Search

This study investigates the relative roles of frequency and transparency in native speakers’ comprehension of Spanish object relative sentences by comparing performance with two variants of the construction that differ in these properties. Experiment 1 suggests that seven- to eight-year-old children’s processing of object relative sentences is consistently facilitated by variant frequency and likely relies on separate representations for each variant as two different, although related constructions. Experiment 2 turns to adult comprehension of the two variants, showing similar accuracy and reaction time patterns for both variants for this population. This second outcome could be interpreted as a decrease in frequency effects over time, in line with the power law of practice, as an experience-based increase in the ability to make use of redundant markers, or both. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The parts of speech system and lexical flexibility in Mandarin Chinese (henceforth Chinese) has long been subjects of debate due to the pervasive zero coding of action reference constructions. In this article, we analyze properties of the Chinese Action Reference Construction from the perspective of Radical Construction Grammar (Croft 2001, 2022), focusing on its structural coding, behavioral potential, productivity, and semantic shifts. We also discuss typological features that potentially reinforce lexical flexibility in Chinese, and the implications that the language-specific properties of Chinese present for cross-linguistic discussions of parts of speech. Specifically, reference, instead of predication, is the most flexible information-packaging function in Chinese, challenging the privileged status of predication established in previous studies on parts of speech and lexical flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study conducts a multimodal discourse analysis of the live streaming of Jiaqi Li, a well-known Chinese streamer. Integrating systemic functional grammar and systemic visual grammar to explore the construction of interpersonal meanings in Li's live streams, the authors found that Li uses verbal semiotics to convey information and feelings and, more important, to create his different interactive roles as an authoritative opinion leader, a protector of consumers' benefits, and a friend who shares his experiences and recommends products. This study offers insight into e-commerce discourse and communication, adding to the literature on live streaming in commerce and business communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While linguistics traditionally keeps lexicon separate from grammar, Construction Grammar takes the grammatical construction as the basic unit of language. A grammatical construction integrates the roles of lexemes with their typical grammatical contexts, suggesting the advantages of a comprehensive approach. Furthermore, according to Construction Grammar, grammatical constructions comprise a system in which constructions mutually reinforce each other. We reveal the complex connections among Russian grammatical constructions that emerge from the Russian Constructicon, a resource with over 2200 annotated constructions. We achieve this by focusing on a single semantic subclass of 110 constructions labeled Sets and elements. Our analysis follows the connections among constructions through two domains: semantics and syntax. We find that all constructions fit into groupings at various levels of semantic schematicity, as well as presenting various syntactic dimensions. A given construction has affinities both to constructions with similar meanings and with similar form, and any given construction may have multiple affinities in either or both of these domains. Through our focus on multiword grammatical constructions, we reach beyond traditional approaches that separate words from grammar, instead viewing words in their grammatical context and grammar in its lexical context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Or" is associated, in Gricean approaches, with the readings Inclusive ("at least one, and possibly both, options are true") and Exclusive ("exactly one option is true"). Empirical findings show adults favoring Exclusive readings; but for children, the literature yields puzzling results. Laboratory comprehension tasks suggest children favor Inclusive, but naturalistic evidence suggests children's "or" productions are overwhelmingly Exclusive. We first identify problems with previous research. Methodologically, asking children to provide truth judgements (the dominant experimental task) is not a child-friendly task. And theoretically, Inclusive and Exclusive are not optimal categories for classifying "or" readings. To resolve the comprehension-production puzzle, we adopt Ariel and Mauri's richer analytic classification of "or" constructions, where Inclusive and Exclusive as such are not speaker-intended readings, and there are several, rather than one, "single-option" (Exclusive) readings. We apply this framework in analyzing the Berman corpus of Hebrew child language; and in designing a new, more ecologically valid, experimental task. Study 1 shows that in child-directed-speech, one specific Exclusive "or" construction, Choice Immediate (e.g., ↗Chocolates? Or ↘jelly beans?), is (i) the single dominant "or" function addressed to children, (ii) the one "or" reading children consistently respond appropriately to, and (iii) virtually the only "or" construction children produce. In Study 2, we present young children with a task involving this familiar "or" construction. The children respond with adult-like mastery even in the absence of a supporting context. These empirical findings argue for a usage-based account of how children acquire "or". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of 'snowclones' has gained interest in recent research on linguistic creativity and in studies of extravagance and expressiveness in language. However, no clear criteria for identifying snowclones have yet been established, and detailed corpus-based investigations of the phenomenon are still lacking. This paper addresses this research gap in a twofold way. On the one hand, we develop an operational definition of snowclones, arguing that three criteria are decisive: (i) the existence of a lexically fixed source construction; (ii) partial productivity; (iii) 'extravagant' formal and/or functional characteristics. On the other hand, we offer an empirical investigation of two patterns that have often been mentioned as examples of snowclones in the previous literature, namely [ the mother of all X] and [X BE the new Y]. We use collostructional analysis and distributional semantics to explore the partial productivity of both patterns' slot fillers. In sum, we argue that the concept of snowclones, if properly defined, can contribute substantially to our understanding of creative language use, especially regarding the question of how social, cultural, and interpersonal factors influence the choice of more or less salient linguistic constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper addresses the notion of multimodal constructions. It argues that Tell me about it is a multimodal construction that consists of a fixed spoken and a variable, but largely obligatory multimodality slot on the formal side of the construction. To substantiate this claim, the paper reports on an experiment that shows that, first, hearers experience difficulties in interpreting Tell me about it when it is neither sequentially nor multimodally marked as either requesting or stance-related and, second, hearers considerably rely on multimodal features when a sequential context is missing. In addition, the experiment also shows that the more features are used, the better hearers get at guessing the meaning of Tell me about it. These results suggest that, independent of the question of whether the multimodal features associated with requesting or stance-related Tell me about it are non-spoken, unimodal constructions themselves (like a raised eyebrows construction), a schematic multimodality slot might be part of the constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the development of the existential sign var 'there' in Turkish Sign Language from a synchronic point of view. The sign has been previously described as being restricted to clause-final predicate position and typically used for two main linguistic functions: (i) existential and (ii) possessive. However, abundant corpus evidence indicates that var can also be used for other linguistic functions in post-verbal position, which have not been reported in the literature before. Following Construction Grammar, this study presents a theoretical framework to investigate how the construction [verb + var] arose and what its semantic motivation is, paying particular attention to the notion of possession. It is argued that this construction has three different functions: (i) habitual, (ii) evidential, and (iii) assumptive. According to this account, var originated as an existential marker and subsequently developed into a marker of possession, before evolving to encompass its other linguistic functions in three stages. Using Labov's Apparent Time Hypothesis (Labov, William. 1963. The social motivation of a sound change. Word 19(3). 273–309), closer examination also revealed that a progressive difference exists between age groups. Younger TİD signers use the construction [verb + var] more frequently, and as the age of the TİD signer decreases, the usage of this construction in the assumptive function increases considerably. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expression of binominal concepts, i. e. the combination of two nominal concepts, varies between the world's languages qualitatively as well as with regard to quantitative proportions (Pepper 2020; Pepper et al. 2023). The combination of a noun and a relational adjective (NArel) is a frequently applied option, amongst others in Polish and French, which we focus on in this paper. Both languages show high proportions of postponed attributive adjectives and deviate from the other Slavic respective Romance languages in this trait.In our paper we take a constructionist perspective and compare the expression of binominal concepts in Polish and French based on a qualitative and quantitative analysis of AN and NA constructions and their constructional equivalents (especially N Prep N) in the Polish and French translations of Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita (Parasol Corpus). The results show that NArel constructions are of high relevance for the expression of binominals in Polish with lower proportions for NNgen, N Prep N and ArelN, whereas in French N Prep N is predominant, followed by NArel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Slovo a Slovesnost is the property of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Czech Language Institute and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The present research has aimed at describing and also qualitive and quantities analysis of constructions in Shushtari dialect called expressions based on construction grammar proposed by Fillmore et al (1988) and syntax-lexicon continuum (Croft, 2001). Data collection has been done using both field and library method from Shushtari native speakers and “Dictionaries of Shushtari Dialect” (Niroud, 1977 & Fazeli, 2004). First, with the help of the tools in the construction grammar, the analysis of Shushtari expressions based on the classification of Fillmore et al. (1988) has been attempted, and their frequency has been measured. The results indicate that Shushtari dialect idiomatic constructions fall into four categories of encoding/decoding, formal/substantive, grammatical/extra grammatical, and with pragmatic point/without pragmatic point. Idioms and the percentage of frequency of each terminology category was as follows: 47 decoding (57%) vs. 62 encoding idioms (43%), 91 substantive (83.5%) vs. 18 formal idioms (16.5%), 96 without pragmatic point (88%) vs. 13 with pragmatic point idioms (12%). None of the data is extragrammatical and as a result%100of the data is grammatical idioms. Also, the data examined, have been placed in complex and specific constructions in Croft's proposed syntax-lexicon continuum (2001).IntroductionThe branch of linguistics that studies dialects is called dialectology (Chambers and Trudgill, 1998: 3). Considering the fact that Iranian languages and dialects are intangible heritage of Iranians and their codification and preservation are essential, this study investigates one of the Iranian dialects called Shushtari. The Shushtari dialect is one of the southwestern dialects in Iran, specifically in Khuzestan province, which is very close to dialects such as Lori, Bakhtiari, and Dezfuli. This connection is rooted in the history of Aryan migration to Iran (Fazeli, 2006). A dialect is a technical term used to describe a variety of languages that, despite having phonetic, lexical, and grammatical differences, allow their speakers mutual intelligibility (Abdolkarimi, 2017: 64). According to these definitions, Shushtari can be considered a dialect. The authors aim to study this dialect, particularly its idioms, within the framework of Construction Grammar as the basis of data analysis. The researchers in this study seek to answer the following questions: 1. What are the types of Shushtari dialect idioms/expressions within the framework of Fillmore et al.'s (1988) Construction Grammar? 