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Phonological schematicity in multilingual constructions: A diasystematic perspective on lexical form

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This article discusses the role of intra-word phonological schematicity in multilingual con-structicons from a Diasystematic Construction Grammar perspective. It argues that, in particular with communities that use two or more typologically similar and/or closely related languages, many lexical elements (e.g. cognates) exhibit regular sound correspondences that can be analysed as consisting of different types of phonological schemas. In this view, there is a division of labour between schematic constructions that specify the words' referential meaning and others that specify their belonging to one of the 'languages', with language-specificity defined as a pragmatic property of constructions. The focus is on the question whether generalizations at this level of schematicity and abstraction are cognitively real and what can count as evidence for their existence from a usage-based perspective.
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Phonological schematicity in multilingual constructions: a diasystematic perspective on
lexical form

Abstract

 !"#$
%$
&""&''
"#$
''(
')($  
"*+
'
&'"
Keywords
  !, ,  , 
,
1 The importance of patterns
-$".'
'$ $    $ $    $
'&"/0$'
0$$$'&$'"
. + '  
0$$"''&$
'*&)($""
1
"20$*0"
0$$"#$'+$
+$+
0"$
$'+
00
'+"3
$$'*'
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46)$(8"")($)0($)("1
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9:;;<+
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&0'
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$$''
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>'0:;1?@AA:"B'&
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1 'C1=A<41=D;6@1E<$'*
'":;1F":;1E$
'"
:
&*"
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     !$  G 3
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0'@'

0 ! &!" &!'
'
0(0'
''
"#'
'$*
+0(0"
#*
0
0'$
"-*$&'
'HH
$"
-:;1=$'
'
$$'
"2$&'
'+
0".
: #$#0'',
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D
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0$@B$
'$$$
'
"
C0$I:'
"ID0
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
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"
2 A constructionist view on patterns: schematicity
#' &!$
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'!':;;A@
?$&J
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:;1F[:;1F'&"
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\$ !\$)(\&'&
$ %' &$Z \
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$&&'"#$$
'
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:;1<@AFHF1"''$
  & $   (:;;E )( '(
:;1<)( "   :;1= 4 6" B  $  
&*' &!$$'
$&!'1==??      
& (:;;1M &!".$&
' '  7'L-& # &$!'
:;;A@1AAH1E:'"9a:;;E@D<H?<$&
"30(
4:;1?@ 1<?H1F<6   "#' &!$  & 
&$'
'&$*
$$
&":;;D@=E"
'
'"$"""$
''&'
     &$     '  
"&" )(
:;11$'
? 9:;1D@:DEH:D=$&$0'&
!'"#$$
''"
A
&"#$
$'*0&
&$7
T3 &4456Z6! &46:;1<'@:;AH:;F"3
&0
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)(,90G8:;;F@
:;=H:1;$0C 
   ,  :;1<'@ :1;H:1D$      '0
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''&*"$
'&$'
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3 Diasystematic CxG: a brief introduction to key concepts
 &! &!' &!
$$0
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$
A 7'!""$$
 & '$(0
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$  '          0
b'' "9G!':;11,!':;11,!'
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F
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)(''0
"+:;@
)('    
009G:;1E@
?"$'+$''
$'00
:;1<@1DFH1D=$')(
$'$'0
'$'0"-
$"
# &!$'L*&'
0"')(
02:;;=@D;EHD;=$""
$&'
"!$$$'"$
)('+*
:;1E@<AH<F"$0
&$'
&$""
0"!L:;;E@::HD<
 3@$  
"C &!$$)('
'&&
0:;1<@1?;"
-$'@C$
"0&
$$0
E
'"F# &!$$
&($
0+'&
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: " 4)(  6
'" 4#)( !6
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*""$!%$)
c("-'$&
'$'
0'"
# $  T'## &     
$""0&
&&b4NOPQ1$Z , ! 6"
-*$ &!
