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Usage-based Theory and Exemplar Representations of Constructions
Abstract
This chapter outlines a view of Construction Grammar in which the mental grammar of speakers is shaped by the repeated exposure to specific utterances, and in which domain-general cognitive processes such as categorization and cross-modal association play a crucial role in the entrenchment of constructions. Under this view, all linguistic knowledge is viewed as emergent and constantly changing. The chapter emphasizes that the process of chunking along with categorization leads to the creation of constructions. It also provides semantic/pragmatic and phonetic arguments for exemplar representation and a discussion of the role of type and token frequency in determining the structure of the schematic slots in constructions, as well as the productivity of constructions.
... This paper addresses Miller's (2000) and Brown and Miller's (2017) hypothesis that the adverbs just, (n)ever and yet are becoming markers of perfect meaning in spoken English, and this at the expense of weakening semantically and reducing the use of the have + past participle periphrasis. The hypothesis is tested in eight varieties of Present-Day English from the perspective of Usage Based Theory (Bybee 2006(Bybee , 2011(Bybee , 2013 and with a corpus-based, onomasiological methodology. The results confirm the hypothesis only partially; crucially, data reveal that in order to model morphosyntactic variation in a rigorous way we need to adopt a register perspective such as that used by Biber and associates (e.g. ...
... The theoretical framework adopted in this study is Usage Based Theory (UBT, see Bybee 2006Bybee , 2011Bybee , 2013, the fundamental tenet of which is that language use in real social and historical contexts models the mental grammar of speakers through cognitive processes such as the entrenchment 3 of exemplar categorization and schema formation (cf. also Fischer 2007: 324). Such language use can be captured by means of corpus-based studies, like the present one, which follows a variationist design to investigate proportional preferences in different varieties and registers (see, e.g., ). ...
... 2 Also at the macro-level, it would be interesting to explore sociolinguistic variables (gender, age, education), but only with the second generation of ICE corpora, such as ICE Nigeria, can results be easily contextualized here; the importance of metadata and the limitations of most ICE corpora in this respect are discussed in Hundt (2015), Schaub (2016) and Seoane (forthcoming). 3 The term entrenchment is used here as understood in UBT theory (cf. Bybee 2006Bybee , 2011Bybee , 2013. It refers to the integration of a particular linguistic element (construction, lexical item, phonological feature) in the mental grammar of speakers. ...
This paper addresses Miller’s (2000) and Brown and Miller’s (2017) hypothesis that the adverbs just, (n)ever and yet are becoming markers of perfect meaning in spoken English, and this at the expense of weakening semantically and reducing the use of the have + past participle periphrasis. The hypothesis is tested in eight varieties of Present-Day English from the perspective of Usage Based Theory (Bybee 2006, 2011, 2013) and with a corpus-based, onomasiological methodology. The results confirm the hypothesis only partially; crucially, data reveal that in order to model morphosyntactic variation in a rigorous way we need to adopt a register perspective such as that used by Biber and associates (e.g. Biber and Gray 2016), who demonstrate that language variation and change is mediated by register variation.
... A good deal of research demonstrates that words are stored with many connections to other words in the mental lexicon based on features such as their phonetic and semantic similarity and their collocational partners (e.g. Bybee 2001Bybee , 2006Bybee , 2010Bybee , 2013. In order to test the idea that semantic relationships are involved in gender processing, the influence of biological gender was evaluated. ...
... The bulk of the remainder of the paper will consider gender processing as a usagebased phenomenon. Accordingly, words are stored with connections to other words that have similar semantic, phonological, morphological, and orthographic characteristics, among others (Bybee 2001(Bybee , 2006(Bybee , 2013. They are also stored along with the connections made as part of a speaker's life experiences such as who used a particular word, the social context it appeared in, any emotional reactions to the word, etc. Stored exemplars are not limited to words, but include phrases as well (Hay & Bresnan 2006). ...
... They are also stored along with the connections made as part of a speaker's life experiences such as who used a particular word, the social context it appeared in, any emotional reactions to the word, etc. Stored exemplars are not limited to words, but include phrases as well (Hay & Bresnan 2006). Connections are strengthened by repeated use which accounts for frequency effects in language processing (Bybee 2001(Bybee , 2006(Bybee , 2013. They are also fortified by gang effects. ...
In an experiment, Spanish speakers assigned gender to nouns. Some nouns had biological referents. Others had a mismatch between their gender and their final phones (e.g. problema ). Nouns with biological referents and nouns with matching gender and phonology were responded to faster suggesting that gender does not depend solely on a noun’s gender. Gender was also assigned to dual-gendered nouns, which are feminine nouns that take the masculine article el (e.g. agua ). Most participants assigned them masculine gender.
Dual-gendered nouns are often preceded by masculine modifiers which is due to analogy to el . The idea is explored that the gender of el , along with all modifiers a noun has been experienced with, explains gender assignment. Computational simulations were carried out to test this using exemplar, naive Bayes, and decision tree algorithms. They made accurate predictions without referencing the noun’s gender. In dual-gendered nouns, a shift towards preposed masculine modifiers was observed. A simulation predicted the gender of bare dual-gendered nouns which mirrored the masculine gender the experimental participants provided. These results suggest a usage-based model in which a noun’s gender is determined by the modifiers it has been experienced with.
... The theoretical framework of this study borrows from usage-based theories of acquisition as well as constructivist approaches to language (Bybee, 1985(Bybee, , 2013Goldberg, 2006;Tomasello, 2009). The usage-based theory of language acquisition (Tomasello, 2009) is a fairly recent theory used to account for the way young children acquire language, op-posed to the Chomskian, or formalist approach to language acquisition (Chomsky, 1980). ...
... A structure that is substantially provided in the input will be easier to learn, i.e., a structure to which the child is frequently exposed will be easier to acquire than one they have seldom been exposed to. Any linguistic structure has a type frequency and a token frequency that determine its lexical strength, which in turn determines the ability of the child to produce the target structure (Tomasello, 2009;Bybee, 1985Bybee, , 2013. Tokenfrequency refers to the frequency of appearance of a given item in the input, treated as a lexical whole by the child and stored as such in their lexicon. ...
... Tokenfrequency refers to the frequency of appearance of a given item in the input, treated as a lexical whole by the child and stored as such in their lexicon. Type frequency refers to the frequency of appearance of a given linguistic structure, stored as a [lexical base [morpheme]] (Tomasello, 2009;Paradis et al., 2007;Bybee, 2013). A given linguistic item thus has a type frequency and a token frequency that reflect the way in which it is stored in the child's lexicon. ...
This dissertation focuses on the acquisition of past verb forms in French and in English by two French monolingual children filmed between 1;06 and 4;05 and two French-English bilingual children filmed between 2;06 and 3;07 in spontaneous interaction with their caretakers. I also analyze the productions of six bilingual children aged from 3;11 to 7;08 and recorded during two family dinners and narrative sessions in French and in English. This work is set within usage-based theories, which present language acquisition as driven by language exposure and use. I investigate the interactions between past morphology and lexical aspect in the narrative and spontaneous productions of the children and in their input, to test the predictions of the prototype account of the Aspect Hypothesis. The adults’ use of past verb forms in the longitudinal corpora was thus confronted to the children’s use of tense-aspect morphology. The first two parts present the theoretical framework, the method and the corpora used. I then show that the children recorded longitudinally first produced past morphology predominantly with the types of predicates they were used with most frequently in their input. All children used these forms with restricted temporal functions. Language dominance affected the bilingual children’s use of past verb forms in narrative and spontaneous discourse, suggesting that their acquisition highly depends on the quantity of input received by children in their two languages. Task-type effects were identified in the children’s use of past verb forms in their narrative productions, where they used past morphology to serve less complex functions in the more complex tasks.
... Å undersøke alle sider ved språklig kompleksitet er det ikke rom for innenfor rammene av en avhandling, og jeg har derfor snevret problemstillingen inn gjennom følgende forskningsspørsmål: Hvordan kan kompleksitet og kompleksitetsutvikling i substantivfrasen som konstruksjon analyseres og beskrives i innlaererspråk? Jeg har altså valgt å bruke en konstruksjonsgrammatisk inngang til undersøkelsen (Bybee, 2008(Bybee, , 2013Goldberg, 1995Goldberg, , 2003Goldberg, , 2013Goldberg & Casenhiser, 2008;Hoffmann, 2013), og derfor har jeg valgt å omtale substantivfrasen som en konstruksjon, altså en substantivfrasekonstruksjon. ...