2. What reality is hidden behind the quantitative analysis of the different types of Shushtari dialect idioms/expressions within the framework of Construction Grammar?Theoretical FrameworkCognitive linguistics is a multi-aspectual theory that includes theories such as Conceptual Metaphor and Frame Semantics; one of the syntactic frameworks in this field is Construction Grammar. This grammatical model was first introduced by Charles Fillmore and colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Fillmore (1988) outlined the fundamental principles of Construction Grammar and the distinctions between the Construction Grammar approach, transformational grammar, and the grammar of phrasal structures in an article entitled "The Mechanisms of Construction Grammar" (Zhukovska, 2021: 65). In addition to this article, Fillmore et al. (1998) have published another paper in this field in which they analyzed expressional constructions using the mentioned approach. Many researchers, including Goldberg (1995; 2002), Michaelis and Lambrecht (1996), Kay and Fillmore (1999), and Croft (2001) became interested in Construction Grammar.The research on Shushtari dialect, expressional constructions in general, and studies focused on Construction Grammar have not examined any of the expressional constructions of the Shushtari dialect. As a result, the expressional constructions of this dialect have not been studied or analyzed from a cognitive perspective. Construction Grammar discusses the linearity of syntax, the meaning of symbolic units, patterns, and classes of words. In this framework, each construction and pattern has an inherent meaning. As in other cognitive linguistic patterns, there is no definitive distinction between lexicon and syntax. Lexical and syntactic structures differ in terms of internal complexity and definite phonological forms, and their similarity lies in the formation of all structures by meaning (Goldberg, 1995: 4-7). Kay and Fillmore (1999: 7), quoted by Evans and Green (2006: 653), believe that Construction Grammar can examine and explain the properties of idiomatic expressions of languages, in addition to everyday language. The characteristic of Construction Grammar patterns is their linearity; that is, instead of any structural pattern being the result of a sequence of transformational structures, it consists of only one level of syntactic representation. Furthermore, representations in Construction Grammar include semantic and functional information in addition to syntactic information. In Construction Grammar, the study of grammar is not accepted without considering the meaning and conceptual aspects of grammatical elements. Grammatical structures are considered basic symbolic units, showing the unconditional presence of meaning within them. Construction Grammars are distinguished from transformational grammars by the absence of transformational rules. In Construction Grammars, grammatical relations are determined throughout the grammar as a whole (Fillmore et al., 1988: 35).Discussion and ConclusionsIn this research, based on four categories of expressional constructions introduced by Fillmore et al. (1988), Shushtari dialect expressional constructions were investigated, and three categories of expressional constructions were identified: encoding/decoding, formal/substantive, and grammatical/extra-grammatical, with pragmatic point/without pragmatic point. However, in the grammatical/extra-grammatical category of idioms, no examples of extra-grammatical idioms were found in the Shushtari dialect. The frequency of idioms in each terminology category was as follows: 47 decoding (43%) vs. 62 encoding idioms (57%), 91 substantive (83.5%) vs. 18 formal idioms (16.5%), 96 without pragmatic point (88%) vs. 13 with pragmatic point idioms (12%). None of the data are extra-grammatical, and as a result, 100% of the data are grammatical idioms. Additionally, the data examined were placed in complex and specific constructions in Croft's proposed syntax-lexicon continuum (2001).The formal/substantive interaction analysis is investigated in an independent paper. According to Croft's syntactic terminology continuum (2001), the studied data in this research are located in complex and specific constructions. Semantically speaking, the number of constructions without semantic compositionality is lower than those with semantic compositionality, because they increase the memory load of speakers. Therefore, Shushtari speakers have fewer linguistic constructions in mind that are associated with specific use.Since there has not been a sociological study to show the relationship between the types of common linguistic structures in a geographical area, especially in Shushtar, and cultural realities and beliefs, presenting the above hypotheses can motivate such research to confirm or disprove the hypotheses and present new findings to researchers in the fields of sociology, ethnography, and dialectology.

The present contribution starts from Goldberg and Perek’s (2019) analysis of gapping within a constructionist framework. The authors promote their analysis as surpassing non-constructionist takes on gapping and ellipsis more generally. In particular, they claim predictive power. That this is not the whole truth is explained in detail in this contribution. It is shown which predictions can be made from their perspective versus from a generative perspective and it is discussed whether they are borne out. Furthermore, I highlight how the predictions relate to the fundamentals of the respective theories and, as a consequence, how they differ in kind.