0&$$'
 &!$&
&"#&&$$0"
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$"-$
F 
"
E    L         
,'*'
&'$$' -$ 9& $ 0$ @d"
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 ' '  '$ )('"#
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&&#
& &4NOPQ]fggXS6$
'&'$'$)('
":;1E@?1H?:$??H?A"
''&&'
" C $   '     *
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k6)0('&$
')!"$)'(
'  4nop
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kj6     $! *"= #
 &!$'&?@
? .0&
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@# &!$0(0'
+$'&
&"&"$
'&&"$
$'0
$)("
= $$"4il
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4 Lexical diaconstructions: phonological schematicity and phonological language
markers
 &!$'
"-  $  
$'&"
I1"2$$'
&  &" -     $ &  &' 
"-&&4NOPQ6#&
&4NOPQ]fggXS6"1;
B$$'&'"
:;1<'@::DH::E,:;1=@DA$<DH<A"#'$
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!4l
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m6)$($,
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mv6)
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$$$
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$:;1E@??H?A&.0&'
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 6$4-)0( !6".'&$.0&'
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$&''$'&'
4j64l
m6"&
'44Txl
m$ jy6)$(6$$$
&&''"9
&$
@04Txl
m$jy60'
$'
4j6$4l
m6!&"
$&/$
**&$0
""  " 
&'3/2'+
E":;1<'@::?H::E@
E " 4j63/2
4Z4j6Txl
m$jyZ  6
'" !4l
m63/2
4Z4l
m6Txl
m$jyZ ! 6
'/3/2C :$
1D
$$'"$
$'&
   @   0$
3/2'&0&`_hzf_zO
+&$
/'+')("11
…-[ɑi]V{ɑi,iː}-…
CGerman
…-[iː]V{ɑi, }-…
CDanish
[f-V{ɑi , }-n]
‘ne, delicate’
[fɑin]
‘ne, delicate’
CGerman
[fiːn]
‘ne, delicate’
CDanish
PLM PLMSLD
Figure 2.#'&&0
#+$''
0'/3/2&
&,"
I?$'C:"1:
5 Constructionhood and cognitive reality of phonological schemas
    
$$* &!"#
&"C'!
'1==?@<$J  {C$|
C' (
  'K$
"#   I<$  @
11 #$&$'/3/2
&("
1: #-(:;1=$'3/2/)(
   )(" +  '  
0)(-('%
$""1$:
3/2$D/44Txlm$jy6)$(6/
"
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$$!4l
m6)$('
'/'3/2$!C
#&&'$!4l
m6)$
(&"
7&''&4j6'!
4l
m6$$'"#
'!4l
m6)$
(*'+&
!'(4:;;A@?6"#$$+
'&&
".&$$'&$
$ $'+
'/3/2"
C$0/ 3/2 ' 
"C$0*
&!
$$+$$)$$($
0*!,$#$)$
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&"
$      '
''0/3/2"
:;1<'@::?H::A&/!&0'
''/!"M
'$$/!4•‚
m6!4j6
=='
'="
= " /!'4+•‚
m6$!'4+j6)(
'" !'"4+ƒij6)(|/!'"4+‚i•‚
m6
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m6
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'"3
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"C4'i0…6|4'
k‡i0nˆ
qr‰6)'(,C
4l5Šil6|4l
r‰5
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r‰6)(
C!"
|C)($|)C("
$00
"(1=EA@AAHFE
&
0 ' 
00
"-&1=EA@F?
1D $0($
8!0+$(+
0''/3/2"
1A
)%%(04…jŒ064…jŒuŒ6" .
'+''
7$'
'H*
"*)
(,:;1E@?='/3/2&
&&"1<.0$
$**$"C$
''$$
'
&
/$"CA"
3 '
&""#/
3/2$H''H
'
"#0
"#' &!$
HJ0K9':;1;@=<H
L&&:;1<@1D;H1D:"
.'$*"
9L:;1D@:?E$&
H$ $ *H$ 
"1?& /
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'&'''
1< C &!'&
":;1<'@::A,:;1=@<DH<A"
1? B'*'
&"9':;1;@=?$!'1==?@1DF$>'0:;;E$ :;1?$
:;1=@DFH<;"
1F
":;1E@?="1A
-*
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$$')(
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""&$
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'"''
"$'&H@
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'0
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',9:;;<"
H@H'*
"M$
'&"
6 Conclusion
70$'&'
1A B*'
$')($""&
'       &    " $ # 9a
:;;E@D
$$L&'"
1F -:;1=$$'
'$'*
''0"0
"#$$00&
'G:;1F@F;HF1$
"
1E
''$''$+'
#'"9
&$""   c -     
$ &!$"#$
 &!'&$
'  "
$+
&"#$'
".