... To investigate all of the features of linguistic complexity is not possible within the scope of a dissertation, so the overarching issue has been narrowed down to the following research question: How can complexity and complexity development of the Noun Phrase as a construction be analysed and described in learner language? I have chosen a construction grammar approach to this investigation (Bybee, 2008(Bybee, , 2013Goldberg, 1995Goldberg, , 2003Goldberg, , 2013Goldberg & Casenhiser, 2008;Hoffmann, 2013), and as a result of this choice I refer to the Noun Phrase as a construction: a Noun Phrase Construction. ...
... En konstruksjon kan også vaere et ord, et grammatisk morfem og det språklige elementet morfemet opptrer sammen med, eller det kan vaere flere ord som opptrer sammen med en såpass høy frekvens at de kan passere som idiomatiske uttrykk. (Bybee, 2008(Bybee, , 2013Goldberg, 2013;Hoffmann & Trousdale, 2013) Innenfor konstruksjonsgrammatikk anser man at språket består av en, i prinsippet, uendelig rekke konstruksjoner, fra lydkombinasjoner til ord, uttrykk og setninger. Konstruksjoner kan dermed identifiseres innenfor så vel som på tvers av det man i tradisjonell lingvistikk kjenner som ordklasser. ...
Learning a new language to meet one’s everyday needs, for instance in professional or educational contexts, is doubtlessly a challenging task. How this learning process is experienced and managed, and what can hinder or facilitate it, are questions that researchers and practitioners are concerned with. These overarching issues are addressed in this dissertation: How do second language learners of Norwegian demonstrate and develop linguistic complexity? To investigate all of the features of linguistic complexity is not possible within the scope of a dissertation, so the overarching issue has been narrowed down to the following research question: How can complexity and complexity development of the Noun Phrase as a construction be analysed and described in learner language? I have chosen a construction grammar approach to this investigation (Bybee, 2008, 2013; Goldberg, 1995, 2003, 2013; Goldberg & Casenhiser, 2008; Hoffmann, 2013), and as a result of this choice I refer to the Noun Phrase as a construction: a Noun Phrase Construction. In order to conduct this investigation, a corpus of texts was collected consisting of answers to the task ‘written production’ at the Test of Norwegian (no.: Norskprøven) for adult second language learners, from the summer of 2016. The corpus contains 60 texts (N1-N60), distributed equally across the four CEFR reference levels A1, A2, B1 and B2. Additionally, five texts written by L1 users of Norwegian were collected and used as a control corpus (N61-N65). The corpus contains 23,116 words. A total of 4,801 occurrences of the Noun Phrase Construction were identified (NP-construction): 2,269 consisted of a single noun, and 2,532 consisted of a noun and one or more modifiers. The corpus, with tags, counts and classifications, as well as the significance tests, are available by request: golin.nilsen@uis.no or golin@norsk2.no. Ten considerations that were made in connection with marking the corpus are summarized in the dissertation’s methodical chapter (chapter 3) and can be found in their entirety in appendix 4. The results of the significance tests are presented in appendix 5, and 20 systematized overviews of selected occurrences can be found in appendix 6. In order to study learner development, one needs a measurement tool that accounts for stages of proficiency. In the dissertation, the reference levels A1, A2, B1 and B2, according to how they are described in A Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Council of Europe, 2001), hereafter CEFR, served as the independent variables for the comparison. The research design can be regarded as a corpus linguistic study, even though the corpus size is relatively modest. I have investigated how NP-constructions are used at each reference level (chapter 6), and I have identified tendencies and development patterns across the four reference levels (chapters 7 and 8). At a superordinate level, the NP-Construction can be modelled as such: [(_) + N + (_)]. In addition to this abstraction level, two further levels of analysis or development can be identified. I have chosen to call them the systematization level and the experience level. Following the dissertation’s analyses, results, and findings, I have proposed to connect these three levels in what I have called a construction grammar learning pyramid. The analyses, results and findings show that learners activate linguistic resources in a creative way as they navigate, consciously or unconsciously, between the experience level, the systematization level and the abstraction level in their learning process. The construction grammar learning pyramid shows how constructions at the experience level gradually establish foundations for constructions at the systematization level that eventually can be abstracted in linguistic structures at the abstraction level. The pyramid illustrates how, within a construction grammar approach, exemplars can create systems that then shape frames that new constructions or exemplars of constructions can be created within. The analyses in the dissertation contribute to demonstrating that the development represented by the pyramid is neither one-dimensional nor linear, but rather is constituted by many parallel developments that build on one another, and that, in some cases, appear to predetermine or assume one other. When one developmental trait seems to predetermine another trait, the development is called emergentistic (Ellis, 2006). Through my analyses, I have found examples of such traits, and I will present them in chapters 7 and 8. In my analyses of complexity and complexity development, the systematization level has been especially important. The NP- construction at this level can be presented as such: [(definer) + (modifier)+ N + (definer) + (modifier)]. This construction offers 15 possible combinations: [definer + N] as in [en gutt] and [tre gutter], [describer + N] as in [God helg!] and [fine hus] etc. An important finding in the dissertation is that the development of which possible combinations are utilised is not arbitrary, but rather seems to follow a systematic, emergentistic complexity development. The development seems to persist until the language learners reach the B2-level. The eight combinations that are used correspond with the combinations used in the control corpus. The eight combinations are: [definer + N]: litt vann [describer + N]: god lønn [N + definer]: drømmen min [N + describer]: pølse med brød [definer + describer + N]: en uheldig familie [definer + N + describer]: et liv som er verdt å leve [describer + N + describer]: positivt svar fra dere [definer + describer + N + describer]: en liten gutt som leker med en katt In order to operationalize the investigation of complexity and complexity development at the systematization level, I have developed a series of measurements for complexity analyses. These measurements have commonalities with previous research on complexity in learner language (Bulté & Housen, 2012). I have chosen to sort them in the following main groups: length complexity, morphological complexity, syntactic complexity, content complexity and referential complexity. The complexity measurements make possible an exploratory approach to the data analysis, and they are therefore well suited to identifying how complexity manifests both within and across the reference levels A1, A2, B1 and B2. At the same time, I have investigated the relation between complexity and accuracy, in line with research within the CAF-tradition (complexity, accuracy and fluency) (Alanen et al., 2010; Bulté & Housen, 2012; Housen & Kuiken, 2009; Lambert & Kormos, 2014). Research within the CAF-tradition has pointed out that language proficiency in the three dimensions do not necessarily develop in tandem: it can be a procedural challenge for a learner to work, consciously or unconsciously, with the complexity dimension and the accuracy dimension at the same time. My analyses support this claim. NP-constructions at the experience level are also examined in the dissertation. The reason for naming the most basic level in the learning pyramid the experience level is that constructions at this level seem to be conceived as (more or less) singular entities that the learner, consciously or unconsciously, gradually systemizes. The transition between the experience level and the systematization level can therefore be perceived (for the learner as well for the teacher) as ever-changing and unstructured. For the purpose of investigating whether this transition really is «ever-changing and unstructured», it is essential not only to focus on the systematization level, but also the experience level. An investigation with such a focus can provide valuable insight into how the transition between experience and systematization manifests, and what characterizes it. I investigate the development of six constructions at the experience level in chapter 8 of the dissertation. These constructions can be presented as such: Two part-quantitative constructions: [number + X-er] and [part- quantifier + X-er] Two possessive constructions: [possessive + X] og [X-en/-a/-et/-ene+ possessive] Double determiner definitt construction: [den/det/de + adjective + X- en/-a/-et/-ene] NP-Constructions with a that-clause as a postmodifying determiner: [X som (gjør) Y] Since the NP-construction is the main topic of the dissertation, all of the six investigated constructions are NP-constructions, which means that X in these constructions will always consist of a noun. Even though the constructions are located at the experience level of the construction grammar learning pyramid, they hold the potential for complexity. For instance, a premodifier (an adjective) can be included in a possessive construction: [min gode venn], or a postmodifying prepositional phrase can be included in a part-quantitative construction: [mange pølser med brød]. How learners use (or do not use) this potential for complexity, is also investigated. Overall, the dissertation’s investigations and analyses have demonstrated that the development of the NP-construction’s complexity is emergen- tistic, creative and systematic. The findings have also indicated how this development takes place. Thus, studies of complexity and complexity development that use construction grammar as their point of departure can offer important insights into the development and nature of language learning and can consequently contribute to developing didactic practices within second language teaching.
... From a usagebased perspective, the role of phonesthemes in organising the mental lexicon is likely to carry over into the institutionalised lexicon. According to language change the ories, change is affected by the usage based combinatorial behaviour of words in discourse (Bybee 2013). The assumption is that the phonesthetic attraction (Bolinger 1965) via analog ical remodelling or remotivation over time is likely to affect semantic change in the lexicon itself. ...
