Entrenchment and the psychology of language learning. How we reorganize and adapt linguistic knowledge
Abstract
In recent years, linguists have increasingly turned to the cognitive sciences to broaden their investigation into the roots and development of language. With the advent of cognitive-linguistic, usage-based and complex-adaptive models of language, linguists today are utilizing approaches and insights from cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, social psychology and other related fields. A key result of this interdisciplinary approach is the concept of entrenchment-the ongoing reorganization and adaptation of communicative knowledge. Entrenchment posits that our linguistic knowledge is continuously refreshed and reorganized under the influence of social interactions. It is part of a larger, ongoing process of lifelong cognitive reorganization whose course and quality is conditioned by exposure to and use of language, and by the application of cognitive abilities and processes to language. This volume enlists more than two dozen experts in the fields of linguistics, psycholinguistics, neurology, and cognitive psychology in providing a realistic picture of the psychological and linguistic foundations of language. Contributors examine the psychological foundations of linguistic entrenchment processes, and the role of entrenchment in first-language acquisition, second language learning, and language attrition. Critical views of entrenchment and some of its premises and implications are discussed from the perspective of dynamic complexity theory and radical embodied cognitive science. © 2017 by the American Psychological Association and Walter de Gruyter GmbH. All rights reserved.
... Entrenchment refers to the strengthening of the mental representation of a linguistic structure through repetition to the point that the use of the structure becomes automatic (Blumenthal-Dramé 2012;Langacker 2008). Schmid (2017) has proposed a comprehensive definition of entrenchment. It is a lifelong process of reorganisation and adaptation of individual communicative knowledge as a function of exposure to the language, as well as of domain-general cognitive processes and social context. ...
... Entrenchment and schematisation are closely related (Blumenthal-Dramé 2012;Langacker 2017;Schmid 2017;Theakston 2017). According to Schmid (2017), entrenchment is not only related to the strength of the representations of different linguistic elements and structures but also to the emergence and reorganisation of variable schemas based on generalisations. ...
... Entrenchment and schematisation are closely related (Blumenthal-Dramé 2012;Langacker 2017;Schmid 2017;Theakston 2017). According to Schmid (2017), entrenchment is not only related to the strength of the representations of different linguistic elements and structures but also to the emergence and reorganisation of variable schemas based on generalisations. All linguistic knowledge is available in the format of associations, and entrenchment processes operate over these associations so that they become entrenched. ...
Entrenchment and schematisation are the two most important cognitive processes in language acquisition. In this article, the role of the two processes, operationalised by token and type frequency, in the production of overgeneralised verb forms in Croatian preschool children is investigated using a parental questionnaire and computational simulation of language acquisition. The participants of the questionnaire were parents of children aged 3;0–5;11 years (n = 174). The results showed that parents of most children (93 %) reported the parallel use of both adult-like and overgeneralised verb forms, suggesting that Croatian-speaking preschool children have not yet fully acquired the verbal system. The likelihood of overgeneralised forms being reported decreases with the age of the children and verb type frequency. The results of the computational simulation show that patterns with a higher type frequency also show a greater preference for the correct form, while lexical items show both learning and unlearning tendencies during the process.
... Since linguistic experience is based on communication, entrenchment is the result of both social and cognitive processes and, as indicated in the previous section, closely connected to the process of conventionalization. Schmid (2015Schmid ( , 2017Schmid ( , 2020 describes the complex interplay of entrenchment and conventionalization in his dynamic model of the language system, the E[ntrenchment and]C[onventionalization]-Model. Conventionalization, according to Schmid (2020, p. 2), …is the continual process of establishing and readapting regularities of communicative behavior among the members of a speech community, which is achieved by repeated usage activities in usage events and subject to exigencies of the entrenchment processes taking place in the minds of speakers. ...
... Response time is essential in this context since it is proposed to reflect the time it takes to process that word (Just & Carpenter, 1980). 7 From a usage-based viewpoint, different response times can be explained based on how entrenched the words are in the mind of a speaker, meaning that highly entrenched units are more accessible and easier to process (see Bybee, 2010, p. 53;Schmid, 2017). It is, however, important to point out that, from this perspective, the focus is not on whether something is binarily stored or not. ...
... The covariation between the test items' frequency in the corpora and reaction times in the experimental data is also consistent with the usage-based assumption that more strongly entrenched constructions are processed faster than less entrenched ones (cf. Bybee, 2010;Schmid, 2017;2020). When it comes to the rare items in the phrasal decision task, the results show that the learners of Swedish, unlike the control group, do not process these faster than the fillers. ...
![Julia Prentice [Grosse]](https://i1.rgstatic.net/ii/profile.image/278460258897921-1443401507158_Q64/Julia-Prentice-grosse.jpg)
This volume presents eight studies of linguistic phenomena in Nordic languages (notably Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish) from a construction grammar perspective. The contributions both deepen and widen the focus of construction grammar applied to Nordic languages by dealing with a variety of topics, such as the constructional network, pseudo-coordination, additional language learning and emerging multilingualism, prototypical semantics in argument structure constructions, and domain-specific discourse and language behavior. The volume showcases the vibrant research activity within part of the construction grammar community dealing with Nordic languages, contributing to the knowledge about the structure, use and learning of these languages, as well as to the field of construction grammar as a whole.
... Based on such criteria, it should be possible to draw a categorical distinction between what "counts" as a construction and what does not. At the same time, there has been a growing awareness that hard-and-fast criteria distinguishing constructions from "non-constructions" are difficult to establish, and that the differences may in fact be gradual (e.g., Langacker 2006;Schmid 2017;Zeschel 2009). This suggests that what is often treated as a categorical distinction may in reality be a gradient (or continuous) scale along which patterns vary in their "constructionhood," i.e., the degree to which they exhibit constructional characteristics. ...
... It is interesting to note that the addition of "sufficient" in this definition turns what is underlyingly a continuous concept -frequencies vary along a gradient cline, rather than falling into two discrete categories -into a categorical notion. In this sense, Goldberg's (2006) account can be regarded as a hybrid that integrates an implicitly gradient element into the definition of constructions, while still suggesting that a categorical distinction can be drawn between constructions and "non-constructions." 2 Other researchers, meanwhile, have questioned the categorical conception of constructions on a more principled basis, providing a number of arguments in favor of an alternative gradient view (e.g., Langacker 2006;Schmid 2017;Zeschel 2009). Most crucially, these authors have pointed out that it is not only frequency that forms a continuous cline, but that (non-)predictability, too, is a gradient rather than a categorical property of expressions. ...
... If Goldberg's (1995) early definition is taken to illustrate the categorical view, then Langacker's (1987; inter alia) approach can be seen as the archetype of the gradient view. 3 On his account, constructions (or "linguistic units," in his terminology) are characterized by their degree of entrenchment, i.e., the extent to which the patterns are cognitively routinized and can be accessed automatically (see also Blumenthal-Dramé 2012;Schmid 2017). Crucially, from the very beginning, Langacker has used the notion of entrenchment to argue against a categorical view of constructions, assuming instead "a gradation, with greater entrenchment implying greater centrality and linguistic significance" (Langacker 1987: 59). ...