&
$$''
 & ". 
&$
'/3/2'&
"C
  $ '  
0'*$$
"
Acknowledgements
#0d-
'"-$
$"
References
-'$•" 1===" ' " !' 2 / 1F"
!'@/$!'"
9'$-G3e$":;1<"@.(
0"#9$dG0$ G3e$GM'$-
"$12(3"
3"/G:F$:D=H:?F"9@!"
1=
9a$dŽ":;;E"*"2+4
 -/E"-%3@9L"
9$9L":;;<""(E;$:=;HD11"
90$9G8$d":;;F"#"#$"$
("""$:"$"D@5
$1A=H:<;" '@ '3"
9$ " :;1D"   !"# $ G $
!"$ 67   $:DDH:?:"B&@B&
3"
9$ "G$":;1E" "-
"#9$ "G$"$121
    5    -
/:<$?HDA"-@9L"
9L$!":;1D"2 !"#$G$
!"$ 67   $:??H:FD"B&@B&
3"
9$d"G!'$-7":;11"/@
+L"(EF$??HED"
9'$d":;1;"(32 '@ '3"
9'$d/":;1D"'&"#$
G$!"$67$<=HA="B&@
B&3"
$9":;1F".(c#$#G
0$M "$ ' 2 8  /$ -G
M11$11?H1?1" @"
$" :;1?" ++@ 
)"#9a$dŽ
"$8  -/1E$:1DH
:??"-@9L"
$.":;;1"9152'"""
2B&@B&3"
>'0$7":;;E"*'0(
3"-'
":;"(?E$=D1H=?1"
>'0$7":;1?"#0"#>'0$7G
L0$ "$ <    '0/
D=$A?;HAAE"9@!2"
$GL$80":;1E"-'
"#9L$!"$62=
"2<$D1?HDD=" @"
L0$  G $  /" :;1?" C*  " #
>'0$7GL0$"$<'0
/ D=$?DHF?"9@!2"
$20":;1E"M@/
"5D$<"
70$M'":;;E"3"
$'"
:4*=DE$:D?HD:<"
:;
C$d"M"1=A<" 6  >'2/@B&34
'1=DF61=D;'6"
!$ 0 G $ !" :;1?" T " # >'0$ 7 G
L0$ "$ <    '0/
D=$DAAHDE="9@!2"
!$0G$!G3$•":;1;"#"- 
" # !$ 0 G $! G 3$"$ =
 1 '  /M<?$1H1="9@
!"
!'$-7"1==?" 12=
2 @ 3"
!'$-7":;;:"+@"1(
1D$D:FHD?A"
!'$-7":;;A"126?2B&
@B&3"
!'$-7":;11" '"1
(::$1D1H1?D"
!'$-7":;1="+21"33"
23@33"
!L$C•":;;E"'"2B&@B&3"
$2":;11"
&",<?$D1HE;"
$7"1=?A"@=2="3'
-:A"4""@6-'3"
'$" :;1<"     " # '$
G $ dG C'$  "$ 133
  /"   2 :E:$ 1AFH:1A" 9@  !
2"
$2":;1<"1 +27'@7
'3"
$2 G $ " :;1F" 7   "# $
d"$+""2<?
$?FHF<".@!2,-3
-"
$ " :;1:"2 @   
"#9‘$G!'$ "$;
'21D$:<1H:?F"-@9L"
$":;1<" "!'"