... Frequency affects entrenchment and therefore storage pathways in the mental lexicon. The more frequent a lexeme, the more likely it is to be selectively preferred by a speaker (Bybee 2013 ...
Phonesthemes (Firth 1930) are sublexical constructions that have an effect on the lexicogram matical continuum: they are recurring formmeaning associations that occur more often than by chance but not systematically (Abramova/Fernandez/Sangati 2013). Phonesthemes have been shown (Bergen 2004) to affect psycholinguistic language processing; they organise the mental lexicon. Phonesthemes appear over time to emerge as driven by language use as indexical rather than purely iconic constructions in the lexicon (Smith 2016; Bergen 2004; Flaksman 2020). Phonesthemes are acknowledged in construction morphology (Audring/Booij/Jackendoff 2017) as motivational schemas. Some phonesthemes also tend to have lexicographic acknowledgment, as shown by etymologist Liberman (2010), although this relevance and cohesion appears to be highly variable as we will show in this paper. This paper seeks to compare two phonesthemes in a combined lexicographic and corpus study with a view to testing the results obtained. Firstly, following Smith (2016) which identified 11 semantic categories of fl words in the OED, we analyse the OED entries for 245 sw monomorphemes with a view to carrying out a key word analysis and a semantic trait analysis. The 245 monomorphemes have a total of 469 senses out of which 330 can be classified into 18 recurring semantic traits in Table 1.
... Usage-based approaches (Behrens 2009, Bybee 2013, Langacker 2008 perceive language as being acquired through previous experiences of language use, with cognitive properties interworking simultaneously to handle input from the out-side world. Each linguistic token not only carries information about the formfunction relationship but also transfers the token's contextual/social environment. ...
... In this process of language acquisition, relative frequency and distributional property play key roles in shaping a language user's perception of language (Bybee 2013, Ellis 2002, Klein & Manning 2005, Tomasello 2000, 2003. To illustrate, Ellis and Ferreira-Junior (2009b) showed that the order of the frequency of English verbs in the constructions of L2 learners was broadly matched with that of L1 users in L2 acquisition studies. ...
How language learners of Korean acquire knowledge on postpositions has been a long-standing research question in Korean language pedagogy due to their polysemous nature. The present study investigates the nature of input involving the locative function of the postposition - ey , one of the representative polysemous postpositions in Korean, through the frequency of its occurrence, types of verbs co-occurring with - ey , and keyness analysis. Sejong written and spoken corpora and two types of textbooks (eight volumes for each type: two volumes for four proficiency levels) for language learners of Korean are analyzed. Results show that iss- ‘to be/exist’ predominantly occurred with locative - ey in the Sejong corpora and a few verbs occupied a large proportion of the total usage. On the other hand, the most frequent verb was ka- ‘to go’ in all proficiency levels of the textbooks, with the exception of the fourth level of the second-type textbook. This suggests that, while the Sejong usage highlights its existential role, - ey for indicating destination is widely emphasized in the textbooks. Since the purpose of language learning is to learn the structure and usage of the target language, this study’s findings can offer guidance in setting and building pedagogical goals and directions.
... Grammar approaches (cf., e.g., Boas 2021; Bybee 2006Bybee , 2013Croft 2001;Goldberg 2003Goldberg , 2006Lakoff 1987) maintain that the mental constructicon of speakers is shaped by the repeated exposure to specific utterances (so-called 'constructs') and that domain-general cognitive processes such as categorization, chunking or cross-modal association play a crucial role in the mental entrenchment of constructions. This basically presupposes an exemplarbased view (Bybee 2013) that holds that is each individual token of usage that we are exposed to leaves a trace in long-term memory repository of constructions, the constructicon. ...
... Grammar approaches (cf., e.g., Boas 2021; Bybee 2006Bybee , 2013Croft 2001;Goldberg 2003Goldberg , 2006Lakoff 1987) maintain that the mental constructicon of speakers is shaped by the repeated exposure to specific utterances (so-called 'constructs') and that domain-general cognitive processes such as categorization, chunking or cross-modal association play a crucial role in the mental entrenchment of constructions. This basically presupposes an exemplarbased view (Bybee 2013) that holds that is each individual token of usage that we are exposed to leaves a trace in long-term memory repository of constructions, the constructicon. At the same time, as with all other types of experiential knowledge, construction memory traces are subject to decay unless they get reactivated by future usage (cf. ...
Humans are an incredibly creative species – our minds have evolved to a degree that has enabled us to think original thoughts and come up with novel solutions to a great number of problems. One domain of human cognition that has recently received considerable attention is linguistic creativity. The present contribution will take a closer look at how Construction Grammar can account for various types of verbal creativity. In addition to this, it will also explore the implications of creative utterances for Construction Grammar as a mental theory of language.
... En lien avec ce premier enjeu, celui de dessiner une hiérarchie des structures à DMs dans des réseaux organisés à la manière des modèles théoriques constructionnistes (Bybee 2013 ;Hoffmann & Trousdale 2013) se présente comme une piste d'exploration importante de cette première étape méthodologique. En effet, l'étiquette de Double Modal implique l'existence d'un schéma syntaxique abstrait, qui procède d'analogismes et d'extensions productives à partir d'exemplaires (exemplars) dans une approche « fondée sur l'usage » (usage-based ; Boas 2013 ; Hoffmann 2013). ...
... D'un autre côté, les méthodes expérimentales de récolte de jugements d'acceptabilité, utilisées depuis longtemps en dialectologie, ont également beaucoup évolué et permettent à présent d'avoir des résultats précis sur le degré d'ancrage d'une construction dans une grammaire dialectale. Par ailleurs, ces nouveaux moyens de déployer une approche convergente ouvrent aussi la perspective d'une analyse théorique qui soit basée sur l'usage (usage-based) et qui pourrait peut-être permettre d'intégrer l'étude de la variation syntaxique restreinte dans un cadre autre que génératif ; nous pensons au cadre cognitif, notamment constructionniste, où l'étude de la syntaxe ainsi que la variation avance à grands pas (Bybee 2013 ...
... In spite of some claims about regional dissociation between lexico-semantic and syntactic/combinatorial processing based on this and other paradigms(e.g., Dapretto and Bookheimer, 1999;Embick et al., 2000;Friederici et al., 2000;Kuperberg et al., 2000;see Fedorenko et al., 2020 for a recent review of this literature), studies that rely on robust individual-subject analyses have shown that these two aspects of language processing do not dissociate: all areas of the language network show a profile whereby the response is strongest to sentences, lower to lists of words and Jabberwocky sentences, and lowest to lists of nonwords (e.g., Fedorenko et al., 2010;Bedny et al., 2011;Shain et al., 2021;see Dick et al., 2001 for early arguments against the dissociation between lexical and syntactic processing). This ubiquitous sensitivity to both word meanings and syntactic structure building aligns with studies that have reported robust sensitivity to structure building across all parts of the language network (Blank et al., 2016;Fedorenko et al., 2020;Shain, Blank et al., 2020;Shain et al. 2022a) and supports views of language whereby sentence structure building is deeply intertwined with the processing of word meanings (e.g., Bybee, 1999Bybee, , 2013Goldberg, 2003;Jackendoff, 2007;Arnon and Snider, 2010;Jackendoff and Audring, 2020). ...
A left-lateralized network of frontal and temporal brain regions is specialized for language processing-spoken, written, or signed. Different regions of this 'language network' have all been shown to be sensitive to various forms of linguistic information, from combinatorial sentence structure to word meanings, to sub-lexical regularities. However, whether neural computations are the same across and within these different brain regions remains debated. Here, we examine responses during language processing recorded intracranially in patients with intractable epilepsy. Across two datasets (Dataset 1: n=6 participants, m=177 language-responsive electrodes; Dataset 2: n=16 participants, m=362 language-responsive electrodes), we clustered language-responsive electrodes and found three distinct response profiles, with differences in response magnitude between linguistic conditions (e.g., sentences vs. lists of words), different temporal dynamics over the course of the stimulus, and different degrees of stimulus locking. We argue that these profiles correspond to different temporal receptive windows that vary in size between sub-lexical units and multi-word sequences. These results demonstrate the functional heterogeneity of neural responses in the language network and highlight the diversity of neural computations that may be needed in order to extract meaning from linguistic input. Importantly, electrodes that exhibit these distinct profiles do not cluster spatially and are instead interleaved across frontal and temporal language areas, which likely made It difficult to uncover functional differences in past fMRI studies. This mosaic of neural responses across the language network suggests that all language regions have direct access to distinct response types-a property that may be crucial for the efficiency and robustness of language processing mechanisms.