... One of the fundamental assumptions in usage-based approaches to language is that our linguistic knowledge is directly based on usage (Bybee 2006(Bybee , 2011Ibbotson 2013;Langacker 1987;Schmid 2016). However, directly testing this core assumption has proved to be difficult. ...
... To do that, researchers have related measures of experimental tasks designed to tap into processing (e.g., reaction times, eye-tracking) to frequency patterns in corpus data. Such combinations of corpus and experimental data have generally shown that linguistic constructions are activated and processed more easily the more frequent they are in representative corpus data (Blumenthal-Dramé 2016;Schmid 2016). More recently, however, research on individual variation has raised the question to what extent amalgamated corpus data are really informative in that regard (Verhagen et al. 2018): people differ in their linguistic experiences, and, assuming that their mental language representations are directly based on these experiences (Bybee 2011;Langacker 1987Langacker , 2016Schmid 2016;Tomasello 2000), so do these representations. ...
... Such combinations of corpus and experimental data have generally shown that linguistic constructions are activated and processed more easily the more frequent they are in representative corpus data (Blumenthal-Dramé 2016;Schmid 2016). More recently, however, research on individual variation has raised the question to what extent amalgamated corpus data are really informative in that regard (Verhagen et al. 2018): people differ in their linguistic experiences, and, assuming that their mental language representations are directly based on these experiences (Bybee 2011;Langacker 1987Langacker , 2016Schmid 2016;Tomasello 2000), so do these representations. As a result, we have to ask ourselves to what extent amalgamated corpus data are informative of those other speakers taking part in the experiments, and whether they thus allow for meaningful predictions regarding how given constructions are stored in the mental language representations of these other speakers. ...
This study puts the usage-based assumption that our linguistic knowledge is based on usage to the test. To do so, we explore individual variation in speakers’ language use as established based on corpus data – both in terms of frequency of use (as a proxy for entrenchment) and productivity of use (as a proxy for schematization) – and link this variation to the same participants’ responses in an experimental judgment task. The empirical focus is on transfer by native German speakers living in the Netherlands, who oftentimes experience transfer from their second language Dutch to their native language German regarding the placement of prepositional phrases. The analyses show a large amount of variation in both the corpus and experimental data with a strong link across data types: individual speakers’ usage – but not the usage by other speakers – is a significant predictor for the speakers’ judgments. These results strongly suggest that, in line with a usage-based approach, variation between speakers in experimental tasks is linked to their variation in usage. At the same time, such usage-based predictions do not explain all of the variation, suggesting that other individual factors are also at play in such experimental tasks.
... Thus, every word contributed only one unit of weight to each of its constituent links. Both type and token frequency affect the representation of complex words, but since morphological transparency and productivity are primarily influenced by type frequency (Bybee, 1985(Bybee, , 1995(Bybee, , 2007De Smet, 2020;Perek, 2015;Plag, 2021;Schmid, 2017), we decided to concentrate on the latter. A small fragment of the resulting network is shown in Fig. 1 (not all existing links between the nodes are visualized to avoid clutter). ...
... This observation seems to be in line with the traditional view that productivity increases with type frequency or family size (Barðdal, 2006;Goldberg, 2006;Plag, 2021;Perek, 2015;Schmid, 2017;Stefanowitsch, 2008) and that items with high token frequency do not contribute to morphological productivity (Baayen & Lieber, 1991;Bybee, 1985Bybee, , 1995Bybee, , 2007De Smet, 2020;Guillaume, 1973;Moder, 1992). For example, when links are weighted by token frequency, there is a very strong connection between the prefixes re and pre because re→pre is part of the very frequent REPRESENT word family (11,358,843 tokens). ...
Lexical models diverge on the question of how to represent complex words. Under the morpheme‐based approach, each morpheme is treated as a separate unit, while under the word‐based approach, morphological structure is derived from complex words. In this paper, we propose a new computational model of morphology that is based on graph theory and is intended to elaborate the word‐based network approach. Specifically, we use a key concept of network science, the notion of shortest path, to investigate how complex words are learned, stored, and processed. The notion of shortest path refers to the task of finding the shortest or most optimal path connecting two non‐adjacent nodes in a network. Building on this notion, the current study shows (i) that new complex words can be segmented into morphemes through the shortest path analysis; (ii) that attested English words tend to represent the shortest paths in the morphological network; and (iii) that novel (unattested) words receive higher acceptability ratings in experiments when they are formed along established optimal paths. The model's performance is tested in two experiments with human participants as well as against the behavioral data from the English Lexicon Project. We interpret our empirical results from the perspective of a usage‐based model of grammar and argue that network science provides a powerful tool for analyzing language structure.
... Die Beziehung zwischen Formund Bedeutungsseite gilt als konventionalisiert, insofern sie einen arbiträren Charakter aufweist und die beiden Einheiten, die Form-und die Inhaltsseite, distinktiv von Sprechern rezipiert und produziert werden. Dies ist das Ergebnis eines Verfestigungsprozesses, auch entrenchment genannt (Schmid 2017), der sich durch frequenten Gebrauch einer symbolischen Einheit im Spracherwerbs prozess ereignet. ...
... Entscheidend für die Modellierung der Kulturspezifik des semantischen Wissens ist auch die Sichtweise der dynamischen Bedeutungs konstruktion in gebrauchsbasierten semantischen Modellen (vgl. Langacker 2008;Ziem 2009;Schmid 2017), die die Bedeutung einer lexikalischen Einheit als enzyklopädisch betrachten. Die lexikalische Bedeutung hängt hiernach im mer mit den Erfahrungen, dem Weltwissen und den Konventionen zusammen. ...
... Thus, entrenchment strengthens memory representations and makes complex compositions available as units. The degree of entrenchment of linguistic elements in the input is invoked to explain, among other things, the emergence of constructions (unit building), differences in grammaticality/acceptability judgments, their ease of processing/retrieval, their productivity, their preemption of alternative constructions and their susceptibility to change (e.g., Divjak & Caldwell-Harris 2015, Schmid 2017a. All these are based on categorization processes in the end. ...
... Under the label of "prominence", it hid any conceivable opposition between something sticking out from something else in any conceivable modal or symbolic format, in any higher or lower cognitive activity, or even in grammatical structures of the langue; sometimes "salience" was attributed to the perceptual/conceptual object, sometimes to the perceptual/conceptual subject, sometimes to elements in the grammar (in the sense of Chomsky's E-language), and so on. 6 Although there have been more sophisticated conceptions of salience (plus "pertinence", see below) around for some time that in addition have been fruitfully applied empirically, cognitive-functional linguistics has only recently intensified its efforts to relieve "salience" of its status as a stopgap and disentangle what is involved (Blumenthal-Dramé et al. 2018;Schmid 2017aSchmid , 2017bSchmid & Günther 2017), but without doing justice to the aforementioned conceptions, in which many distinctions suggested in Schmid & Günther (2017) are anticipatedamong others (cf. Purschke 2011, 2014a, 2014b, and, following Purschke, Kasper (2015, 2020). ...