#•$-" G2‡$ 9 "$ 6    /
 1?<$1DFH1?:"-@9L"
$":;1<'"3 !"1
,A$:;:H:D1"
$":;1A"8C$+0"0
 e 0+" # 0$ " G $
/2 G $  G .'$  "$ AB 5?3
'3.8?E$:=DHD;=".@9"
$":;1E"!@90'
 !"#9$ "G$"$1
:1
215 
-/:<$DFHF;"-@9L"
$":;1="2’“900
00@-e"7C@%?'=<$:FH
?;"
$  G $ ! "" :;1D" 67 
2B&@B&3"
/0$M.":;;E"152=2B&@B&
3"
/$d G /$ 3" :;;F" M” ” ”" R&  00  0
00"#7$7'G/$-2"$42A
$1=HE="/@"
2$•":;;="(2 '@ '3"
3$-+ G 3e$ " :;1<"     " 0 
0("# 9$dG0$ 
 G3e$ G M'$- "$ 1  
2( 3" 3 " / G
:F$:1=H:DE"9@!"
30$C":;1?" =  2+
    -  / 1F"-@
9L"
M''$d7"1==D"8";=2--'@2#
"
$dB":;1F"'@"-49+1
'E$1<<1"
L$d":;1="M"#G/-"$
622&'01?$D:=HDA<"9@22
"
$ !":;1<"   "#
9$dG0$ G3e$GM'$-"$1
 2(3 "3
"/G:F$:;1H:1E"9@!"
$2":;;D"12="0
2 '@3"
$7+' ":;;E"+A*A*"#9$-&
G$!'"$1/"
21=<$:DH<A"9@2!"
$3"1=EA"8/1;"B&@90"
T$d":;1A"
"4:@:;$?E;H?=D"
.$ " 1=A<" (  2 ,  2 D " /@
2"
[$-&" :;1F" 2 !c (
.D1$D?"
::
... • diachronic CxG (among many others, Noël, 2007;Barðdal, 2011;Traugott & Trousdale, 2013;Sommerer & Smirnova, 2020;Hilpert, 2021;Noël and Colleman, 2021), where constructionist ideas are brought to bear on questions of language change; • pedagogical or applied CxG (Holme, 2010;De Knop & Gilquin, 2016;Boas, 2022), which recognizes that language teaching should be all about constructions ("what else?" as Herbst (2016) remarks); • diasystematic CxG (Höder, 2012(Höder, , 2019Hendrikx & Van Goethem, 2018), which is interested in the representation of both language-specific and unspecific constructions in the linguistic competence of bilingual or multilectal speakers. ...
Book
Construction Grammar has gained prominence in linguistics, owing its popularity to its inclusive approach that considers language units of varying sizes and generality as potential constructions – mentally stored form-function units. This Element serves as a cautionary note against complacency and dogmatism. It emphasizes the enduring importance of falsifiability as a criterion for scientific hypotheses and theories. Can every postulated construction, in principle, be empirically demonstrated not to exist? As a case study, the author examines the schematic English transitive verb-particle construction, which defies experimental verification. He argues that we can still reject its non-existence using sound linguistic reasoning. But beyond individual constructions, what could be a crucial test for Construction Grammar itself, one that would falsify it as a theory? In making a proposal for such a test, designed to prove that speakers also exhibit pure-form knowledge, this Element contributes to ongoing discussions about Construction Grammar's theoretical foundations.
... Bergen, 2004;Höder, 2019, pp. 335, 339), and cross-linguistic sound correspondences in multilingual constructicons, as assumed in Diasystematic Construction Grammar (Höder, 2019;Hagel, 2020). A range of phonologically schematic types is illustrated in Table 5 (phonological schematicity is indicated by boldface; small-capital x means any element(s); cxns are listed in ascending order of schematicity). ...
Chapter
Full-text available
Swedish swearwords are predominantly religious in origin (e.g. fan ‘the Devil’, helvete ‘hell’, and jävlar ‘devils, demons’). The former taboo status of swearing is still reflected in the existence and productive use of taboo-avoiding strategies, most notably phonological modification (e.g. fasen < fan ‘the Devil’, helsicke < helvete ‘hell’). This paper discusses such taboo-avoiding strategies from the perspective of usage-based Construction Grammar. It argues that taboo-avoiding relies on schematic swearing constructions in combination with radical coercion in general and on submorphemic coercion in particular: The meaning of a taboo-avoiding expression is entirely constructional, and the lexical semantics of the slot-filling items is irrelevant. Evidence for the cognitive reality of phonologically schematic swearing constructions is found in a corpus-based analysis of selected taboo-avoiding patterns, which shows that swearing constructions are not only instantiated by lexicalized variants, but also used productively, as illustrated by infrequent types.