... Idioms occupy the position in between these two poles, with some such as all of a sudden or once in a blue moon being fully lexically specified and others such as at/on sb's heels or by the scruff of sb's/the neck being only partially specified. Usage-based construction grammar strongly emphasizes the importance of actual frequencies of usage or occurrence (see Bybee 2013): that is, exposure to, or use of, constructions is considered to shape the linguistic system of speakers and hearers, while sufficient frequency is a decisive factor influencing the entrenchment (Langacker 1987) and the achievement of construction status of a linguistic expression. However, sufficient frequency (extreme high, medium, or low) fails to remain a completely objective parameter since "it is only a function of our state of knowledge" (Boas and Gonzálvez 2014: 3). ...
This paper aims to formulate the notion of metaphodiom and establish operational criteria for its definition by combining key insights emanating from quantitative corpus linguistics, the cognitive theory of metaphor, and a cognitive linguistic approach to idioms. To this end, the author selects boxing idioms for analysis, extracts their occurrences in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), and determines their structural, semantic, distributional, and discourse-functional properties. The paper makes a significant contribution to a growing body of literature on metaphorical idioms by systematically integrating all definitory parameters for their identification, description, and extraction from a large corpus of naturally-occurring data.
... A driving assumption of corpus-based cognitive linguistics has been that frequencies and statistical distributions in the language input critically modulate language users' mental representation and online processing of language (Blumenthal-Dramé, 2012;Divjak and Gries, 2012;Bybee, 2013;Behrens and Pfänder, 2016;Schmid, 2016). This usage-based view has been bolstered by various studies attesting to principled correlations between distributional statistics over corpora and language processing at different levels of language such as morphology, lexicon, or syntax (Ellis, 2017). ...
The question whether all languages are similarly complex is at the centre of some of the most heated debates within linguistics. These debates focus on such issues as the universality of syntactic recursion, the exceptional simplicity of creole languages, complexity trade-offs between structural levels, as well as sociolinguistic correlates of complexity profiles. Discussions concerning complexity have implications that go far beyond linguistics in the narrow sense, including e.g. the role of nature vs. nurture in human cognition and culture, or the distinction between message and noise in information theory. In consequence, debates on linguistic complexity shape our perception of human nature and variation among human populations.
In this Research Topic, we investigate the motivations driving the research on linguistic complexity. Thus, Menzerath’s law about complexity trade-offs was inspired by bottom-up empirical observations. By contrast, the claim about the universality of syntactic recursion was primarily informed by theoretical considerations. Due to its normative dimension, the notion of complexity has also served as a vehicle for advancing ideological agendas, such as characterizing speakers as more or less advanced based on perceived properties of their languages. By bringing these perspectives together, we contribute to a critical assessment of how linguistic research is motivated by both epistemic and non-epistemic goals.
... Such chunks also become associated with a meaning that is related to the entire chunk, or construction, and is not accessed and formed compositionally. Importantly, these can either be non-transparent idiomatic constructions such as kick the bucket or spill the beans, but also compositionally analyzable sequences stored as meaningful units, such as all of a sudden, here and there, or in a manner of speaking (Bybee, 2013). ...
The field of linguistics concerns itself with understanding the human capacity for language. Compositionality is a key notion in this research tradition. Compositionality refers to the notion that the meaning of a complex linguistic unit is a function of the meanings of its constituent parts. However, the question as to whether compositionality is a defining feature of human language is a matter of debate: usage-based and constructionist approaches emphasize the pervasive role of idiomaticity in language, and argue that strict compositionality is the exception rather than the rule. We review the major discussion points on compositionality from a usage-based point of view, taking both spoken and signed languages into account. In addition, we discuss theories that aim at accounting for the emergence of compositional language through processes of cultural transmission as well as the debate of whether animal communication systems exhibit compositionality. We argue for a view that emphasizes the analyzability of complex linguistic units, providing a template for accounting for the multimodal nature of human language.
... Já os dois últimos exemplos (4) e (5), com dados de predicadores que projetam um participante não agentivo que se manifesta via SN no singular, estão associados a amostras do estudo desenvolvido na terceira fase (2018)(2019)(2020)(2021)(2022). 3 Interessa-nos, nas amostras de dados com esse contorno avaliar a variação de usos entre três construções saber: Dessa forma, todas as ocorrências de (1) a (5), com predicadores simples ou complexos que projetam participante manifesto por SN no singular ou plural e SO, passam a ser contempladas a partir de uma análise (socio)construcionista (BYBEE, 2010(BYBEE, , 2013FILLMORE, 1988;GOLDBERG, , 2006LANGACKER, , 2008MACHADO VIEIRA, 2017;TRAUGOTT;WIEDEMER;MA-CHADO VIEIRA, 2018). E as construções de predicação transitiva com pronome SE começam a ser observadas considerando-se os domínios discursivos em que ocorrem e a tipologia textual neles implicados: jornalístico e acadêmico; argumentativo ou expositivo. ...
Este livro é uma homenagem aos vinte anos de desenvolvimento de pesquisas no âmbito do Projeto Predicar, coordenado, desde sua inauguração em 2002, por mim, Marcia dos Santos Machado Vieira, no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras Vernáculas na Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. É fruto de ricas (inter)ações mobilizadas dentro do Projeto Predicar, a partir dele ou além dele. Em 20 anos de atuação, o Projeto Predicar tem trilhado variados caminhos, sempre contando com a participação e a interlocução de estudantes (de iniciação científica, pesquisa de conclusão de curso de graduação, mestrado, doutorado). Tem contribuído para a formação de muitos, como docentes-pesquisadores, no que diz respeito apredicação, predicador complexo, multifuncionalidade verbal e temas correlatos ligados a processos de estabilização, variação e mudança. Tem colaborado para a descrição dos fenômenos de auxiliaridade, impersonalização, intensificação, atenuação, representação, passividade, idiomatismo, temporalidade, aspectualidade, modalidade. E, para tanto, tem articulado diferentes perfis de pesquisa empírica: observacional, de dados em corpora (orais eescritos, sincrônicos ou diacrônicos, de variedades do Português dentro e fora do Brasil); ou experimental, de dados coletados na experiência de uso ou manipulados, mas sempre tomando por base essa experiência capturada em corpora.Geralmente, desenvolve-se com base em análise comparativa (inclusive, viarecorte longitudinal) e análise multivariada e, mais recentemente, também com base em análise colostrucional. E lida com tratamento qualitativo e quantitativo de dados ou de registros de experimentos do tipo offline.
This book is a tribute to twenty years of research development within the scope of the Predicar Project, coordinated, since its inauguration in 2002, by me, Marcia dos Santos Machado Vieira, in the Postgraduate Program in Vernacular Letters at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. It is the result of rich (inter)actions mobilized within the Predicar Project, from or beyond it.
In 20 years of vitality, the Predicar Project has followed different paths, always
counting on the participation and dialogue of students (from scientific initiation,
research for the conclusion of undergraduate, master’s, doctoral courses). It has
contributed to the training of many as professors/teachers-researchers, with regard to
predication, complex predicates, verbal multifunctionality and related topics linked
to processes of stabilization, variation and change. It has contributed to the description
of the phenomena of auxiliary, impersonalization, intensification, attenuation,
representation, passivity, idiom, temporality, aspectuality, modality. And, for that, it
has articulated different profiles of empirical research: observational profile, of
corpora data (oral and written ones, synchronic or diachronic ones, of varieties of
Portuguese inside and outside Brazil); or experimental profile, from data collected in
24 Presentation the experience of use or manipulated data but always based on this experience
captured in corpora. Generally, it is developed on the basis of comparative analysis
(including longitudinal analysis) and multivariate analysis and, more recently, also on
the basis of collostructional analysis. And it deals with qualitative and quantitative
treatment of data or records of experiments of the offline type.
... Já os dois últimos exemplos (4) e (5), com dados de predicadores que projetam um participante não agentivo que se manifesta via SN no singular, estão associados a amostras do estudo desenvolvido na terceira fase (2018)(2019)(2020)(2021)(2022). 3 Interessa-nos, nas amostras de dados com esse contorno avaliar a variação de usos entre três construções saber: Dessa forma, todas as ocorrências de (1) a (5), com predicadores simples ou complexos que projetam participante manifesto por SN no singular ou plural e SO, passam a ser contempladas a partir de uma análise (socio)construcionista (BYBEE, 2010(BYBEE, , 2013FILLMORE, 1988;GOLDBERG, , 2006LANGACKER, , 2008MACHADO VIEIRA, 2017;TRAUGOTT;WIEDEMER;MA-CHADO VIEIRA, 2018). E as construções de predicação transitiva com pronome SE começam a ser observadas considerando-se os domínios discursivos em que ocorrem e a tipologia textual neles implicados: jornalístico e acadêmico; argumentativo ou expositivo. ...