We argue that there has been a shift of focus from the Scene Encoding Hypothesis (SEH) to the Usage-Based Model (UBM) within the research on Construction Grammar (CxG) and that this shift was (and continues to be) characterized by the negligence of the SEH tradition. It is discussed what is the relationship between the respective explanatory scopes of the SEH and the UBM within the larger context of cognitive constructionist linguistics. A practical though not programmatic one-sided focus on the UBM produces theoretical problems leading to "flat" explanations. The UBM crowd in cognitive-functional linguistics has increasingly become aware of that problem which has led to the parallel increase in the prominence of the notion of "salience" within the UBM. We will argue that this notion, as it is applied in current research, is a potential bridge between the SEH and the UBM, since it may potentially (re-)introduce the neglected phenomenal qualities into the modeling of language competence and structure. However, in its current state within the theory of the UBM, the notion of "salience" falls short of the involved cognitive and practical intricacies and thus needs a careful theoretical and empirical re-evaluation. We will attempt to indicate a potential direction of this re-evaluation by introducing the concepts of 'salience and pertinence under a pragmatic motive'. In the course of our considerations, we will show that not only the UBM needs complementation by the SEH, for which salience and pertinence may be the bridge, but also that the SEH, despite its principal correctness, is itself fundamentally underspecified with respect to its qualifications. The potential bridge between the UBM and the SEH via salience and pertinence will also provide the qualifications the SEH was lacking so far.
... • лінгвістичний, що описує фонологічні, морфологічні, синтаксичні та семантичні особливості лексичних одиниць та механізми, що забезпечують такі зрушення і виникнення лексичної інновації: лексикалізація постає тут як процес можливої інтеграції неологізму до словникового складу певної мови; • когнітивний, який моделює та описує механізми формування та укорінення лексичних одиниць у свідомості мовців певної мовної спільноти: поняття «формування концепту» охоплює тут процес можливого сприйняття лінгвістичного знака свідомостю індивіда [15]; • соціопрагматичний, що визначає соціальні та прагматичні nараметри, за допомогою яких можна описати поступове входження лексичних інновацій до колективної пам'яті. Поняття «інституалізація» означає тут цикл використання неологізму мовною спільнотою. ...
... ..Inutile de préciser que ces cas de ghosting se produisent en grande partie suite à des relations...15/10/17 Nouvel Observate ur Загальнонаціонал ьна ...me dissimule pas, je ne fais pas du 'ghosting' (l'art de disparaître en pleine séduction )... Faut-il encore expliquer ce qu'est le ghosting... 07/02/17 Libération Загальнонаціонал ьна ...On avait déjà recensé le ghosting, qui consiste à disparaître sans donner de nouvelles... 13/10/16 Cosmo Жіноча преса .Le ghosting est plus violent qu'une rupture amoureuse normale... Dans le cas du ghosting, le drapeau blanc persiste à flotter au vent... використовується здебільшого для позначення спортивних практик (running, beatboxing, snorkeling, cardiotraining тощо), професійної діяльності (networking, packaging, branding, fact-checking, coworking, crowdfunding ...) або соціокультурної специфіки (bashing, ghosting, pet-sitting), при цьому означені лексеми не мають синтетичних еквівалентів у французькій мові. Це яскраво свідчить про такий лінгвістичний феномен як перескакування між мовами, що зумовлено престижем публікації у багатьох газетах (зокрема, послідовно в Huffington Post та жіночій пресі). ...
The article deals with the state of neologism processes and the dynamics of borrowing in the modern French language for the period 2015-2018, examines the theoretical foundations of the above-mentioned linguistic phenomena and a justified method of researching various aspects of neologisms and the results of the analysis of borrowings. The use of the Néoveille platform made it possible to semi-automatically detect, describe linguistically, and trace the temporal evolution of neologisms from three complementary points of view: temporal, linguistic, and socio-pragmatic. In the temporal aspect, it is important to distinguish three moments in the life of neologisms: appearance, possible distribution and possible lexicalization. Linguistic approach allows to describe formation mechanisms, as well as combinatorial and distributive properties of loanwords. A socio-pragmatic point of view makes it possible to identify the places where neologisms are used. By applying these points of view, a system capable of semi-automatically detecting lexical innovation and tracing its evolution on a large dynamic corpus was modeled. Borrowings make up about 6 % (or 1,429 tokens) of innovations in modern French [3]. About a thousand xenisms should be added to this number, as well as a significant number of other formations from borrowed bases. Over 90 % of these loanwords are of Anglo-American origin, while xenisms show more linguistic diversity. The spheres of human activity that are most open to borrowing are fashion, sports, technology, and the economy, and among the resources, the women's press, Parisian magazines, and the yellow press are the most fruitful. Borrowings, like all neologisms, are more than 75 % hapax or quasi-hapax, or rather neologisms with low or very low diffusion. The appearance of Anglo-American borrowings is explained both by the needs of the nomination and motivated by the prestige of the English language, which in recent decades,especially with the advent of digital communication, has acquired the status of a second integrated language used by the French in private and professional life. English plays the same role for most modern languages. This global lingua franca is an instantly accessible resource for lexical innovation and a provider of productive morphosyntactic patterns, usually of a synthetic nature, actively implemented in French. The study of neologisms of higher frequency shows that the popularity of social networks and some social practices contributed to the emergence of borrowings in many fields. The described parameters made it possible to present cases of diffusion of borrowings, not only through stabilized repetitions, but also to state certain linguistic phenomena, in particular, integration into the morphogrammatic subsystem of the French language.
... Idiostyle as a distinctly organized structure is considered by (SCHMID, 2016). The researcher interprets this concept as a set of internal text-forming dominants and constants, distinguishing four types of its structural elements: situational, conceptual, operational, and compositional "metatropes", which are the basis of the author's individual style and form a hierarchically ordered, but at the same time closed system. ...
... Noteworthy is the thesis of Shevkun (2019), who argues that the study of idiostylistic features of the author should also take into account the individual, socio-historical, national, psychological, moral, and moral norms of a certain period, the peculiarities of human worldview, and knowledge about the world, which the researcher perceives as a unique author's conceptual picture of the world, the thesaurus. In this regard, it is appropriate to mention Schmid (2016) who wrote that the individual style of the author, his individual and creative consciousness is determined not only by linguistic means. ...