While previous studies have investigated the productivity of the better construction (in the forms had better, ’d better and better) in British and US English (USE), to present knowledge, no large‐scale comparisons on the use of this construction in other English dialects have been carried out. The present paper aims to address the existing research gap by exploring the synchronic use and grammaticalization rate of better in 20 world Englishes. The analysis of corpus data reveals that better is more grammaticalized in USE than in British English, and even more in Singapore English (SgE) data, where the construction seems to be more grammaticalized than in any other dialect. The hypothesis of a functional need in SgE for deontic better is tested. It is shown why SgE ‘needs’ alternative deontic constructions in a modal system where (semi‐)modals of necessity have been shown to express higher rates of ‘dynamic’ modality than in other dialects. The substrate reinforcement from a parallel construction in Mandarin is presented as a potential driving factor justifying the selection of better as a deontic marker in this particular variety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Encoding of nominal predication constructions (NPC) is an essential component in typological debates concerning lexical flexibility and parts of speech. This study investigates encoding strategies of NPCs in 65 verb-initial languages from 20 language families. The results indicate that the combinations of a zero strategy and certain other typological features are cross-linguistically disfavored due to non-iconicity. The varying degree of lexical flexibility observed among languages reflects a competition between economy and iconicity, as in many other aspects of linguistic diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many languages, an argument external to a nominal can be interpreted as a possessor of that nominal. Korean and Spanish both have such constructions, but the external possessors contrast in their case features, grammatical functions, distribution, and semantic properties (e.g. alienability). This paper develops a Construction Grammar account that treats external possessors as unselected arguments licensed through a conventional implicature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a special issue of the journal Languages in Contrast, featuring papers presented at the 10th International Contrastive Linguistics Conference. The aim of the conference series is to promote cross-linguistic research from various theoretical and methodological perspectives. The collection of articles in this special issue focuses on the contrastive study of linguistic constructions, including future constructions, classifier and quantifier constructions, external possession constructions, embedded exclamative constructions, existential and presentational constructions, and converbs. The studies analyze these constructions using corpus-based methods and include a variety of language pairs. The papers provide empirical and theoretical insights into these linguistic phenomena. [Extracted from the article]

This paper explores a constructionist and corpus-based approach to Old English formulaic language through an analysis of the "maþelode system" of speech introductions. The analysis is performed on a section of the York-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Old English Poetry, comprising the poems Beowulf, Battle of Brunanburh, and Exodus. The results show that most instances of the maþelode system belong to a well-attested construction continuum, structured by the widespread Old English (and ultimately Germanic) poetic devices of variation and kenning. This continuum ranges from more fixed repetitions that exclusively involve the verb maþelian to more schematic patterns that are also attested by other speech verbs, by verbs of giving, as well as by a number of further verbs of various semantic types. The particularly high frequency of this pattern with speech verbs and verbs of giving matches the prominent role, highlighted by previous studies, of both word-exchange and gift-exchange within Old English heroic ideology, and suggests that these formulaic patterns served the purpose to characterize the protagonists of speech or giving events as heroic and/or lordly figures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to examine the functional and formal features of the construction here’s hoping. Our analysis is informed by the frameworks of construction grammar (Fried, 2010, 2013), grammaticalization (Fried, 2009; Himmelmann, 2004), subjectification (Company, 2006) and impersonalization (Siewierska, 2008). The construction seems to have developed a novel subjectified function, i.e. to express the speaker’s positive expectation while retaining a degree of tentativeness and distance. The data for the analysis was excerpted from the corpus English Web 2021 (enTenTen21). The internal and external features of the construction (e.g. the (non-)deictic function of here, fixedness, syntactic isolation, initial position) together with the overall expansion of the semantic and pragmatic context and the gradual host-class expansion suggest that the process of grammaticalization/subjectification is currently under way (cf. Fried, 2010; Company, 2006). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are broad disagreements between existing models regarding the mental representations and processes involved in the "DEGREE ADVERB + PROPER NAME" construction, including divergences regarding the semantics of the degree device, the category status of the proper name, the construction's expressed meaning, its compositionality, and, crucially, the operation holding between the degree device and the proper name. Our corpus-based investigation of two competing models from Construction Grammar and Formal Semantics shows that while both make useful contributions to the scientific understanding of the construction, neither is empirically adequate. Most importantly, we find that the construction participates in several non-predicted expressed meanings; multivariate analyses show that the three meanings amenable to statistical analysis cluster with different semantic usage-features. We argue that the best way to account for the construction's semantics/pragmatics is via a previously-dismissed cognitive mechanism: an enrichment/strengthening-type operation whereby a pragmatically-supplied scale is added to the message. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Second language acquisition studies have mainly considered transfer between two or more languages as a binary setting, it either happens or does not. However, research emerging out of usage-based approaches show that such transfer effects might be more gradient than ever thought before (e.g., Goschler & Stefanowitsch, 2019). Investigating a construction that has been reported to pose problems such as overpassivization to L2 English learners, i.e., unaccusatives, this study aims to trace gradient transfer effects between Turkish and English in the intransitive-unaccusative construction in Turkish learners of English. Following Goschler and Stefanowitsch's (2019) method to analyze, extract experimental items from English and Turkish corpora, and experiment with collostructional transfer effects, the study revealed similar findings. Findings suggest that learners are likely to transfer strongly entrenched L1 items into the L2 even at advanced proficiency levels. Interestingly, when the item is weakly entrenched in L1, speakers attune to the input in L2 with growing proficiency. Furthermore, proficiency or experience helps