... Já os dois últimos exemplos (4) e (5), com dados de predicadores que projetam um participante não agentivo que se manifesta via SN no singular, estão associados a amostras do estudo desenvolvido na terceira fase (2018)(2019)(2020)(2021)(2022). 3 Interessa-nos, nas amostras de dados com esse contorno avaliar a variação de usos entre três construções saber: Dessa forma, todas as ocorrências de (1) a (5), com predicadores simples ou complexos que projetam participante manifesto por SN no singular ou plural e SO, passam a ser contempladas a partir de uma análise (socio)construcionista (BYBEE, 2010(BYBEE, , 2013FILLMORE, 1988;GOLDBERG, 1995GOLDBERG, , 2006LANGACKER, 1987LANGACKER, , 1991LANGACKER, , 2008MACHADO VIEIRA, 2017;TRAUGOTT;WIEDEMER;MA-CHADO VIEIRA, 2018). E as construções de predicação transitiva com pronome SE começam a ser observadas considerando-se os domínios discursivos em que ocorrem e a tipologia textual neles implicados: jornalístico e acadêmico; argumentativo ou expositivo. ...
... The usage-based constructionist approaches characterize language development as the accumulation of a repertoire of conventionalized patterns that contain forms and meanings-namely, constructions (Tomasello 2003;Langacker 2008;Bybee 2013). Among various levels of constructions, this study focuses on an argument structure construction, a clause-level unit of form-meaning correspondence expressing basic ideas or propositions of human experience in a regular form-meaning alignment (Goldberg 1995;Kay and Fillmore 1999;Goldberg and Suttle 2010). ...
One of the important components in second language (L2) development is to produce clause-level units of form-meaning pairings or argument structure constructions. Based on the usage-based constructionist approach that language development entails an ability to use more diverse, more complex, and less frequent constructions, this study tested whether constructional diversity and complexity predict L2 learners' writing proficiency. Using a natural language processing tool called the Constructional Diversity Analyzer (CDA), we analyzed 3,284 essays produced by college EFL students in terms of the proportion of individual constructions and their diversity. Results from regression analyses showed that constructional diversity reliably predicted learner proficiency: essays with higher scores contained more diverse constructions. We also found that less frequent and more complex constructions made a stronger contribution to predicting the written proficiency levels. Based on the findings, we argue for the validity of constructional diversity and the use of individual constructions as reliable predictors of L2 writing proficiency and propose the application of the CDA for L2 writing assessment and instruction.
... Token frequency accounts for the number of linguistic patterns appearing in the running text. Type frequency counts the number of distinct lexical items that can be substituted into a given slot in a pattern (Bybee, 2013;Ellis, 2017). However, there is a paucity of studies on MAKE patterns from token and type frequency perspectives. ...
... Instead, they are defined as form-meaning mappings with different degrees of abstraction. They are employed through language use and become conventionalised in the speech community (Bybee, 2010(Bybee, , 2013Goldberg, 2013;Ibbotson, 2013). Constructions can, therefore, range from morphemes and single words to larger grammatical structures, and phrasal units such as idioms. ...
What we say generally follows distributional regularities, such as learning to avoid "the asleep dog" because we hear "the dog that's asleep" in its place. However, not everyone follows such regularities. We report data on English monolinguals and Spanish-English bilinguals to examine how working memory mediates variation in a-adjective usage (asleep, afraid), which, unlike typical adjectives (sleepy, frightened), tend to resist attributive use. We replicate previous work documenting this tendency in a sentence production task. Critically, for all speakers, the tendency to use a-adjectives attributively or non-attributively was modulated by individual differences in working memory. But for bilinguals, a-adjective use was additionally modulated by an interaction between working memory and category fluency in the dominant language (English), revealing an interactive role of domain-general and language-related mechanisms that enable regulation of competing (i.e. attributive and non-attributive) alternatives. These results show how bilingualism reveals fundamental variation in language use, memory, and attention.
... Na perspectiva da Linguística Funcional Centrada no Uso -LFCU, ela mantém o pressuposto de que a língua emerge, regulariza-se e se modifica a partir dos usos a que serve nas diversas situações de interação comunicativa dos seus falantes. Dessa forma, decorre da presente compreensão a ideia de que o estudo dos fenômenos linguísticos deve estar, necessariamente, ancorado nesses usos conforme são destacados pelos teóricos Barlow e Kemmer (2000) e Bybee (2010) Traugott (2003Traugott ( , 2008aTraugott ( , 2008bTraugott ( , 2010aTraugott ( , 2012, Traugott e Trousdale (2013), Bybee (2004Bybee ( , 2010Bybee ( , 2013, Croft (2001Croft ( , 2009 e Diewald (2006). Dentro dessa perspectiva, destacamos os Modelos Baseados no Uso por Goldberg (1995Goldberg ( , 2006, Bybee (1985Bybee ( , 2006Bybee ( , 2008Bybee ( , 2010, Langacker (1987) Já em relação aos perfis dos usuários e de seus seguidores do Twitter em que encontramos em suas postagens de mensagens o uso da construção conectiva agora que e coletadas para a constituição do corpus, são perfis de autoridades civis, judiciária, celebridades, políticos, artistas, atrizes, atores, jornalistas, cineastas, anônimos e de pessoas comuns da sociedade em geral. ...
Neste artigo investigamos o processo de mudança linguística de agora que em perspectiva pancrônica e através da análise dos dados registramos sua mudança linguística para conector discursivo textual. Dão suporte às nossas discussões: Traugott (2008, 2010), Heine (2002), Goldberg (1995, 2006), Boas (2013), Bybee (1985, 2006, 2008, 2010), Langacker (1987), Croft (2001), Lakoff (1987), Hopper (2008), Votre (2012), Neves (2010, 2012, 2018), Martelotta (2003, 2008, 2011), Furtado da Cunha (2012), entre outros. O resultado desse processo, analisado pela óptica da construcionalização gramatical e dos pressupostos teóricos da LFCU, em diálogo com a Gramática de Construções. Metodologicamente, adotamos a pesquisa netnográfica, método de procedimento científico de comunidades online, neste trabalho, a rede social Twitter. Selecionamos 100 amostras de agora que twittadas e que constituem o corpus deste trabalho. Elas apresentaram um deslizamento funcional em contextos específicos de comunicação em que agrega cognição, texto e uso. Com isso, as pressões pragmático-discursivas e o aumento das frequências type e token desse construto configuraram sua rota evolutiva de gramaticalização. Assim, o estudo de agora que nos contextos de uso evidenciou neonálises de forma morfossintática e significado semântico-pragmático que levaram à criação da microconstrução [agora que conector textual], um pareamento forma nova e significado novo.
... It is one of the key foundations of the theoretical framework of usage-based linguistics that language users are sensitive to the language use around them, and tend to reproduce the tendencies in this language use, even if they are not consciously aware of them (Bybee, 2010(Bybee, , 2013Diessel, 2015). This alone does not yet entail that language users are receptive to ostensive lexical biases in morphosyntactic variation. ...
This paper presents evidence from both corpora and agent-based simulation for the effect of lectal contamination. By doing so, it shows how agent-based simulation can be used as a complementary technique to corpus research in the study of language variation. Lectal contamination is an effect whereby the words that are typical of a language variety more often appear in a morphosyntactic variant typical of that same variety, even among language use from a different variety. This study looks at the Dutch partitive genitive construction, which exhibits variation between a “Netherlandic” variant with - s ending and a “Belgian” variant without - s ending. It is shown that the probability of the Belgian variant without - s increases among more “Belgian” words, in the language use of both Belgians and people from the Netherlands. Meanwhile, an agent-based simulation reveals the crucial theoretical preconditions that lead to this effect.
... In this sense, the study reflects the kind of models based on use, as developed in Construction Grammar. In Goldberg's (2013: 27) words, "these models are based on the idea that knowledge of language consists of a network of form-function correspondences at varying levels of specificity" (see, among others, Langacker 1988;Goldberg 2006;Bybee 2006Bybee , 2013. These correlations of form and function, or constructions, emerge as combinations of creativity and repetition, and their analysis requires the examination of a large corpora which represent the natural use of the language in question. ...
