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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.
Chapter
Construction Grammar is one of the fastest-growing branches of functional syntax. Bringing together an international team of scholars, this handbook provides a complete overview of the current issues and applications in this approach. Divided into six thematic parts, it covers the fundamental notions of Construction Grammar, its conceptual origins and the basic ideas that unite its various branches, its solid empirical grounding and affinities with corpus linguistics, and the diverse perspectives in constructional scholarship. It highlights advances in discourse-related topics and applications to various domains, including multimodal communication, language learning and teaching and computational linguistics, and each chapter contains numerous illustrative examples and case studies involving a variety of languages. It also includes in-depth, empirically-grounded analyses of diverse theoretical, methodological, and interdisciplinary issues, alongside step-by-step introductions to the theory, making it essential reading for both researchers and students working in functional and cognitive approaches to linguistic analysis and syntactic theory.
Chapter
Construction Grammar is one of the fastest-growing branches of functional syntax. Bringing together an international team of scholars, this handbook provides a complete overview of the current issues and applications in this approach. Divided into six thematic parts, it covers the fundamental notions of Construction Grammar, its conceptual origins and the basic ideas that unite its various branches, its solid empirical grounding and affinities with corpus linguistics, and the diverse perspectives in constructional scholarship. It highlights advances in discourse-related topics and applications to various domains, including multimodal communication, language learning and teaching and computational linguistics, and each chapter contains numerous illustrative examples and case studies involving a variety of languages. It also includes in-depth, empirically-grounded analyses of diverse theoretical, methodological, and interdisciplinary issues, alongside step-by-step introductions to the theory, making it essential reading for both researchers and students working in functional and cognitive approaches to linguistic analysis and syntactic theory.
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This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article to appear in Constructions and Frames published by John Benjamins (DOI to appear upon publication). Construction Grammar proposes an integrative model of linguistic knowledge, but the status of phonology has long been a black box in the framework. In this article, I consider the question of whether phonemes are constructions. I argue that phonemes are entrenched and conventionalised units emergent from usage, that they are clearly form-function pairs, and that their sensitivity to meaning seems less sporadic than previously assumed. This leads me to argue that assessing the constructionhood of phonemes requires a clear distinction between linguistic function and meaning, as well as a careful consideration of the social meaning of constructions.
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A obra é encerrada pelo capítulo de João Paulo da Silva Nascimento, Marcos Luiz Wiedemer e Bruno Guimarães da Silva, “Análise construcionista diassistêmica da escrita em inglês como L2: indícios da cognição multilíngue”. Nesse capítulo, são apresentadas reflexões sobre os fenômenos de interferência e supergeneralização nas produções escritas de aprendizes brasileiros de inglês como segunda língua (L2), a partir da perspectiva da cognição multilíngue e sob o viés da GCD. Os autores conduzem uma análise de textos escritos por alunos de escola pública, com o objetivo de avaliar as experiências desses aprendizes no uso de línguas em contato. As interferências e supergeneralizações são interpretadas como indicadores de “choques construcionais” entre construções da língua materna (L1) e da L2. Por outro lado, as divergências apontam para a prevalência de idioconstruções da língua materna no uso da L2, revelando a formação de um constructicon multilíngue emergente. Além disso, o texto explora as implicações do conhecimento multilíngue na prática do ensino de L2. Destaca-se a necessidade de adotar uma abordagem que considere a interação entre diferentes sistemas linguísticos e a cognição multilíngue dos aprendizes, a fim de promover uma educação mais eficaz nesse contexto.
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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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Aspectual meaning is often ambiguous in Afrikaans because the verb is not compulsorily marked for aspect. The inchoative aspect is a grammatical aspectual meaning that highlights the moment directly before the onset, the onset itself, or the moment directly after the onset of an action or change of state. A variety of strategies can be used in Afrikaans to express the inchoative aspect, one of which being auxiliary verb constructions. Ten auxiliary verbs can occur in inchoative constructions in Afrikaans, namely: begin ('begin'), gaan ('go'), kom ('come'), loop ('walk), raak ('become'), sit ('sit'), slaan ('hif), spring ('jump'), steek ('stab) and val ('fall'). These auxiliary verbs function as inchoative aspectual markers in two kinds of constructions: as direct linking verbs in inchoative constructions or as indirect linking verbs (either with or without progressive periphrastic constructions). All of the auxiliary verbs that can express inchoative meaning do not occur in all of the possible constructions. For instance, slaan ('hit') exclusively occurs as an inchoative marker in auxiliary constructions with the progressive periphrastic construction aan die ('on the') together with the main verb collocate brand ('to burn'). This article, therefore, does not investigate all ten auxiliary verbs that can occur in inchoative constructions but solely focuses on the direct linking verb constructions in which gaan and loop occur as cognate inchoative auxiliaries. In this article, the Watkykjy! corpus, Taalkommissie corpus and NWU Commentary corpus are used to investigate the frequencies and usage patterns of gaan and loop as direct linking verbs in inchoative constructions. Construction Grammar (CxG) and Grammaticalisa-tion Theory are used as theoretical frameworks to describe the similarities and differences in use of loop and gaan as direct linking verbs in inchoative constructions. CxG provides a useful theoretical framework for the identification of the constructions and descriptions of the nuances between the two constructions, should any be present. Grammaticalisation Theory provides a framework in which the main verb collocates for gaan and loop in these inchoative constructions can be used to establish the degree to which these verbs have evolved to express additional meanings or perform additional functions. The results of the corpus study indicate that these gaan and loop inchoative constructions are formally and structurally similar, but that there are semantic nuances expressed by using one rather than the other. Collostruction analyses indicate both gaan and loop retain some of their lexical meaning in certain contexts where they are used to express inchoative aspectual meaning. However, gaan can be used in a larger variety of linguistic contexts and with a larger variety of main verb collocates. Gaan is, therefore, more grammaticalised and less constricted in its uses than loop. This result was expected because gaan has grammaticalised to function as a future tense marker and modal marker expressing epistemic modality in Afrikaans, which correlate with the grammaticalisation route for verbs like gaan in other languages. Whilst it was expected that loop would be less grammaticalised than gaan because loop is not commonly considered to function as a future tense marker in Afrikaans, it is, however, noteworthy that loop seems to have evolved to denote some kind of modal meaning. The loop inchoative construction is more frequently used in imperatives, occurs with a smaller variety of main verb collocates and tends to be used in contexts where the speaker is expressing a dislike for or disapproval of the situation being expressed by the main verb, or aims to evoke a negative emotional response from the receiver of the utterance towards the situation expressed by the main verb. This is indicative of loop being more specialised for imperatives, pejoratives and cases where the speaker expresses their own dislike or disapproval, or hopes to evoke these feelings in the receiver of the utterance, towards the situation expressed by the main verb. It, therefore, seems that loop has evolved to function as a kind of deontic modal marker. This supports the findings of other researchers who note that loop expresses modality in progressive constructions.
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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.