with preempting non-optimal constructional combinations. Pedagogically, the study suggests that collo-profiles may help teachers and students with mitigating unconventional item-construction combinations at advanced levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to take a usage-based constructionist approach to the observation of the emergence of constructions in L2 speakers of English from a bird’s eye perspective and align certain of them with Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) levels. To do this, five equally balanced subparts from the EFCAMDAT corpus were compiled and analyzed using TAASSC and SPSS. The findings confirm previous studies in that they show strong evidence that speakers with lower proficiency levels use fixed or prototypical expressions and do not deviate as much as those with higher levels from conventional ways of combining constructions, i.e., collexemes. The ten highest and lowest frequency constructions do not show a developmental trajectory. Finally, the study presents a set of constructions aligned to each CEFR level which can serve as a rudimentary table of alignment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study introduces a novel instructional approach to teaching a Chinese construction to college students in a foreign language classroom. Based on the framework of the construction-grammar approach to language acquisition, this study tested the effect of construction-based teaching, which integrates formal and semantic aspects of language with contextually meaningful visual scenes, in Korean-speaking Chinese learners' acquisition of the Chinese Ba construction. Two groups of Chinese learners, who were enrolled in second-semester college-level Chinese classes, received constructional (n = 33) or form-focused instruction (n = 33) for 13 weeks. Results from elicited production and grammaticality judgment tasks implemented preceding and following the instruction showed that the constructional instruction group had improvements to a greater extent than the form-focused instruction group. These findings underscore the validity of the construction-grammar approach as an effective teaching method in foreign language learning settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many traditions of aspectual analysis, verbs (or, rather, predications) are sorted into Aristotelian types, and grammatical aspects are seen as operators that (a) take tenseless propositions as arguments and (b) change the eventuality type of the proposition. This tradition tells us little about how state and action clauses mean what they mean, because it does not explain how aspectual markers affect the meanings of verbs with which they combine. In the present framework, aspectually sensitive constructions selectively bind to componential verb representations, permuting them. In part 1 of this series (Michaelis, 2022), I argued that by viewing such permutations as operations on a verb's Aktionsart structure, we can explain the relationship between input and output situation types of aspectual mappings effected by verbal morphosyntax. In this article, part 2, I apply this framework to type shifts performed by the English Perfect and Progressive constructions, as well as past and present tenses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue examines the question of how both formal(ist) and functional(ist) accounts or elements of theorizing can contribute to the explanation of (morpho)syntactic variation. Are formal and functional approaches really irreconcilable with each other, as often seems to be taken for granted by their respective advocates? It will be argued instead that they are rather complementary and that both can make a valuable contribution to explaining linguistic variation, in synchronic as well as diachronic respects. The integration of ways of looking at a certain phenomenon or problem from the respective other camp is proven to provide a significant added value and should not be excluded. The volume focuses on several Germanic languages and dialects, more specifically on German, Dutch, and Swedish varieties. It unites different formal and functional perspectives and, not least, it considers also semantic and phonological factors. The models covered include different versions of generative grammar, information-based morphology, construction grammar/construction morphology, natural morphology, and sociolinguistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article conducts a corpus linguistics analysis of the dative–genitive subconstruction within the broader context of Old English double object complementation. The ditransitive construction in Old English has traditionally been perceived as a network of alternating subconstructions, including dat-acc, acc-dat, acc-gen, dat-gen, and acc-acc, as the most productive variants. Recent literature has primarily focused on dat-accs and acc-dats because they are the most productive patterns across the history of English, giving also rise to the current ditransitive construction. However, the less productive case frames have received considerably less recent attention. This work, part of an ongoing investigation aimed at creating an OE dat-gen database, builds upon Visser's list, verified and implemented by findings obtained from a search conducted in the Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus. We obtain 88 verb types and 443 tokens, incorporating 19 new verb types and 260 tokens into the database. More significantly, we offer a detailed description of the conceptual domains and verb classes associated with OE dat-gens, which display a semantics characterized by the presence or absence of actual transfer, as well as transitions from literal to metaphorical transfer, with speech verbs playing a significant role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creativity is a design feature of human language. This paper presents a cognitive model of verbal creativity that draws on insights from the psychological research into creativity--particularly Glăveanu's 5A model that distinguishes five crucial perspectives on a creative act (actors, audience, artefacts, actions and affordances). The paper will outline a linguistic version of this model that adopts Construction Grammar as its theoretical foundation. The resulting "5C model of constructional creativity" argues that the central elements of linguistic creativity are constructors, co-constructors, constructs, constructional blending and the constructional network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent psycholinguistic research underscores the significance of multiword units in language processing and acquisition, aligning with the Chunk‐and‐Pass framework. In this study, 55 low‐proficiency Japanese English learners and 27 native English speakers undertook a phrasal decision task featuring two trigram types: syntactically and semantically complete (send me letters) and fragmental (send me two) across four construction types (phrasal verb, simple transitive verb, caused‐motion verb, and ditransitive verb constructions). Results revealed that while native speakers distinguished between the trigram types, Japanese learners did less so. Additionally, Japanese learners struggled more with the ditransitive construction compared to other types, a challenge not faced by native speakers. This indicates that Japanese English learners may lack native‐like multiword chunking skills and that the learners' processing efficiency differs by construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a review of the book "Reconnecting form and meaning: In honour of Kristin Davidse," which is a collection of essays that delve into various linguistic topics. The book is divided into three sections, each exploring different aspects of linguistics. The review highlights the book's descriptive nuances and theoretical implications, while also questioning the categorization of certain linguistic constructions. Overall, the book provides a deeper understanding of linguistic subjects and showcases the influential role of Kristin Davidse in the field. [Extracted from the article]