The problem of individual author's Stylistics, its place in the system of already functioning verbal means and its role in realizing the unique pragmatic potential of a literary work and the author as a whole have become the basis for numerous studies in the field of linguostylistics, which indicates the relevance of this work. The purpose of the article is to study the linguistic and translation aspects of the author's idiostyle. Methods. The paper used scientific methods: generalization, systematization and classification of methodological sources and scientific approaches to the study of the concept of “idiostyle” in the system of linguistic analysis of literary texts in scientific works of Ukrainian and foreign researchers. Results. The semantic difference between the studied comparisons and metaphors revealed some semantic value of these tropes and their functions in establishing genre features of Stephen King's idiostyle. Conclusion. Structural differentiation of comparisons and metaphors allowed us to analyze the frequency of their use in the author's works. The most common type is a group of binomial nominative comparisons, while other groups have approximately the same number of examples. Among metaphors, the most widely used type is a simple metaphor with a single image. The analysis of the translation aspect of S. King's works shows that each author uses his own approaches in translating lexical and stylistic means aimed at implementing a strategy to create a certain atmosphere. But it should be noted that the most effective is the use of lexical and stylistic means close to the original, while omission, transliteration and often contextual substitution in translation reduce the effectiveness of creating certain emotions in the reader. The basis for further research is to determine approaches to the study of the author's idiostyle in the dramatic genre.
... It is expected that diverse event construal techniques will affect the gaze patterns and the discourse patterns employed, although it is hard to predict which construal techniques will stimulate the diversity in cognitive load redistribution. Experimental studies mostly use monomodal stimuli, still among the most influential factors determining the increase in cognitive load expressed for instance in longer fixation duration and return saccadic movements they name the factors of salience (mostly expressed in the construal techniques frequency) and focusing (focalization of construal techniques), for instance, see [11][12][13]. In case of event construal techniques, we can also distinguish between more and less focal techniques, cf. ...
... The key issue is the techniques themselves in terms of their interpretation. The research has proved that the factors of focusing and typicality play a less significant role in heterosemiotic formats of information, compared with monosemiotic formats studied in terms of salience effects [Giora 2003], the effects of attractors [Gibbs, Tendal 2006], and entrenchment effects [Schmid 2016]. The study has explored the factor of combinatorial prevalence which adds to the effects of focusing and typicality. ...
The study explores the combinatorial prevalence effect in Event construal techniques in text and image components of heterosemiotic book pages. We hypothesize that their activity and contingency affect their interpretation, here tested in the oculographic experiment and discourse responses check. To proceed, we develop the parametric system applied for 100 book pages annotation and further statistical analysis. This study reveals the relevance of Truth, Type, Relation, Manageability, Completeness, Instantness, Achievement, Evaluation, Space location, Time location, Repeatability, Cause and effect parameter groups in Event construal in text and image as well as their resonance in concomitant activity. To select the samples serving as stimuli in the oculographic experiment, we apply Principal component analysis, which assigns Uniqueness indices to the samples, here ranging from 0.111 to 0.675, and provides diversity of Event construal techniques to be tested in terms of their interpretation. The results evidence that participants applied different text and image attention distribution patterns with longer fixations on text component in case the image displayed physical contact, static and desirable events. When the creation or destruction events, events-achievement, events located in time or causal events were not present in the text, the participants were more likely to address the image, not the text. Parameter activity also affects the choice of Descriptive, Narrative and Speculative discourse responses, with a restricted number of parameters stimulating Narrative discourse, with a restricted in text and vast in image number of parameters stimulating Speculative discourse, which evidences in favor of their more predetermined and predicted character. Hopefully, the results may be used to predict the interpretation effects and to further cognitive linguistic and semiotic research coordination.
... In this work, 'mental representations,' are still assumed. Yet, as Sellars shows, the view can be replaced by empirically grounded history of judgings that prompt organic agency to grant personal experience, perceivings and ways of knowing that can be traced to a history of entrenching(Cowley 2017b). This allows sensibility to inform knowhow, ways of using a language stance and thus personal knowing. ...
The paper rejects both mentalism and reduction of the trait of Language (capital L) to linguistic phenomena . What is termed lingualism is replaced by tracing wordings to practices that unite metabolism, coordinative activity and linguistic history. Like other partly cultural, partly natural traits (e.g. grazing), languaging enacts modelling (Sebeok 1988). In Yu’s (2021) terms, it extends how supersession informs morphogenesis, agency, sensing and acting. Having challenged lingualism, one deflates reports of experience. Appeal to practices and ontologies (not ontology ) posit linguistic ‘objects’ or, in Sellars’s terms, versions of the Myth of the Given. With Sellars, therefore, I rethink the analytic/synthetic divide around the normative power of languaging. On such a view, practices, nonhumans and humans co-evolve with manifest and scientific modes of acting that are constituted by unknowable singular ontology. Knowing is inextricable from languaging and how the resources of cultural modelling are rendered and grasped by using the (simplexifying) powers of living human beings.
... Like transferred adjectives, low-frequency adjectives in Middle English prefer zero inflection (Shaw and De Smet 2022b). 7 It is well established that low-frequency items are more difficult to retrieve mentally due to lower levels of entrenchment (Bybee 2011;Langacker 1987;Schmid 2016)in other words, they come with increased processing costs (Kempen and Harbusch 2019). As another example, consider first language acquisition. ...
When words are transferred from a source language into a target language, they may become conventionalized and appear to fully adopt target-language morphosyntactic behavior. Such words are traditionally regarded as borrowings. Even borrowings, however, are subject to probabilistic usage constraints, which we refer to as “accommodation biases” and which distinguish borrowings from native vocabulary. A case study is presented on accommodation biases in French-based verbs and adjectives in Middle English, showing that accommodation biases are robustly attested and can be diachronically persistent over long periods. In structural terms, accommodation biases resemble some of the familiar morphosyntactic constraints on code-switching. Combining the empirical evidence with theoretical argumentation, it is proposed that accommodation biases reflect a processing cost that is specifically associated with transferred items, and that arises from dual-language activation in bilingual speakers. Thus, accommodation biases indicate that even conventionalized borrowings may be more akin to code-switches than hitherto assumed.
... De um jeito ou de outro, essas noções endossam a premissa de que aprendizes de L2 dispõem de reforços constantes de informações contextuais entrincheiradas como parte do signifi cado construcional, conforme prevê a hipótese geral do modelo da GCD, a qual integra, além da dimensão formal, as dimensões cognitiva e social como parte do conhecimento gramatical. Por isso, o entrincheiramento é apontado como gradual e reversível a depender da experiência (SCHMID, 2016), o que, em termos de constructicon multilíngue, signifi ca dizer que as idioconstruções e diaconstruções podem estar mais ou menos entrincheiradas, isto é, exibir graus variáveis de ativação em uma escala de aprendizagem diassistêmica, e que podem mudar seu estado idio/diaconstrucional a qualquer momento. ...