... 13 Usage-based approaches consider two types of frequency: (a) high token frequency that frequently leads to the entrenchment of phonologically filled constructions or constructs (Croft & Cruse [2004: 292ff]); and (b) high type frequency of a pattern, which leads to the storage of a more abstract construction due to the inbuilt human ability to recognise patterns and to schematise (Bybee [2013]). ...
This paper focuses on resultative constructions from a computational and corpus-based approach. We claim that the array of expressions (traditionally classed as idioms, collocations, free word combinations, etc.) that are used to convey a person’s change of mental state (typically negative) are basically instances of the same resultative construction. The first part of the study will introduce basic tenets of Construction Grammar and resultatives. Then, our corpus-based methodology will be spelled out, including a description of the two giga-token corpora used and a detailed account of our protocolised heuristic strategies and tasks. Distributional analysis of matrix slot fillers will be presented next, together with a discussion on restrictions, novel instances, and productivity. A final section will round up our study, with special attention to notions like “idiomaticity”, “productivity” and “variability” of the pairings of form and meaning analysed. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first studies based on giga-token corpora that explores idioms as integral parts of higher-order resultative constructions.
... At this early stage of our work on broad-coverage NLG, we do not have reportable results about how best to prune the candidate sentences but we do have ideas that will guide our ongoing work. For example, one branch of the linguistic theory called construction grammar focuses on frequency effects (e.g., Bybee, 2013). For NLG, frequency effects are particularly important in cases where language offers many paraphrases -as for requesting an action, discussed earlier. ...
This paper describes recent progress on natural language generation (NLG) for language-endowed intelligent agents (LEIAs) developed within the OntoAgent cognitive architecture. The approach draws heavily from past work on natural language understanding in this paradigm: it uses the same knowledge bases, theory of computational linguistics, agent architecture, and methodology of developing broad-coverage capabilities over time while still supporting near-term applications.
... An explanation for this may be found in usage-based approaches to second language acquisition, which put a premium on the linguistic input that learners receive. In such an approach, experience of and exposure to language result in high-frequency, repetitive sequences of words being stored in long-term memory (Barlow & Kemmer, 2000;Bybee, 1998Bybee, , 2006Bybee, , 2013Ellis, 2002aEllis, , 2002bEllis, , 2003, which would influence learners' intuitions regarding formulaic sequences. Thus, the question arises: is it that the second language learners cited above are not sensitive to collocation, or is it that their intuitions are simply different? ...
The current study examines the perceived naturalness of lexical bundles learned from early-stage teaching materials in Japanese learners of English. Naturalness ratings of 24 native English speakers and 23 non-native speakers with Japanese as their first language were compared in relation to corpus derived frequencies from the British National Corpus (BNC) and a corpus of Japanese secondary-school English textbooks—the “Junior High School English Textbook Corpus” (JHSETC, Northbrook & Conklin, 2018). The rating scores of both groups were significantly predicted by lexical bundle frequency. However, the groups were sensitive to different metrics; the performance of native speakers was best predicted by the BNC, and that of the Japanese speakers by the JHSETC. This is taken as evidence that learner intuitions are affected by the input they receive from teaching materials, and that these intuitions may stay with learners long term.
... However, to determine whether a pattern will likely continue to be productive, Baayen (1992) recommends using potential productivity, operationalized as the number of hapaxes of a given pattern (i.e., types occurring only once in a corpus) relative to that pattern's token frequency. The general idea behind focusing on hapaxes has psycholinguistic merits: the larger the number of low frequency types (and conversely, the lower the number of high frequency types) of a given pattern relative to its overall usage, the more likely that pattern will remain (semantically) transparent and parsable, which increases the chances of novel instantiations (Bybee 2013;Hay and Baayen 2002). ...
English modal enclitics (’d and ’ll) are typically conceived of as colloquial pronunciation variants that are semantically identical to their respective full forms (would and will). Although this conception has already been challenged by Nesselhauf (2014) and Daugs (2021), who argue for the constructional status of both enclitics, the present study proposes a refinement according to which the differences between enclitics and full forms can be pinpointed to specific co-occurrence patterns. Rather than rashly postulating a general ’d-construction or an ’ll-construction, the data indicate that lower-level instances, like I’d V, we’ll V, or it would V, are very much capable of capturing the meaning differences between enclitics and full forms without recourse to higher, more abstract level. This is achieved by assessing the changes in the associative links these patterns entertain in a data-driven, bottom-up fashion. By utilizing the COHA and a variety of quantitative methods, it can be shown that, although enclitic patterns become more frequent and more varied, they remain overall still more restricted than the full forms, which promotes the emergence of ‘new’ symbolic associations. The results are integrated into current research in Diachronic Construction Grammar (Hilpert 2013) and dynamic, network-oriented models of language (Schmid 2020).
... From the usage-based construction grammar perspective, the most appropriate way of establishing the linguistic properties of a particular construction is to analyze its occurrence in a corpus. The frequency of individual language units and their sequences is considered an important property of a human language [19], determining the degree of their entrenchment in a given speech community [20]. Consequently, input data crucially influence the formation of the mental grammar of speakers. ...
The rapid development of computer software and network technologies has facilitated the intensive application of specialized statistical software not only in the traditional information technology spheres (i.e., statistics, engineering, artificial intelligence) but also in linguistics. The statistical software R is one of the most popular analytical tools for statistical processing a huge array of digitalized language data, especially in quantitative corpus linguistic studies of Western Europe and North America. This article discusses the functionality of the software package R, focusing on its advantages in performing complex statistical analyses of linguistic data in corpus-driven studies and creating linguistic classifiers in machine learning. With this in mind, a three-stage strategy of computer-statistical analysis of linguistic corpus data is elaborated: 1) data processing and preparing to be subjected to a statistical procedure, 2) utilizing statistical hypothesis testing methods (MANOVA, ANOVA) and the Tukey post-hoc test, and 3) developing a model of a linguistic classifier and analyzing its effectiveness. The strategy is implemented on 11 000 tokens of English detached nonfinite constructions with an explicit subject extracted from the BNC-BYU corpus. The statistical analysis indicates significant differences in the realization of the factors of the parameter “Part of speech of the subject”. The analyzed linguistic data are employed to build a machine model for the classification of the given constructions. Particular attention is devoted to the methodological perspectives of interdisciplinary research in the fields of linguistics and computer studies. The potential application of the elaborated case study in training undergraduate, master, and postgraduate students of Applied Linguistics is indicated. The article provides all the statistical data and codes written in the R script with comprehensive descriptions and explanations. The concluding part of the article summarizes the obtained results and highlights the issues for further research connected with the popularization of the statistical software complex R and raising the awareness of specialists in this statistical analysis system.
... The frequency of occurrence of linguistic elements and categories, such as words, clause types, morphological, syntactic, or lexical features, has played a central role in usage-based linguistics (Ellis, 2002;Granger, 2005Granger, , 2015Goldberg, 2006Goldberg, , 2013Biber and Jones, 2009;Paquot and Granger, 2012;Zeldes, 2012;Bybee, 2013;Gries, 2013Gries, , 2014Hirschmann et al., 2013;Bestgen and Granger, 2014;Gries and Ellis, 2015;Hirschmann, 2015;Diessel and Hilpert, 2016, among many others). In connectivist models of learning and acquisition, linguistic ability is modeled as the result of entrenchment of neuronal pathways through repeated exposure. ...
In this paper, we present corpus data that questions the concept of native speaker homogeneity as it is presumed in many studies using native speakers (L1) as a control group for learner data (L2), especially in corpus contexts. Usage-based research on second and foreign language acquisition often investigates quantitative differences between learners, and usually a group of native speakers serves as a control group, but often without elaborating on differences within this group to the same extent. We examine inter-personal differences using data from two well-controlled German native speaker corpora collected as control groups in the context of second and foreign language research. Our results suggest that certain linguistic aspects vary to an extent in the native speaker data that undermines general statements about quantitative expectations in L1. However, we also find differences between phenomena: while morphological and syntactic sub-classes of verbs and nouns show great variability in their distribution in native speaker writing, other, coarser categories, like parts of speech, or types of syntactic dependencies, behave more predictably and homogeneously. Our results highlight the necessity of accounting for inter-individual variance in native speakers where L1 is used as a target ideal for L2. They also raise theoretical questions concerning a) explanations for the divergence between phenomena, b) the role of frequency distributions of morphosyntactic phenomena in usage-based linguistic frameworks, and c) the notion of the individual adult native speaker as a general representative of the target language in language acquisition studies or language in general.