This article combines ideas and concepts deriving from grammaticalization studies, cognitive linguistics and construction grammar. Specifically, it takes three important ideas developed within grammaticalization research, namely untypical context, bridging or critical context and isolating or switch context (Evans & Wilkins 2000, 2006; Heine 2002), and remodels them with the concepts construct and construction. This enables the definition of three salient construct types present in historical corpora that are placed in the continuum between individual variation and language change: extensional constructs, ambiguous constructs and adaptive constructs. Each construct type characterizes a specific phase in language change. The data presented as illustration of the construct types stem from historical and contemporary corpora of written French, Italian and Spanish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a novel perspective on Agentive Cognitive Construction Grammar (AgCCxG) by examining the intricate interplay between mind and language through the lens of both Active Inference and Peircean semiotics. AgCCxG emphasizes the impact of intention and purpose on linguistic choices as a cognitive imperative to balance the symbolic Self (Intelligent Agent) with the dynamics of the environment. Among other things, the paper posits that linguistic constructions, particularly Constructional Attachment Patterns (CAPs), like argument structure constructions, embody experienced interactions with the world through reenactment routines via the integration of multisensory channels. Unlike traditional usage-based approaches (e.g., construction grammars), AgCCxG embraces a robust theory of signs that reveals human representation as a continuous process of semiotic hybridization for the creative prediction of uncertain scenarios. Importantly, the paper challenges the notion of the mind as a unified, rational, uncertainty-reducing machine by asserting that physical processes governing open biological systems profoundly influence the linguistic sign system. Intelligent agents' adaptability in expressing incongruous realities thus highlights the role of semiotic hybridization in preserving an agent's autonomy and semiotic boundary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Or” is associated, in Gricean approaches, with the readings Inclusive (“at least one, and possibly both, options are true”) and Exclusive (“exactly one option is true”). Empirical findings show adults favoring Exclusive readings; but for children, the literature yields puzzling results. Laboratory comprehension tasks suggest children favor Inclusive, but naturalistic evidence suggests children’s “or” productions are overwhelmingly Exclusive. We first identify problems with previous research. Methodologically, asking children to provide truth judgements (the dominant experimental task) is not a child-friendly task. And theoretically, Inclusive and Exclusive are not optimal categories for classifying “or” readings. To resolve the comprehension-production puzzle, we adopt Ariel and Mauri’s richer analytic classification of “or” constructions, where Inclusive and Exclusive as such are not speaker-intended readings, and there are several, rather than one, “single-option” (Exclusive) readings. We apply this framework in analyzing the Berman corpus of Hebrew child language; and in designing a new, more ecologically valid, experimental task. Study 1 shows that in child-directed-speech, one specific Exclusive “or” construction, Choice Immediate (e.g., ↗Chocolates? Or ↘jelly beans?), is (i) the single dominant “or” function addressed to children, (ii) the one “or” reading children consistently respond appropriately to, and (iii) virtually the only “or” construction children produce. In Study 2, we present young children with a task involving this familiar “or” construction. The children respond with adult-like mastery even in the absence of a supporting context. These empirical findings argue for a usage-based account of how children acquire “or”.

The critical reception of early nineteenth-century Italian opera has long focused on its supposed cloying sweetness. This sweetness, often framed as amorous, shaped the discourse and affective experiences of primo ottocento opera. Stendhal, for instance, likened Gioachino Rossini's music to lusciously ripe fruit and to sexual arousal. Adolf Bernhard Marx found a concert of Mercadante arias to leave the bitter "aftertaste of lots of sugar." And August Wilhelm Ambros compared Rossini's melodies to gazing into the eyes of a Titian nude. This article proposes that amorous sweetness was associated with the vocal serenade, a genre evocative of sweet melodies and the ardent love of courtship. The musical elements that articulated serenade topics, what Stephen Rumph calls figurae, saturated slow movements of early nineteenth-century Italian opera. These included pizzicato strings, sustained winds, parallel thirds, and modulations to mediant keys. Although these figurae may appear in conjunction with diegetic serenades or topical serenade passages, they also frequently appeared independent of dramatically appropriate amorous situations. This article proposes that a common configuration of serenade figurae acted as a stock orchestral texture. This convention is modeled as a musical construction: the serenade construction. It paired musical structures with the semantic meanings of the serenade. In its evocation of serenading, the serenade construction preserved scripted listening strategies for attending to vocal melodies and their associated affective responses. It consequently regulated the perception of vocal timbre and perceived melodicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the so-called transitive out of -ing construction, characterised by the structure of NP subject + V1 + NP object + out of VP2[-ing] predicate with corpus data (e.g., I cheated you all out of being in my life), and offers a construction-based account of the construction. In this paper, based on 725 examples from COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English), we first explore its real-life uses in terms of the verbs frequently found in the V1 slot, favoured distribution patterns based on their semantic classes, subject types, preferred interpretation types, and frequent V1-V2[-ing] pairs, adopting collostructional analyses. We then show that the overall grammatical properties of the transitive out of -ing construction as well as the idiosyncrasies of its two atypical variants can be best accounted for in the Construction Grammar perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tests the morphological gradience theory on Russian prefixed verbs. With the help of a specially designed experiment, I offer evidence that verbs with prefixes that have prepositional counterparts and verbs with prefixes that exist only as bound morphemes reveal significant differences in terms of their morphological decomposition. In the pronunciation of native speakers, there tends to be a significantly longer silent period between prepositional prefixes and bases than between unprepositional prefixes and bases due to the compositional nature of the former and the non-compositional nature of the latter. Drawing on these findings, I contend that Russian prefixed verbs can be analysed as constructional schemas and that the degree of their morphological decomposition depends upon the different levels of activation of their sequential and lexical links. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phraseology is undergoing a paradigm shift largely due to the application of techniques and concepts from other related disciplines. This paper combines big data analysis with the principles of construction grammar. It includes an automatic extraction protocol for the resultative constructional idioms with de quicio. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data are performed in order to draw conclusions about the adequacy of the corpora selected for analysis, the relationships established between these constructions and more schematic ones, as well their distribution, frequency, and productivity, with a focus on "global" Spanish and its diatopic varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights theoretical issues in construction grammar and presents a simple computational language model as a preliminary solution to these issues. The specific issues dealt with are the lack of explicit definition of syntactic categories and the lack of explicit proposals regarding how constructions can be learned from linguistic experience. The proposed language model, called the "analogical path model", learns two-word syntactic patterns from sentences by finding distributional analogies between word pairs. The theoretical relevance and implications of the analogical path model are discussed at the end of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English comparative modals are combinations of the adverbs rather , sooner and better with an auxiliary. There is recent consensus that the comparative modals rather and sooner have over time developed a different syntax and semantics than better. However, potential differences in the syntax of rather and sooner with respect to patterns of complementation haven't been explored. This article reports the results of a corpus study of these two modals and finds that rather patterns like object-raising verbs, allowing a range of complements that are unavailable for sooner. Our analysis of these patterns draws on recent work in the Construction Grammar framework, with forays into its formal implementation, Sign-Based Construction Grammar, and we propose that rather differs from sooner in that it constitutes a micro-construction whose features are licensed by both the Modal Construction and the Object-Raising Construction, the latter a subtype of the Transitive Construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The text discusses a book titled "Construction Grammar across Borders," which explores the field of Construction Grammar and its impact on various areas of linguistic study. The book includes chapters that examine the theoretical compatibility of Construction Grammar with related approaches, the role of semantics in grammatical description, and the application of Construction Grammar in historical linguistics. The authors present different perspectives and propose new ideas within the framework of Construction Grammar. The book aims to contribute to the ongoing progress and evolution of Construction Grammar as a field of study. [Extracted from the article]

The “AB Ren” construction such as 打工人 da gong ren ‘wage earner’ is fast becoming one of the key instruments in a riot of social media. In this corpus-based study to explore the nature of the “AB Ren” construction from Goldberg’s construction grammar perspective, a total of 108 “AB Ren” expressions were retrieved from the Beijing Language and Culture University Modern Chinese Corpus (BCC), and social media network Weibo. The study aims to investigate the formal features, constructional meaning, social functions and implied cognitive mechanisms behind the “AB Ren” construction. From the standpoint of the formal composition, this construction consists of two parts, the variable part and the fixed part. It can be divided into three categories (verb, noun, and adjective compounds). The “AB Ren” construction has the independent constructional meaning, which is used to describe a certain group of people who are engaged with an occupation corresponding to the “AB” part and are fond of particular activities as well as individuals who are defined as possessing certain features. Because of the high frequency of occurrences, some expressions acquire new emotional meanings as far as constructional meanings are concerned. A group of commonly-appeared “AB Ren” expressions, combining the use of metaphorical and metonymical mechanisms, illustrate language simplicity and are a great way to express self-encouragement and mockery. This study reveals the common generation trends of popular language on the internet in today’s world and the conceptualization of the “AB Ren” construction plays an important role in construing linguistic expressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the prosodic and kinesic aspects of three different ish constructions using corpus data from the multimodal NewsScape Library of International Television News. The results reveal that bound - ish with 'approximate' meaning is longer in duration, higher in pitch, and shows more pitch variability than bound - ish with 'properties' meaning. Free Ish is also longer in duration and shows more pitch variability but is also prosodically set apart from its linguistic environment. Furthermore, the different ish constructions prove to be associated with different sets of kinesic features, although none of these reaches a significant level in the statistical model. It will be argued that the prosodic aspects mirror the constructional status of ish , whereas the kinesic aspects may be used to support their different functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reconciles the sociolinguistic concept of stance and stancetaking and Construction Grammar (CxG); it shows that overlapping allostructions may differ in terms of the stances they convey. Drawing on a corpus study of Wikipedia Talk pages, the paper presents a case study of German discourse management markers such as wo wir gerade dabei sind 'speaking of which' or wenn wir schon dabei sind 'while we're at it'. By statistically comparing the observed frequencies of the filler items with the expected ones (using Hierarchical Configural Frequency Analysis and Distinctive Collexeme Analysis), I will argue that there are two different collocational types, namely wo wir/ich gerade bei NP sind/bin 'as we are/I am just at NP' and wenn wir/du schon bei NP sind/bist 'as we/you are already at NP'. Both serve as discourse management markers, topic orientation markers in particular, whose purpose it is to shift the topic. They involve the same fixed pattern, combining the same categorical slots. However, they diverge in collocational preferences. I will argue that these collocational preferences are indicative of the stances the allostructions conventionally convey: While the allostruction wo wir/ich gerade PP sind/bin seems to be neutral in terms of stance (face-less stance), wenn wir/du schon PP sind/bist is often used to express negative evaluation of a previous utterance made by an interlocutor, thus marking disalignment. The expression of disalignment seems to be related to the construction's propensity to reference utterances made by an interlocutor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English verbs can combine with an