... Importantly, this process is activated in case we construe novel metaphors; whereas entrenched metaphors are processed by category selection or category inclusion (Gentner & Bowdler 2008) which is a less demanding (in terms of cognitive effort required) cognitive task. According to Schmid (2016) and Langacker (2016), novel metaphors exploit the models (in their terms, image-schemas) which have not been earlier activated; therefore, higher efforts to process them are caused by the necessity to activate new mapping models. ...
In the study, we address the problem of existing differences in reading and understanding novel metaphors in the text fragments in native and target languages (L1 and L2), with these differences potentially attributed to both the specifics of forming analogies in native and target languages, and the mapping characteristics of metaphors. The study identifies the contingency effects of several primary metaphors onto the gaze behavior and default interpretation of textual novel metaphors in L1 (Russian) and L2 (English). To proceed, we use the text fragments in L1 and L2 containing novel metaphors appearing in more and less focal syntactic positions in a two-stage oculographic experiment. We obtain the participants’ gaze metrics values and the participants’ responses specifying the target domains of the novel metaphors, which further allows us to disclose the contingencies. Methodologically, the study is grounded in the metaphor processing theories developed in cognitive psychology, which explore the structure of analogical reasoning and associative fluency as manifesting potentially different effects in L1 and L2. To validate it, we also address the cognitive linguistic theories which provide the framework for identifying the primary metaphor models (here the models PATIENT (OBJECT) IS AGENT, PARTS ARE WHOLE, CONCRETE IS ABSTRACT) and for testing their effect onto information construal. We hypothesize that reading and understanding metaphors will proceed differently in L1 and L2, which is attributed to associative fluency in metaphor mapping in native and target languages. The experiment results do not show the differences in understanding the mapping model PATIENT (OBJECT) IS AGENT in L1 and L2, whereas these differences appear in understanding the models PARTS ARE WHOLE and CONCRETE IS ABSTRACT with higher default interpretation index in L1. The model PATIENT (OBJECT) IS AGENT is also found to stimulate higher gaze costs. The results suffice to claim that there are differences in the cognitive costs produced by primary metaphor models, which allows us to range and specify their role in information construal in L1 and L2.
... Entrenchment of linguistic forms arises from repeated use over time (Schmid, 2017) in the service of communicative purposes (Divjak & Caldwell-Harris, 2015). Entrenchment increases automaticity through the proceduralization of cognitive skills (Anderson et al., 2019;Kamhi, 2019) and it improves declarative recall through the strengthening and diversification of semantic links (Schlichting & Preston, 2015). ...
In 2005, Science magazine designated the problem of accounting for difficulties in L2 (second language) learning as one of the 125 outstanding challenges facing scientific research. A maturationally-based sensitive period has long been the favorite explanation for why ultimate foreign language attainment declines with age-of-acquisition. However, no genetic or neurobiological mechanisms for limiting language learning have yet been identified. At the same time, we know that cognitive, social, and motivational factors change in complex ways across the human lifespan. Emergentist theory provides a framework for relating these changes to variation in the success of L2 learning. The great variability in patterns of learning, attainment, and loss across ages, social groups, and linguistic levels provides the core motivation for the emergentist approach. Our synthesis incorporates three groups of factors which change systematically with age: environmental supports, cognitive abilities, and motivation for language learning. This extended emergentist account explains why and when second language succeeds for some children and adults and fails for others.
... Linguistic knowledge is not stored as an autonomous cognitive modularity but involves the use of domain general cognitive processes and abilities such as memory consolidation, chunking, automatisation, repetition, imitation, categorisation, analogy, abstraction, perception, attention, entrenchment, anticipation and so on (e.g. see Schmid, 2016). Understanding the learning behaviour of any kind, including learning how to be creative, and research on general cognitive thinking skills contribute to our understanding of language learning. ...
... Since reaction time or similar measures cannot be produced for this kind of data, we focused on the fluency of the narrative production. If a narrative has been produced repeatedly or the event described in the narrative is recurring frequently, we would expect a higher degree of entrenchment (Schmid, 2017) indicated by the number of pauses and lapses during production. Therefore, a special layer, where unfilled pauses, lengthened sounds, repairs and repetitions are annotated is also included in the corpus. ...
This paper is concerned with the development of a synchronic corpus containing Serbian spoken narratives and its use for narrative analysis. The corpus (CRONUS-Corpus for the Research On Narratives and their Use in Speech) is optimised to study the structure and use of this discourse genre. First, data sources are presented, followed by corpus creation and access. The semi-spontaneous spoken narratives were orthographically transcribed, and the corpus deeply annotated, with special emphasis on the annotation of narrative sections following Labov's approach and the annotation of argument structure constructions in the sense of Construction Grammar. Three case studies demonstrate how morphological and constructional annotation can be effective for the exploration of narratives.
... 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.
... Since constructions can be construed as form-meaning links, connections should have played a more critical role than constructions in the constructional network. Schmid (2017) even went much further and contended that there is no need to distinguish constructions serving as nodes in the Page 4 of 16 Jiang and Wen Asian. J. Second. ...
Second Language Acquisition (SLA) has benefited quite a lot from Construction Grammar. Most of the previous SLA researches adopting a constructionist approach have been primarily engaged in issues pertinent to the relevance of construction in SLA, the process of second language (L2) construction learning, and factors affecting L2 construction learning. This paper distinguishes itself from previous research by embarking on a new direction in the constructionist approach to SLA from the perspective of the constructional network. Specifically, it deals with how constructional network works in SLA and argues that L2 constructional network bears the imprint of and is reconstructed from L2 learners’ L1 constructional network. The constructional network works in SLA in at least two ways which are manifested in the motivating function of vertical links in L2 learners’ acquisition of schematic and complex constructions and the facilitative or inhibitive effect of horizontal links in L2 construction learning. Admittedly, our description of how the constructional network works in SLA is precursory and nonexclusive, and some general and specific issues are raised for future research.
... The better entrenched a pattern is, the more easily accessible it is for future language use; consequently, it is more likely to be repeated again (see Schmid 2020). Schmid (2016) refers to this as "[ . . . ] a feedback loop in which frequency comes to serve as both a cause and an effect of entrenchment." ...
Usage-based approaches have become increasingly important in research on language acquisition and recently also in bilingual first language acquisition. Lexically specific patterns, such as What’s this? and frame-and-slot patterns, such as [I want X] play an important role in language acquisition scenarios. The ubiquity of such conventionalized chunks and frame-and-slot patterns supports the idea that children construct their early utterances out of concrete pieces they have heard and stored before. To investigate the emergence of patterns in children’s speech the traceback method has been developed, which accounts for the composition of utterances by relying on previously acquired material. Recently, the traceback method has also been applied to code-mixed utterances in bilingual children testing the assumption that bilingual utterances are structured around a frame-and-slot pattern in which the open slot is filled by (a) word(s) from the other language, e.g., [where is X] as in where is das feuer ‘where is the fire’. In this paper we want to present how the empirical use of the traceback method, and the general adoption of a usage-based theoretical perspective, can shed new lights on the study of bilingual phenomena, such as code-mixing.