... There are many different Construction Grammar approaches (see Hoffmann 2017b), but the ones that have received most empirical support so far are all usage-based (Bybee 2006(Bybee , 2010(Bybee , 2013Barlow and Kemmer 2000): this approach takes seriously the role that authentic input plays for the emergence of speakers' mental grammars (see also Barðdal 2008Barðdal , 2011Croft 2001). As Croft and Barðdal have pointed out, the input that speakers are exposed to does not always automatically lead to maximally abstract mental generalizations (such as (3) and (4)), but might only lead to partly schematic and partly substantive generalizations. ...
Varieties of English are spoken all over the world from Africa to Asia, from Europe to America. In addition to its use as a foreign language, English in many of these countries is a first or second language variety that initially arose in a colonial setting. Currently, the most influential sociolinguistic model for the evolution of these 'Post-Colonial Englishes' is the Dynamic Model. In this Element, I outline how Construction Grammar, the most prominent cognitive syntactic theory, can provide a cognitive foundation for the assumptions made by the Dynamic Model. As I shall argue, Construction Grammar naturally complements the Dynamic Model and, in addition to that, a 'Constructionist Grammar Approach to the Dynamic Model' approach generates new research questions concerning the productivity of syntactic patterns across Dynamic Model phases.
This chapter presents a general discussion based on the results reported in the previous chapters within the framework of construction grammar and the usage-based language learning theory. General findings with respect to the learning of Chinese schematic idioms with young and adult speakers will be synthesised, and the specific factors involved in this complex process will be highlighted. The findings point to an emergentist model in idiom processing and comprehension. Contributions of the present research to the current literature on idiom learning and some pedagogical implications will then be elaborated. Finally, the limitations of the present research will be provided.
Why do recordings of speakers engaging in reported speech at British Prime Minister's Questions from the 1970s–80s sound so distant to us? This cutting-edge study explores how the practices of quoting have changed at parliamentary question time in light of changing conventions and an evolving media landscape. Comparing data from authentic audio and video recordings from 1978 to 1988 and from 2003 to 2013, it provides evidence for qualitative and quantitative changes at the micro level (e.g., grammaticalisation processes in the reporting clause) and in more global structures (e.g., rhetorical patterns, and activities). These analytic findings contribute to the theoretical modelling of evidentiality in English, our understanding of constructions, interaction, and change, and of PMQs as an evolving community of practice. One of the first large-scale studies of recent change in an interactional genre of English, this ground-breaking monograph offers a framework for a diachronic interactional (socio-) linguistic research programme.
Ce travail explore la variation en matière de production et de réception d’interrogatives partielles en français, et certains aspects de leur acquisition. Les phrases interrogatives partielles du français présentent une grande variété de formes et l’élément interrogatif peut notamment être après le verbe (in situ) ou avant (antéposition, accompagnée ou non d’une inversion verbe-sujet).Cette variation a été reliée à des contraintes syntaxiques, phonotactiques, pragmatiques, ou encore à des enjeux sociolinguistiques. Des théories syntaxiques établissent notamment une différence de complexité entre les formes interrogatives, qui expliquerait la production précoce générale de formes in situ par l’enfant francophone : ce type serait le moins coûteux à produire.Après l’introduction au Chapitre 1, le Chapitre 2 montre la nécessité d’enrichir les donnéesdisponibles, chez l’enfant et l’adulte, pour une vision multifactorielle du phénomène variationnel. Le besoin de considérer la variation sociolinguistique comme un outil est avancé. La concurrence de formes linguistiques permet à l’individu de construire et modifier son masque social (persona) dans l’interaction. Les enfants doivent développer cette capacité pendant leur acquisition du langage.L’approche est empirique, comme expliqué dans le Chapitre 3, sur base de données de corpus et expérimentales. Le Chapitre 4 analyse des données de français oral spontané des années 1960-2000 (projets ESLO, EPAC). En intégrant la formalité du contexte interactionnel et le caractère fondamentalement social et utilitaire du langage, les données témoignent d’une utilisation spécialisée des formes interrogatives. Les variantes ne sont pas utilisées de la même façon dans tous les contextes, et certaines sont utilisées en fonction de la stratégie argumentative de la personne qui les produit.Ces observations de corpus sont croisées et systématisées par des protocoles expérimentaux. Le Chapitre 5 présente sept expériences menées chez l’adulte. Des jugements d’acceptabilité sondent les préférences francophones en matière d’interrogatives, et nuancent la notion d’acceptabilité pour distinguer entre « bon français » et français adapté au contexte. Des tâches de matched-guise approfondissent les représentations et stéréotypes sociaux liés chez l’adulte aux différentes variantes interrogatives. Il s’en dégage un profil social type des personnes les utilisant.Le Chapitre 6 décrit deux expériences menées auprès d’enfants francophones. La première suit un protocole parallèle aux études menées chez l’adulte mais adapté à l’enfant (N=136, âge=3-11 ans). Des associations entre formes linguistiques et stéréotypes sociaux (richesse, loisirs, études) se révèlent actives dès le plus jeune âge, puis se modifient avec le développement de l’enfant. Une activité de production spontanée met ensuite les enfants dans une situation de jeux de rôles (N=68, âge=4-9 ans). Elle montre une capacité active d’adaptation au contexte dans leurs productions interrogatives. Les enfants changent très tôt leur comportement linguistique selon que l’interaction est formelle ou qu’elle est informelle, puis perfectionnent leur maîtrise de cette capacité.La confrontation des données des adultes et des enfants plaident pour un élargissement général du cadre d’analyse des interrogatives partielles et de leur acquisition. L’alternance de formes en français est régie par des considérations sociales, liées aux représentations stéréotypées des personnes qui les utilisent. Les enfants subissent l’impact dès leur plus jeune âge de ces représentations, et leurs productions précoces en sont nécessairement touchées.
This paper focuses on morpho-syntactically and semantically-pragmatically similar constructions that can be described as a family of constructions within the framework of Construction Grammar. These are described as constructional idioms in which a preposition and an adjective are lexically specified, while three slots are lexically open, with semantic restrictions. The aim is to describe these similarly behaving constructions in a two-dimensional network. Using the esTenTen18 corpus (Sketch Engine), this study intends on carrying out an in-depth analysis of the semantics restrictions of these slots paying close attention to their productivity by means of their type frequency and hapax legomena.
Interessa-nos reunir artigos de pesquisadores nacionais e internacionais sobre variação construcional e/ou sua relação com a mudança linguística (mudança construcional e mudança por construcionalização, nos termos de TRAUGOTT & TROUSDALE, 2013). Há muitas pesquisas que lidam com variação decorrente de polissemia, mas não em decorrência do mecanismo de analogia ou por conta da habilidade para construir equivalências. Convidamos os pesquisadores que estão lidando com tal potencialidade de variação na Gramática de Construções baseada no uso a submeter um artigo a este número.
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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.
The present article offers the first principled assessment of the argument structure of emotive interjections from a cognitive, constructional, and prototype-driven perspective. The evidence demonstrates that, in Polish, emotive interjections are tied to argument-structure patterns – they form constructions with (experiencer, causer, recipient, patient, theme, goal, locative, and addressee) complements which, from a categorial perspective, are most similar to arguments within the argument-adjunct continuum. Consequently, a radical view on the asyntagmatic, non-constructional, and syntax-external behavior of emotive interjections should be replaced by a more nuanced proposal: Emotive interjections – including their prototypical representative – exhibit syntactic properties that may approximate, to a greater or lesser extent, the syntax of other lexical classes traditionally viewed as syntagmatic and constructional.
The effects that one’s native language can exert on the pronunciation in one’s second language have been studied quite thoroughly. The opposite, however, that is the influence that one’s second language may have on the native productions has only been brought to the forefront of attention in the last decade or so, beginning with a series of studies authored by Charles Chang (2010 et seq.). He coined the term phonetic drift to refer to short-term changes in the pronunciation of one’s native language resulting from recent exposure to a new language. Ever since then, more and more language pairs have been investigated, with the purpose of learning which acoustic parameters, and to what extent, are subject to drift. Overall, while the phonetic data have been de-scribed, not many authors have attempted to couch their research in theoretical discussions. Phonological frameworks should, after all, be able to predict the possible drift effects.
The present thesis aims to fill this niche. Aside from the experimental part, which describes the effects of intensive phonetic training in L2 English of L1 Polish university students, it describes some of the major phonological theories, with particular focus placed on whether or not they provide any predictions about the degree of phonetic drift that we may expect to find in the speakers’ Polish productions. The starting point is the principle of equivalence classification purported by the Speech Learning Model (Flege 1995), which assumes that the source of bi-directional interaction between two languages is which categories the learners deem as equivalent in the particular language pair.