object-like (or Objoid) element consisting of a possessive and a superlative. These Superlative Objoids do not add a participant to the event but function like manner adverbs (they work their hardest, i.e. they work extremely hard). This paper is the first to use diachronic evidence from a corpus of Late Modern American English to trace the recent history of Superlative Objoid Constructions (SOC). In particular, it aims to assess whether the construction has become entrenched to the extent that it can give rise to analogical extension. Secondly, the evidence is used to model, within the framework of Construction Grammar, the horizontal and vertical links between the SOC and its (potential) relatives in the constructional network of transitivity changing constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Linguistische Berichte is the property of Helmut Buske Verlag Hamburg and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The research paradigm of alternation studies is forming an increasingly large share of the empirical foundations of usage-based linguistics. As the paradigm is essentially an amalgamation of research traditions from various subfields of linguistics, including sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, cognitive linguistics, and construction grammar, it sports various definitions of the concept of "alternation" and various ways of conducting an alternation study, which are not always compatible. The present special issue is therefore intended to bring researchers from various backgrounds in usage-based linguistics together to see how we can deal with these issues. This introduction first presents the various ways of defining an alternation and discusses the differences between them and how these definitions determine the methodological set-up of an alternation study. Next, the contributions to the special issue are each in turn summarized and related to one another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depending on the theory of language employed, the paradigmatic and lexical variation associated with a given composite form-meaning pair is treated in different ways. First, variation can be treated as independent of the constructional semantics, an approach typical of modular theories. Second, paradigmatic variation can be considered indicative of constructional semantics; its variation constituting networks of closely related families of constructions. This is a common approach in construction grammar. Third, there exists a trend in cognitive linguistics and construction grammar to treat grammatical constructions as non-discrete emergent clusters of many-to-many form-meaning mappings. This study explores the possibility of extending current methods for quantitatively modelling construction grammar to an approach that does not assume discrete grammatical constructions. The speaker choice examined consists of the English future constructions will and BE going to and their use in contemporary informal British English. The constructions are examined with the behavioural profile approach. Three different regression modelling methods are applied to the grammatical alternations, each operationalizing one of the theoretical assumptions. While the results show that all three approaches are feasible and comparable in predictive accuracy, model interpretation becomes increasingly difficult with added complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the constructional categorization of multi-predicate sentences in Saisiyat. This type of complex sentences simultaneously involves features of serial verb construction and complementation in Saisiyat, which give rise to indeterminacy in constructional categorization. In order to solve this problem, the current study probes into the categorization between serial verb construction and complementation regarding Aarts' (2007) constructional gradience and semantic relations (Van Valin & LaPolla 1997). The investigation demonstrates a discrete boundary between the two constructions with convergence on each other, while subtypes of multi-predicate sentences are aligned on the convergence based on intra- and inter-categorical relations. Two structural dependencies are proposed to carry out a taxonomy of Saisiyat complex sentences. A theoretical implication derives from this study that Saisiyat multi-predicate sentences are manifestations of formalized morphosyntactic configurations with a pairing of particularized semantic relations instead of coinage based on analogic conventionalization (Fillmore 1997; Goldberg 2019). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the effect of conventional and nonconventional expressions on listener comprehensibility. A forty-item comprehensibility test, including conventional expressions, interlanguage attempts, sociopragmatic deviances and alternative grammar constructions produced by French L2 (second language) speakers (N=27) was created. Pronunciation effects were controlled by having a single speaker read aloud the items. Using a 100-point sliding scale, comprehensibility was rated by Quebec French L1 (first language) speakers (N=34). Results showed a significant effect of the four variables on the raters' scores and a significant difference between them. Conventional expressions were judged the most comprehensible while some alternative grammar constructions seemed not to impose comprehensibility issues. Attempted conventional expressions sharing pragmalinguistics or sociopragmatic resources with the target conventional expression were judged more comprehensible. These findings suggest that comprehensibility can be sensitive to what is familiar and expected by the listener. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last forty years there have been several proposals regarding a generalizable historical ordering among subjectification, intersubjectification and textualization. To date, most hypotheses have been developed within the framework of grammaticalization, in which hypotheses about unidirectional paths of change have played a significant role. In this paper I ask two questions: 1: Is there evidence for a generalizable historical ordering among subjectification, intersubjectification and textualization? 2. What hypotheses about the relationship between these three change-types appear to be optimal from the perspective of Diachronic Construction Grammar? I argue that, although particular data may suggest one trajectory or another, it is not possible to generalize over the order of changes. I propose a constructionalist model in which constructions have communicative, among other, functions, and in which the properties subjective, intersubjective and textual are of equal status and may emerge simultaneously in certain domains of grammar, such as Discourse Structuring Markers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the origins of alignment patterns in languages, which refer to the distribution of coding or behavioral properties across different verbal arguments. The article explores two main ideas: the relative need to disambiguate arguments and the shared semantic or pragmatic properties of arguments. The article also emphasizes the importance of understanding diachronic processes in the emergence of alignment patterns and suggests that optimization principles may play a role in the retention or loss of these patterns. The article provides examples from various languages, such as Sinitic and Basque, to illustrate these processes. Overall, the article aims to contribute to the understanding of alignment patterns by integrating theoretical explanations with empirical evidence. [Extracted from the article]