... Engaging and thought-provoking, this book rejects reductionism and advocates for researchers to study language systems within a larger holistic framework. Given that this work is a continuation of earlier systematic research (Schmid, 2015(Schmid, , 2017, the author integrates various assumptions on language into his current model rather than treating them as largely theoretical programmatic axioms. The proposed model goes beyond current functionalist mainstream theories regarding the three aspects discussed the in paragraph below. ...
... The conservative non-BCT vocabulary of the mature Russian speakers conceivably is related to the known cognitive changes with aging, specifically, more solidified mental representations of object concepts (cf. Schmid, 2017), and decline of formation of new semantic representations (e.g., McIntyre and Craik, 1987;Schacter et al., 1994), resulting from deterioration of the ability to learn new associations (Naveh-Benjamin and Kilb, 2014). Apart from the aging-related semantic changes, the observed tapering of the color-term inventory may also reflect a motivational changea shift in old age from the goal of accumulating knowledge to goals that bring immediate satisfaction because of the uncertainty of the future when this knowledge would be put to use (e.g., Carstensen, Isaacowitz, and Charles, 1999). ...
The present study is an apparent-time analysis of color terms in Russian native speakers ( N = 1927), whose age varied between 16 and 98 years. Stratified sampling was employed with the following age groups: 16–19, 20–29, and so on, with the oldest group of 70 years and over. Color names were elicited in a web-based psycholinguistic experiment ( http://colournaming.com ). Participants labeled color samples ( N = 606) using an unconstrained color-naming method. Color vocabulary of each age group was estimated using multiple linguistic measures: diversity index; frequency of occurrences of 12 Russian basic color terms (BCTs) and of most frequent non-BCTs; color-naming pattern. Our findings show intergenerational differences in Russian color-term vocabulary, color-naming patterns, and object referents. The CT diversity (measured by the Margalef index) progressively increments with speakers’ juniority; the lexical refinement is manifested by the increasing variety of BCT modifiers and growing use of non-BCTs, both traditional and novel. Furthermore, the most frequent Russian non-BCTs sirenevyj “lilac”, salatovyj “lettuce‐colored”, and birûzovyj “turquoise” appear to be the emerging BCTs. The greatest diversity and richness of CT inventory is observed in Russian speakers aged 20–59 years, i.e., those who constitute the active workforce and are enthusiastic consumers. In comparison, speakers of 60 and over manifest less diverse color inventory and greater prevalence of (modified) BCTs. The two youngest groups (16–29 years) are linguistic innovators: their color vocabulary includes abundant recent loanwords, predominantly from English and, not infrequently, CTs as nouns rather than adjectives. Moreover, Generation Z (16–19 years) tend to offer highly specific or idiosyncratic color descriptors that serve expressive rather than informative function. The apprehended dynamics of color naming in apparent time reflects intergenerational differences as such, but even more so dramatic changes of sociocultural reality in the post-Soviet era, whereby Russian speakers, in particular under 60 years, were/are greatly impacted by globalization of trade: new market product arrivals resulted in adoption of novel and elaboration of traditional CTs for efficient communication about perceived color
Bilingualism and the study of speech sounds are two of the largest areas of inquiry in linguistics. This Handbook sits at the intersection of these fields, providing a comprehensive overview of the most recent, cutting-edge work on the sound systems of adult and child bilinguals. Bringing together contributions from an international team of world-leading experts, it covers all aspects of the speech perception, production and processing of bilingual individuals, as well as surveying cross-linguistic influences on the phonetics and phonology of bilingualism. The thirty-five chapters are divided into thematic areas covering the theoretical foundations and methodological approaches employed to investigate bilingual speech, overviews of major findings and developments in child and adult bilingual phonology and phonetics, descriptions of the major areas of research within the speech perception, production and processing of the bilingual individual, and examinations of various predictors of cross-linguistic influence and variables affecting the outcomes of bilingual speech.
The new ecolinguistics treats language as a part of human action. Languaging, the basis for language development, co-constitutes technologically endowed environments. The result, we argue, can enhance both second language learning and aspects of human agency. Using historical and current research, we stress skillful action and, given a special stance, how expertise is generated by drawing on languages while engaging in a range of practices. A combination of languaging, statistical learning and skillful action therefore enables technology to sustain a vast range of coordinated activities. Accordingly, we advocate for the design of technology-rich environments where people change themselves by drawing on second languages to gain skills and expertise as they use new modes of action, coordination and collaboration.
Starting from the premise that English negative modal contractions constitute partly variable patterns of associations that include both the preceding subject and the following verb infinitive, the study sets out to investigate distributional differences between can’t , shouldn’t , and won’t and their corresponding uncontracted parent forms. Given that some configurations are assumed to correlate with specific modal meanings (e.g. inanimate subjects and stative verbs > ‘epistemic prediction’; first person subjects > ‘(un)willingness’ or ‘commissive modality’), roughly 200,000 trigrams from COCA are submitted to distinctive covarying collexeme analysis in order to uncover if these contractions and their full forms are conventionalized and entrenched differentially enough to merit their separate treatment on both conceptual and methodological grounds. The results point to probabilistic tendencies, suggesting a cline where won’t and can’t appear to be more emancipated from their respective full-form analogue than shouldn’t . Furthermore, the study showcases how collostructional methods can be applied fruitfully to case studies embedded in Schmid’s (Schmid, Hans-Jörg. 2020. The dynamics of the linguistic system: Usage, conventionalization, and entrenchment . Oxford: Oxford University Press) Entrenchment and Conventionalization Model .
This study delves into the intriguing world of language dynamics within the popular messaging platform, WhatsApp, focusing on how young people communicate. Through the course of its research, this study aims to uncover a fascinating phenomenon called ‘Language Attrition’ - a subtle transformation in the way languages are used in this digital space. On WhatsApp, users seamlessly blend their native languages with a more global one. This results in a unique linguistic landscape where expressions from different languages coexist, sometimes making it challenging to distinguish between them. With India being a multilingual nation, the study explores the potential loss or degradation of languages due to the leniency and carelessness of social media language. The paper employs a mixed-method approach, combining qualitative analysis of WhatsApp conversations with a digital questionnaire survey. The research investigates factors such as the prevalence of emoticons, code-switching, and multilingualism, shedding light on the multifaceted dimensions of language attrition. The research investigates factors such as the prevalence of emoticons, code-switching, and multilingualism, shedding light on the multifaceted dimensions of language attrition. The insights aim to prompt one to perceive language attrition not merely as an academic curiosity but as a catalyst for proactive measures.
