica dos verbos que podem instanciar extensões do sentido central dessa construção.

Quem cala consente: abordagem funcional-construcionista de relativas sem antecedente introduzidas por 'quem'

Neste trabalho, investigamos o uso da oração relativa sem antecedente introduzida por “quem” em adágios populares, a exemplo de “Quem casa quer casa”, considerando suas formas de organização morfossintática, padrões de estrutura argumental instanciados, aspectos semânticos, cognitivos e interacionais a ela relacionados. O estudo é de caráter quali-quantitativo e fundamenta-se teoricamente na Linguística Funcional Centrada no Uso (FURTADO DA CUNHA; BISPO, 2013) e na Gramática de Construções (GOLDBERG, 2006; TRAUGOTT; TROUSDALE, 2013). O banco de dados desta pesquisa compõe-se de 100 adágios identificados com a ajuda do site de busca Google. Os resultados mostram que a configuração morfossintática das orações que integram os adágios em estudo se relaciona a fatores semânticos (contraponto/jogo de ideias; relação causa-efeito), interacionais (inferência pragmática, inter/subjetividade) e cognitivos (projeções metafóricas e metonímicas).

Turns out is not ellipsis? A usage-based construction grammar view on reduced constructions

ABSTRACT In many theoretical approaches, structures such as Turns out , I was wrong are seen as originally being the result of ellipsis, i.e., the deletion of underlying syntactic material (cf. It turns out , I was wrong.). In contrast to this, Usage-based Construction Grammar advocates a surface-oriented view of syntax and, consequently, eschews the postulation of unexpressed, covert syntactic information. In this paper, we will provide a usage-based explanation as to how such reduced constructions can arise in the first place, namely as online constructs in the working memory. Once reduced structures appear in the input, most approaches concede that they can become conventionalized. In the second part of the paper, we test whether there is any empirical evidence for the conventionalization of the constructions at hand. For this, we draw on one of the largest corpora of spoken English (the UCLA NewsScape Library of International Television News corpus), which yields more than 28,000 relevant tokens. Analysing these data for their distributional frequency, syntactic environment as well as their emotive content (using automatic sentiment analysis), we will show that there is synchronic evidence to suggest that the two structures are two individual, yet taxonomically related constructions.

An empirical perspective on the contact between English and French: a case study on substitutive complex prepositions

AbstractHistorical language contact has generally been approached qualitatively through the examination of different linguistic and extralinguistic factors. By contrast, frequency patterns, although widely acknowledged in other linguistic fields, have not received a great deal of attention in the contact linguistics literature. This paper attempts to bridge this methodological gap through the application of an experimental procedure borrowed from the field of learner corpus research and areal linguistics. In a pilot study on the well-known case of language contact between English and French, the potential contact effects of French on English with regard to the use of substitutive complex prepositions of the PNP type are investigated, using probabilistic multifactorial modeling. The goal is to show in what ways and to what extent English conforms to French in the use of in lieu of and in place of, but also the extent to which it deviates from the Romance language, assuming from the outset that French served as the model language. This approach to historical language contact methodologically enriches an ever-growing paradigm and also illustrates empirically what has been conceptualized as frequency effects in usage-based Construction Grammar.

VIDÍŠ TÝM LEPŠIE, ČÍM BLIŽŠIE SA POZERÁŠ SLOVAK COMPARATIVE CORRELATIVE CC' CONSTRUCTIONS FROM A CONSTRUCTION GRAMMAR PERSPECTIVE

Abstract The Slovak Comparative Correlative (CC) construction has received little attention, although it is interesting regarding both its semantics and its form: As discussed in Horsch (2019), CCs are characterized by their complex symmetric (parallel change over time) and asymmetric (cause-effect) semantics, which are encoded in a biclausal structure in which each clause consists of a combination of fixed material and obligatory/optional slots. Typically, the first clause (C1) encodes a cause/protasis, and precedes the second clause (C2), which encodes an effect/apodosis: [čím bližšie sa pozeráš,]C1 [tým lepšie vidíš.]C2 ‘the closer you look, the better you see.’ However, there are also structures that retain the same meaning but in which C2 precedes C1 (often referred to as CC’): [Tým lepšie vidíš]C2 [čím bližšie sa pozeráš.]C1. ‘You see the better, the closer you look.’ Additionally, there is a variant in Slovak where the clause precedes the clause-initial element and comparative element: [Vidíš tým lepšie,]C2 [čím bližšie sa pozeráš.]C1. Embedded in a Usage-based Construction Grammar approach, this is the first large-scale corpus study to investigate the C2C1 order in Slovak, and how semantics influences its formal properties. It is argued that both the significantly higher amount of C1C2 order in the corpus data and the significantly higher amount of C2C1 structures in which the clause precedes the comparative element in C2 can be explained with the principle of iconicity (linguistic form is influenced by the semantics of a construction), which makes certain strings easier to process and thus leads to performance preference. From a cross-linguistic perspective, the present investigation provides evidence in support of Goldberg’s Tenet #5 (2003, p. 219), which posits that cross-linguistic generalizations can be accounted for with general cognitive constraints.

A Construction Grammar Approach to Genre

This paper describes and analyses text types and genres from a Construction Grammar point of view. In doing so, it pursues a twofold aim: on the one hand, it seeks to offer a new and cognitively motivated approach to the perception and production of different genres, including their mental entrenchment and the development of new genre types. On the other hand, it wants to determine to what extent the principles of Construction Grammar can be used at a linguistic macro-level, beyond the single sentence. It will be argued that a Construction Grammar approach, though probably closely connected to the textlinguistic traditions of the 1970s and 1980s, is particularly suited to provide a fresh look at the question of genre since it does not per se prioritize language, discourse, or cognition as determining factors. Rather, a usage-based Construction Grammar approach starts with the phenomena and data and seeks to account for these within a unified formal framework. This framework is strictly non-modular and allows for the inclusion of all factors necessary to account for the observed phenomena, including those from cognition, language, and discourse, if need be. Consequently, this approach can also be described as fully integrative with respect to these three fields.

Revisiting Hudson’s (1992) OO = O2 hypothesis: a usage-based variationist approach to the English ditransitive construction

In an important paper on the English “double-object”, or ditransitive, construction, Richard Hudson proposes a hypothesis that conflates the ditransitive direct object, or O2, and the monotransitive direct object, or OO, into the same syntactic functional category. While making important departures from a number of unfortunate assumptions within mainstream formal theories of linguistics at the time, the OO = O2 hypothesis itself is problematic in the perspective of contemporary cognitive linguistics. This paper addresses the hypothesis from the perspective of usage-based construction grammar. Applying simple collexeme analysis and multifactorial heatmap analysis to instances of OOs and O2s in ICE-GB, this paper shows that the usage-patterns of both are far too complex, displaying cross-register variation, for the OO = O2 hypothesis to be tenable. The findings provide support for a usage-based variationist account in defining syntactic functional categories.