The phonetic experiment investigated the initial stop consonant (both voiced and voiceless) and vowel productions in #CV sequences in the speech of L1 Polish learners of L2 English in both real and apparent time and in two different tasks: word reading and sentence reading. The data obtained from the bilinguals were compared with a control group of functional Polish monolinguals. The results indicate that, in-deed, phonetic drift is attested in the productions of this population. In the case of L1 stop consonants, the voiceless category remained relatively unaffected, whereas the voiced series seemed susceptible to the non-native influence. When compared with the students’ L2 data, a new category for the English voiceless stops appeared to have been formed and was kept separate from the L1 Polish voiceless category. On the contrary, the voiced series in both languages seemed to have been classified as equivalent and as a result displayed a great deal of cross-linguistic interaction. In the case of L1 vowels, we observed a phonetic space expansion, with the L1 targets moving to more peripheral positions in the vowel space. These results appeared to replicated the findings obtained by the authors concerned with other language pairs.
Upon theoretical reflection, the asymmetry in the behaviour of L1 stop consonants and the expansion of the vowel space was accounted for by only one of the phonological frameworks, that is Onset Prominence (Schwartz 2016 et seq.). Not only does this representational environment predict the be degree of drift, but it also allows us to formally predict what happens at the further stages of phonetic drift, that is phonetic attrition.
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.
This study examines composite predicates (CPs) in the history of American English and uses an exemplar-based model to explain changes in the frequency of verb–noun pairings over time. Two different types of verb-nominal CPs are considered, including those like take a look , in which a light verb occurs with an abstract nominal object, and others like lose sight , with a more lexically specific verb. Using a corpus of texts written between 1820 and 2009, I track the frequency of different CPs and analyze several families of semantically related nouns that occur with the same verb (e.g. take a look , peak , etc.). Representative families are analyzed to determine the presence of highly frequent verb–noun pairings, or exemplars, that separate themselves over time. The success of exemplars is evaluated according to several factors that may shape patterns of use, including the relative size of noun families, the frequency band of tokens of each family and the distribution of tokens across types within a family. Results indicate that the two types of CPs differ with respect to the evolution and success of exemplary verb–noun pairings and indicate that frequency bands play a role while the size of the noun family and their distributional patterns do not.
Redes hierárquicas baseadas em classes semânticas são centrais à Gramática de Construções baseada no Uso. Como consequência, um desafio metodológico emerge: como identificar as classes semânticas que definem construções intermediárias de uma rede construcional? A fim de contribuir para responder a essa questão, este estudo desenvolve e aplica uma proposta metodológica à Construção de Complementação Sentencial do português brasileiro O método proposto prevê o mapeamento de construções com verbo especificado nos à luz da Teoria dos Exemplares, a postulação de categorias semânticas abstratas por meio da observação dos atributos semânticos latentes em clusters de exemplares e o emprego de Escalonamento Multidimensional para verificar a realidade psicológica da rede postulada.
Este artigo sintetiza e discute propostas da Linguística Cognitiva que sugerem a existência de níveis de metáfora conceptual. O objetivo é mostrar como esse assunto específico se desenvolveu e destacar os avanços e as lacunas explicativas na teoria existente. Apresento um retrospecto conciso dos níveis de metáfora nas obras de Lakoff e Johnson, Grady, Clausner e Croft e Cameron e, então, a abordagem multinível de Kövecses. Expressões metafóricas com o domínio fonte CONSTRUÇÃO retiradas de um corpus de discursos de posse presidencial brasileiros são usadas para exemplificar e alimentar a discussão. Observa-se que os níveis de metáfora já estavam pressupostos nas obras de Lakoff e Johnson e Grady. Clausner e Croft explicitamente mostraram como a metáfora varia em níveis de esquematicidade e produtividade. Cameron fez uma interpretação metateórica de níveis de metáfora. Kövecses propôs que a metáfora envolve a relação entre estruturas em quatro níveis conceptuais e sugeriu níveis de análise ontológicos e contextuais. Argumento que a questão das unidades conceptuais envolvidas na metáfora e dos níveis de análise está presente na Linguística Cognitiva desde o início dessa área. Kövecses organizou os níveis de metáfora de maneira coerente, porém, persistem imprecisões na diferença entre frames e domínios.Este artigo sintetiza e discute propostas da Linguística Cognitiva que sugerem a existência de níveis de metáfora conceptual. O objetivo é mostrar como esse assunto específico se desenvolveu e destacar os avanços e as lacunas explicativas na teoria existente. Apresento um retrospecto conciso dos níveis de metáfora nas obras de Lakoff e Johnson, Grady, Clausner e Croft e Cameron e, então, a abordagem multinível de Kövecses. Expressões metafóricas com o domínio fonte CONSTRUÇÃO retiradas de um corpus de discursos de posse presidencial brasileiros são usadas para exemplificar e alimentar a discussão. Observa-se que os níveis de metáfora já estavam pressupostos nas obras de Lakoff e Johnson e Grady. Clausner e Croft explicitamente mostraram como a metáfora varia em níveis de esquematicidade e produtividade. Cameron fez uma interpretação metateórica de níveis de metáfora. Kövecses propôs que a metáfora envolve a relação entre estruturas em quatro níveis conceptuais e sugeriu níveis de análise ontológicos e contextuais. Argumento que a questão das unidades conceptuais envolvidas na metáfora e dos níveis de análise está presente na Linguística Cognitiva desde o início dessa área. Kövecses organizou os níveis de metáfora de maneira coerente, porém, persistem imprecisões na diferença entre frames e domínios.
This paper summarizes and discusses proposals in Cognitive Linguistics that suggest the existence of levels of conceptual metaphor. It aims to show the development of this particular topic and to highlight explanatory advances and gaps in the existing theory. I present a concise overview of levels of metaphor in the works of Lakoff and Johnson, Grady, Clausner and Croft, Cameron and then Kövecses's multilevel approach. Metaphorical expressions with BUILDING source domains extracted from a corpus of Brazilian inauguration speeches are used to exemplify and fuel discussion. I point out that Lakoff and Johnson's and Grady's theory already assumed the idea of levels of metaphor. Clausner and Croft explicitly showed how metaphors vary in their levels of schematicity and productivity. Cameron made a metatheoretical interpretation of levels of metaphor. Kövecses propounded that metaphor involves the relation between structures at four conceptual levels and suggested ontological and contextual levels of analysis. I argue that the issue of the conceptual units involved in metaphor and the levels of analysis has been present in Cognitive Linguistics from the outset. Kövecses organized the levels of metaphor coherently, but differences between domains and frames remain imprecise.
This paper presents findings of an exploratory study into the correlation between literal and metaphorical uses of the verb 'construir' (build) and the pattern [verb + (determiner) + noun + adjective], in which the adjective gives different directions. Based on the tenets of Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Construction Grammar, occurrences of the target item in the Brazilian Corpus were annotated for metaphoricity and resultativeness of the adjective in use. It is argued that the correlation patterns can be analysed in terms of causative and resultative constructions or resultatives only. Cases where the literal use of 'construir' (build) is followed by a resultative adjective were not found, and this match was judged impossible in Brazilian Portuguese. A case is made for further complementary studies into the interplay between constructions and metaphors.
The linguistic treatment of verbal irony 1 has more often than not focused on novel, ad hoc ironies. Research in the last decade, however, suggests that there is a considerable number of utterances that are either schematic or lexically filled and interpreted as ironic by convention. By analyzing three of these, i.e. Tell me about it, XP pro BE not ( A Michelangelo he is not ) and stand-alone insubordinate as if ( As if anyone could pronounce that ), the present paper will show that these expressions are best analyzed as constructions ( Goldberg 1995 , 2006 ). The paper will further show that the Viewpoint account of irony ( Dancygier 2017 ; Tobin & Israel 2012 ) describes the data at hand most adequately.
Comparative Correlatives (CCs) are biclausal constructions (e.g. The harder you work, the more you earn ) that have complex semantics and form. This is the first construction grammar-based corpus study to investigate Slovak CCs, based on a 500-token sample. I argue that intra-clausal word-order phenomena can be explained through processing efficiency, based on Hawkins’ principle of Early Immediate Constituents (2004), and I use covarying-collexeme analysis ( Stefanowitsch & Gries 2005 ) to provide evidence for the existence of meso-constructions. The findings of this study contribute to construction grammar’s “aspirations toward universal applicability” ( Fried 2017 : 249), proving that the theory is also suitable for analysis of syntactic patterns in Slavic languages.
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