Construction Grammar (CxG) is an innovative approach to language that has become increasingly popular in the Anglosphere over the last 30 years. In CxG, the basic units of linguistic analysis are constructions: arbitrary and conventional form-meaning pairings, reminiscent of Saussure’s linguistic sign, but applied to levels of linguistic analysis beyond the lexicon. A large body of research has provided ample evidence in support of CxG. However, the theory remains unknown to many colleagues outside the Anglosphere.
In this paper, I highlight a particularly interesting strand of CxG that is referred to as ‘usage-based’, an approach that assumes constructions are learned based on input frequency, that is, through repeated exposure to and use of a linguistic structure (hence usage- based). The main aim of this paper is thus to demonstrate how corpus data can be analyzed to find evidence for ‘entrenchment’ of linguistic structures and thus, the existence of constructions. I will illustrate this procedure by applying so-called covarying-collexeme analyses to data from the Slovak National Corpus (SNC) and the Slovak Web 2011 corpus from which I extracted 785 tokens of the so-called Comparative Correlative (CC) construction (e.g. Čím viac čítam, tým viac rozumiem).
The evolution of language has developed into a large research field. Two questions are particularly relevant for this strand of research: firstly, how did the human capacity for language emerge? And secondly, which processes of cultural evolution are involved both in the evolution of human language from non-linguistic communication and in the continued evolution of human languages? Much research on language evolution that addresses these two questions is highly compatible with the usage-based approach to language pursued in cognitive linguistics. Focusing on key topics such as comparing human language and animal communication, experimental approaches to language evolution, and evolutionary dynamics in language, this Element gives an overview of the current state-of-the-art of language evolution research and discusses how cognitive linguistics and research on the evolution of language can cross-fertilise each other. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Spiele sind durch Produktion, Distribution und Konsumption in politische Strukturen eingebunden. Sie spiegeln nicht nur ihre Umwelt wider, sondern werden auch maßgeblich durch diese geformt. Die Beiträger*innen fragen transdisziplinär nach der Analyse solcher »Politiken des Spiels«: Innerhalb welcher rechtlichen, gesellschaftlichen und politischen Regeln findet das Spiel statt? In welchen Machtverhältnissen stehen die am Spiel beteiligten Akteur*innen? Und wie geht die Branche mit aktuellen politischen Diskursen um? Dabei betrachten sie zahlreiche Formen des Spiel(en)s in diachroner sowie synchroner Perspektive und machen deutlich: Spielen ist ein hochpolitischer Akt.
One of the key challenges in linguistics is to account for the link between linguistic knowledge and our use of language in a way that is both descriptively accurate and cognitively plausible. This pioneering book addresses these challenges by combining insights from Construction Grammar and Relevance Theory, two influential approaches which until now have been considered incompatible. After a clear and detailed presentation of both theories, the author demonstrates that their integration is possible, and explains why this integration is necessary, in order to understand exactly how meaning comes about. A new theoretical model is offered that provides ground-breaking insights into the semantics-pragmatic interface, and addresses a variety of topics including the nature of lexical and grammatical concepts, procedural meaning, coercion and idiom processing. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.
This paper scrutinizes the conventionalization of the Spanish expression la de [noun] que (‘the amount of [noun] that’), a reduced variant of la cantidad de [noun] que. The study seeks to determine the diachrony of and mechanisms underlying the emergence and diffusion of the la de [noun] que expression and whether it has conventionalized to develop into an independent form-function pairing. A Bayesian mixed-effects logistic regression analysis of approximately 2000 observations of diachronic corpus data tests the influence of the CONDITIONAL PROBABILITY of lexemes in the noun slot and the REGISTER, which both turn out to have a meaningful effect. It is argued that the initial omission of cantidad can be accounted for by appealing to the notion of probabilistic reduction, whereby omission is feasible in contexts involving a high degree of constructional predictability. In the mapping out of change, conventionalization of the innovative la de [noun] que is most observable in contexts involving high constructional predictability and is least prominent in contexts of low constructional predictability. On the grounds that, over time, the la de [noun] que progressively has become stylistically divergent from the longer expression, the two constructions are claimed to be functionally distinct.
Die Wortbildung spielte in der Konstruktionsgrammatik lange eine untergeordnete Rolle. Spätestens seit Booijs (2010) „Construction Morphology“ hat sich dies jedoch geändert, und gerade in der diachronen Betrachtung der deutschen Wortbildung ist die Konstruktionsgrammatik zu einem wichtigen theoretischen Framework geworden. Zugleich gab es im Bereich der Konstruktionsgrammatik und der gebrauchsbasierten Linguistik im Allgemeinen interessante theoretische Weiterentwicklungen, die beispielsweise die Frage nach der Struktur des „Konstruktikons“ oder den theoretischen und kognitiven Status von Konstruktionen betreffen. In diesem programmatischen Beitrag diskutiere ich die theoretischen und forschungspraktischen Implikationen, die diese neuen Entwicklungen für das Gebiet der Wortbildung haben, und greife eine Reihe offener Fragen auf.
Online companion website at https://catlism.github.io
Construction Grammar (CxG) has developed into a broad and highly diverse family of approaches that have in common that they see constructions, i.e. form-meaning pairs at various levels of abstraction and complexity, as the basic units of language. This Element gives an overview of the origin and the current state of the art of constructionist approaches, focusing, on the one hand, on basic concepts like the notion of 'constructions', while at the same time offering an in-depth discussion of current research trends and open questions. It discusses the commonalities and differences between the major constructionist approaches, the organization of constructional networks as well as ongoing research on linguistic creativity, multimodality and individual differences. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Este estudo busca evidências sobre representações do conhecimento multilíngue, a partir da análise de usos da construção nominal [(ESP) N (X)] do PB, na escrita de aprendizes anglófonos. Averiguamos não apenas ocorrências compatíveis com os padrões construcionais do PB, como também aquelas com alguma inconformidade relativa ao uso de itens gramaticais no slot (ESP). Aderimos aos postulados da Gramática de Construções Diassistêmica, para a qual o constructicon multilíngue molda-se a partir de relações idio e diaconstrucionais. Apostamos na hipótese de que as diferentes representações da construção nominal na escrita desse grupo de aprendizes refletem tanto a emergência de link diassistêmico, quanto a manutenção de aspectos línguo-específicos em nível mais subjacente. Essa hipótese se revelou a partir da observação de dados analisados em estudos anteriores em que foram identificados usos convergentes da construção nominal e usos comprometidos por apagamentos, preenchimentos impróprios e combinações discordantes de especificadores. Para testar tal proposição, empenhamos análises quali-quantitativas de 312 ocorrências de [(ESP) N (X)] as quais foram realizadas à luz de variáveis morfossintáticas e semânticas, indicadas como relevantes na literatura revisada. Os resultados demonstram que a rede construcional multilíngue dos participantes da pesquisa comporta a formação de pelo menos uma diaconstrução e idioconstruções subjacentes aos usos observados.