... De acordo com o modelo da GCxD, desenvolvido em Höder (2012;2014a, b;2018;2019), o contato linguístico está diretamente relacionado aos fenômenos estruturantes e regulares que formam as línguas em variadas situações de uso. Assim, o tratamento das diferentes formas de contato torna-se fundamental para o entendimento da interação cognitiva estabelecida entre os sistemas linguísticos no curso da formação da gramática multilíngue, que, entre outras coisas, caracteriza o multilinguismo a partir das funcionalidades (socio)pragmáticas de suas construções. ...
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O objetivo do presente artigo é abordar a discussão sobre aquisição de L1 e L2, a partir dos princípios teóricos da Gramática de Construções Diassistêmica (GCxD) - (HÖDER, 2018) - e da Gramática de Construções Baseada no Uso (GCBU) – (GOLDBERG, 2019): modelos de pressupostos construcionistas sobre o processamento e a realidade psicológica do conhecimento linguístico, seja de uma L1 e/ou de uma L2. Para essa discussão, dividimos o texto em duas partes. Na primeira, revisamos alguns princípios dos modelos abordados. Na segunda, ilustramos questões teóricas, a partir de dados e resultados advindos de pesquisas com foco no conhecimento gramatical de falantes não nativos do português brasileiro (PBL2) e do inglês (IL2). Os dados instanciam os padrões (i) [(ESP) N] – a construção de especificação nominal – no contexto de aquisição do PBL2 e (ii) [(X) VSN] – a construção de focalização por posposição de sujeito – no contexto de aquisição do IL2.
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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.
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Little research has been done on the way in which bilingual children acquire their first languages. This process – during which children acquire two languages simultaneously from birth – is known as bilingual first language acquisition (BFLA). Similarly, there is little research on the different language phenomena, such as code-switching, that can be observed when children acquire two closely related languages at once. Code-switching has not yet been investigated in a study involving Afrikaans-Dutch participants. Consequently, this study aimed to address this gap. To describe the code-switching in the speech of the group mentioned above, novel language data of eight preschool children between the ages of 2;3 and 6;4 who are raised bilingually in Afrikaans and Dutch in South Africa were collected and analysed. The parent-report method was employed to collect the data, and the data collection period lasted approximately two months. In aggregate, 123 utterances containing code-switching were analysed for the study. The study was undertaken within Steffen Höder’s (2014a) Diasystematic Construction Grammar (DCxG) because it provides a framework within which multilingual constructions can be analysed. DCxG is based on the general principles of traditional construction grammar (CxG) approaches but is specifically suited for analysing constructions that emerge from various language contact situations. As pointed out by Höder (2014a:138) and corroborated by Boas and Höder (2018:37) and Colleman (2018:146), language contact phenomena have only attracted the attention of a small number of construction grammarians in recent years. In fact, it also has a largely marginal status in prominent grammatical approaches. However, because of the ubiquitous nature of language contact phenomena (Boas & Höder, 2018:5), it cannot be excluded from grammatical approaches. From this perspective, DCxG was conceptualised. The main idea purported by DCxG is that a multilingual speaker’s grammar consists of two different types of constructions, namely idioconstructions and diaconstructions (Höder, 2012, 2014, 2018). These constructions respectively refer to the constructions that are unique to a specific language (idioconstructions) and the constructions that capture the overlap or similarities of the different languages (diaconstructions). Thus, a diaconstruction is a form-meaning mapping representing the mutual influence of the two (or more) languages on each other. Firstly, diaconstructions are formed by a cognitive process in which a multilingual speaker makes an interlingual identification between two (or more) corresponding idioconstructions. After that, the similarities in form and/or meaning of the respective idioconstructions are abstracted to a schematic construction through a process of generalisation. Finally, the diaconstruction is entrenched in the multilingual speaker’s grammar. The current study determined that the code-switching of the preschool, Afrikaans-Dutch participants mainly consists of intra-sentential code-switches (i.e., shifts that happen from one language or language variety to another in the middle of a word, phrase, or sentence) that take place on the (morfo-)lexical level. It was established that code-switching on the lexical level affects nouns more than any other part of speech, while verbs were affected the second most of all word classes. Furthermore, it was indicated that most of the constructions containing code-switching are structured in Afrikaans, with Afrikaans lexical items frequently being replaced with those from Dutch. Because of the overlap between Afrikaans and Dutch, these lexical items were mostly non-identical cognates (i.e., words that are etymologically related in Afrikaans and Dutch, but that differ graphemically) followed by the other two types of cognates that were identified, viz. non-cognates and false friends.