Los demostrativos esotro / estotro del español tardomedieval, clásico y protomoderno no han sido aún objeto de una investigación exhaustiva. En el siguiente trabajo defendemos su carácter diferenciado y su camino de gramaticalización específico respecto de las secuencias este / ese + otro. A continuación, y a partir de un despojo exhaustivo del corpus CORDE, situamos el origen de estas formas en el occidente peninsular y precisamos la cronología de su nacimiento, auge y declive, explicando cómo fue extendiéndose su uso a través de diversas tradiciones discursivas.
Arvio teoksesta Synnöve Carlson & Riitta Hari (toim.): Aivoaakkoset. Aalto-yliopiston julkaisusarja 5/2021. Espoo: Aalto ARTS Books. 304 s.
Recent years have seen increased interest in code-mixing from a usage-based perspective. In usage-based approaches to monolingual language acquisition, a number of methods have been developed that allow for detecting patterns from usage data. In this paper, we evaluate two of those methods with regard to their performance when applied to code-mixing data: the traceback method, as well as the chunk-based learner model. Both methods make it possible to automatically detect patterns in speech data. In doing so, however, they place different theoretical emphases: while traceback focuses on frame-and-slot patterns, chunk-based learner focuses on chunking processes. Both methods are applied to the code-mixing of a German–English bilingual child between the ages of 2;3 and 3;11. Advantages and disadvantages of both methods will be discussed, and the results will be interpreted against the background of usage-based approaches.
This paper provides a comparative analysis of word-final nasals in Yucatecan Spanish and Yucatec Maya based on speech data from Quintana Roo (Mexico). In Yucatecan Spanish, a nasal is often pronounced as [m] if placed at the end of a word (e.g., Yucatá [m] instead of Yucatá [n]). Since this phenomenon is widespread on the Yucatán Peninsula, but largely unknown in other Spanish-speaking regions, it is often linked to the influence of the indigenous language Yucatec Maya. Our Spanish dataset differs from our Yucatec Mayan one in that the labialization rate significantly increases with the length of the subsequent pause in the former, but not in the latter. Thus, even if the feature was originally transferred from Yucatec Maya to Spanish, it seems that it has taken on a life of its own in Yucatecan Spanish, determined by its function as a marker of prosodic prominence.
Phraseology and Construction Grammar have many interests in common, which is not surprising since first construction-based studies focused on idiomatic expressions (cf. Fillmore, Kay and O’Connor 1988; Kay and Fillmore 1999). The main aim is to analyse variation and creativity of intensifying comparative constructions of ugliness in Catalan, Spanish, English, and French adopting an inductive methodology based on corpora from the Sketch Engine software. Following a usage-based constructionist approach, we conduct an intra- and interlinguistic analysis on the entrenchment of constructions, semantic variants of meaning, as well as productivity by means of type frequency and those occurrences with low token frequency (hapax legomena) and creativity according to analogical extensions and constructional contamination.
In diesem Artikel wird ein Mixed-Method-Design vorgestellt, mit dem man von einer bestimmten Zielgruppe systematisch metalinguistische Beschreibungen erheben kann zu Sprechstilen aus einem eingegrenzten Gegenstandsbereich. Kernstück sind dabei qualitative Repertory-Grid-Interviews. Durchgeführt wurde dies am Beispiel von Radiomoderation. Ziel war ein Beschreibungsprofil zu entwickeln für den typischen Moderationsstil eines öffentlich-rechtlichen Jugendradios im Vergleich zu Moderationsstilen anderer Sender, die in derselben Region zu empfangen sind – formuliert aus der Sicht
seines Publikums. Mit dieser Methode kann man einen Sprechstil im Kontext zu anderen Stilen untersuchen und Rückschlüsse auf saliente Merkmale ziehen. Auch konnten Sprachideologien rekonstruiert werden, die den Bewertungen und Differenzierungen der Befragten zugrunde liegen. Dies soll anhand eines Moderationsbeispiels erläutert werden, in dem eine Moderatorin nach Ansicht der Hörer
und Hörerinnen Stilbruch begeht.
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.
Human beliefs change, but so do the concepts that underpin them. The recent Abduction, Belief Revision and Conceptual Change (ABC) repair system combines several methods from automated theory repair to expand, contract, or reform logical structures representing conceptual knowledge in artificial agents. In this paper we focus on conceptual change: repair not only of the membership of logical concepts, such as what animals can fly, but also concepts themselves, such that birds may be divided into flightless and flying birds, by changing the signature of the logical theory used to represent them. We offer a method for automatically evaluating entrenchment in the signature of a Datalog theory, in order to constrain automated theory repair to succinct and intuitive outcomes. Formally, signature entrenchment measures the inferential contributions of every logical language element used to express conceptual knowledge, i.e., predicates and the arguments, ranking possible repairs to retain valuable logical concepts and reject redundant or implausible alternatives. This quantitative measurement of signature entrenchment offers a guide to the plausibility of conceptual changes, which we aim to contrast with human judgements of concept entrenchment in future work.
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).
In the 1980s, Elizabeth Bates, Csaba Pléh, Brian MacWhinney, and colleagues formulated a functionalist, usage-based approach to language processing and learning they called the Competition Model. The model viewed linguistic forms as competing during production for the expression of meanings and during comprehension for mapping forms onto meanings. It viewed the language learning as the acquisition of cues for resolving these competitions in real time and adjustments of the strengths of these cues based on their reliability and availability across the language. The model has been tested in over 100 studies of children, adults, second language learners, and people with aphasia in 18 different languages. The studies that Csaba Pléh conducted in this framework with Hungarian played a central role in the elaboration of the theory, because of the way they took advantage of the unique features of Hungarian to test basic claims of the theory. In the last two decades, the theory has been broadened to deal in greater detail with data on language fluency, age-related effects on language learning, and new data from neurolinguistics. This paper will summarize the basic findings from both the classic version of the Competition Model and the newer Unified Competition Model.
Numerous studies have explored the benefit of iconic gestures in speech comprehension. However, only few studies have investigated how visual attention was allocated to these gestures in the context of clear versus degraded speech and the way information is extracted for enhancing comprehension. This study aimed to explore the effect of iconic gestures on comprehension and whether fixating the gesture is required for information extraction. Four types of gestures (i.e., semantically and syntactically incongruent iconic gestures, meaningless configurations, and congruent iconic gestures) were presented in a sentence context in three different listening conditions (i.e., clear, partly degraded or fully degraded speech). Using eye tracking technology, participants’ gaze was recorded, while they watched video clips after which they were invited to answer simple comprehension questions. Results first showed that different types of gestures differently attract attention and that the more speech was degraded, the less participants would pay attention to gestures. Furthermore, semantically incongruent gestures appeared to particularly impair comprehension although not being fixated while congruent gestures appeared to improve comprehension despite also not being fixated. These results suggest that covert attention is sufficient to convey information that will be processed by the listener.
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