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This three-volume survey brings together a team of leading scholars to explore the syntactic and morphological structures of the world's languages. Clearly organized and broad-ranging, it covers topics such as parts-of-speech, passives, complementation, relative clauses, adverbial clauses, inflectional morphology, tense, aspect, mood, and diexis. The contributors look at the major ways that these notions are realized, and provide informative sketches of them at work in a range of languages. Each volume is accessibly written and clearly explains each concept introduced. Although the volumes can be read independently, together they provide an indispensable reference work for all linguists and fieldworkers interested in cross-linguistic generalizations. Most of the chapters in the second edition are substantially revised - some on topics not covered by the first edition. Volume III covers typological distinctions in word formation, lexical typologies, inflectional morphology, gender and noun classes, aspect, tense, mood, and lexical nominalization.
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The argument structure of verbs, defined as the part of grammar that deals with how participants in verbal events are expressed in clauses, is a classical topic in linguistics that has received considerable attention in the literature. This book investigates argument structure in English from a usage-based perspective, taking the view that the cognitive representation of grammar is shaped by language use, and that crucial aspects of grammatical organization are tied to the frequency with which words and syntactic constructions are used. On the basis of several case studies combining quantitative corpus studies and psycholinguistic experiments, it is shown how a usage-based approach sheds new light on a number of issues in argument realization and offers frequency-based explanations for its organizing principles at three levels of generality: verbs, constructions, and argument structure alternations.
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How is grammatical knowledge encoded in mental representations? While traditional accounts view grammar as a system of rules, construction-based theories assume declarative schemas – lexical entries with variables – as the locus of grammatical knowledge. Such schemas are evidently needed to encode productive patterns. However, morphological knowledge also includes relations between existing words, in patterns that cannot necessarily be productively extended. This contribution argues that such patterns can be encoded in two ways: by a ‘mother’ schema dominating the listed instances, or by ‘sister’ links between the instances themselves. Sister links are the more parsimonious option, since they do not require a superordinate layer in the constructional network. However, mother schemas can encode properties that sister links cannot. This paper aims to work out how the division of labour between sister links and mother schemas may be organized.
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The grammatical literature on Dutch generally distinguishes two “passive” alternatives to the active double object construction, one of which, the so-called krijgen-passive is a fairly recent addition to the grammar, the earliest reported examples dating from around 1900. The present paper addresses the early and subsequent history of this construction from a diachronic constructionist perspective. The first part of the paper uses data from the 1900-1935 volumes of the Dutch periodical De Gids to reconstruct the lexical and semantic range of the krijgen-passive in its very first decades of life, in order to investigate which (semantic and/or morphological) subclasses of ditransitive verbs played a pathbreaking role in the development of this new construction from other krijgen + participle constructions, i.e. in the constructionalization of the krijgen-passive. The second part of the paper looks into post-constructionalization semantic change, i.e. into the subsequent expansion of the newly emerged construction towards more sub-classes of ditransitive verbs, on the basis of data from the diachronic CONDIV-corpus (1950s to 1990s). Contra recent non-constructionist proposals, it will be argued that the krijgen-passive is an argument structure construction in its own right, with a semantic dynamics of its own, and that the apparently random constraints on its present-day distribution are less puzzling when viewed against the background of the construction’s genesis and subsequent semantic expansion.