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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]

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]

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 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 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 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]

Building on Goldberg's (2006: 52) observation regarding the existence of "a family of related constructions in English" centred around the verb go, this article explores the history of the construction exemplified in the title ("Don't go getting into trouble again!") and its relation to other members of the network of go-constructions. The analysis, conducted using three large corpora, shows that the Go VPing construction emerges from two source constructions (one with an –ing participle following the verb go and the other with an infinitive) which exhibit overlap in terms of certain aspects of their form and meaning. From its earliest attestations in the eighteenth century, the Go VPing construction has grown increasingly more interpersonal, and has become conventionalized as a marker of admonitive mood (Bybee et al. 1994: 321) which serves to dissuade or limit the performance of an activity that is apprehended as undesirable and counter-normative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies have demonstrated that Dutch has a much stronger tendency towards compounding than French (e.g., Du. badkamer vs Fr. salle de bains 'bathroom') when adopting a restrictive approach of compounding in which the presence of prepositions and/or internal inflection in multi-word expressions is considered evidence for their syntactic formation. The example above illustrates that Dutch compounding differs from French in another important aspect: while Germanic compounding is by definition right-headed, French has a general tendency towards left-hand headed compounds and phrases. In this study, we investigate the impact of these typological differences on the acquisition of Dutch nominal compounds by French-speaking learners in the context of multilingual Belgium. We provide an in-depth corpus analysis of the acquisition of Dutch compounds at different levels of abstraction (schematic and substantive compound constructions). Moreover, we investigate the impact of additional target-language input through CLIL programs (Content and Language Integrated Learning) on the acquisition of Dutch compounds by French-speaking learners of Dutch. The results are described and interpreted from the perspective of Diasystematic Construction Grammar (DCxG), which conceptualizes the linguistic competence of multilingual speakers as one integrated network of constructions, containing language-specific idioconstructions and shared diaconstructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little attention has been paid to the English Superlative Object Construction (SOC), as in She worked her hardest. The historical grammarians Jespersen (1909–1949) and Poutsma (1904–1929) are the only ones who do touch on the SOC, and they do so in passing relying on what seem to be the prototypical examples of the construction. This empirical evidence, though valuable for a first characterisation of the pattern, is insufficient to provide a detailed analysis of the form, function, frequency, and distribution of the SOC in Present Day English from the perspective of Construction Grammar. Based on usage-based data from COCA, this paper argues that the SOC qualifies as an intensifying comparative construction. Despite being low frequent and showing a set of highly entrenched, lexicalised units (e.g., smile [X] prettiest, work [X] hardest), the SOC is relatively productive, especially in informal registers where the construction can be easily accommodated to serve emotive, phatic, and conative functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent models of constructional networks combine vertical links between schemas and their subtypes with horizontal links between constructions at the same level of abstraction. It remains unclear, however, whether vertical and horizontal analyses express distinct information about the network, or whether one can be reformulated in terms of the other. In this paper, it is argued that vertical and horizontal links do not encode distinct cognitive mechanisms but that they are notational variants for representing a common notion of constructional similarity. The practical advantages of each notation are outlined, and some potential objections to the present account are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, interdisciplinary research efforts have accumulated insights that diminish the significance of the classic nature versus nurture dichotomy, instead calling for a nuanced, multifactorial approach to ontogeny. Similarly, the role of genes in both phylogeny and ontogeny, once seen as rather deterministic, is now conceptualized as highly dependent on environmental factors, including behavior. Linguistic theories have, in principle, made an effort to incorporate these changing views. However, the central claim of the given paper is that this apparent compliance with biological insights remains superficial. As such, considerable disconnects between linguistic theory and what is known about the biological underpinnings of complex traits persist, negatively impacting pertinent views on language acquisition, language universals and the evolution of language. Given the breadth of these fields of study, the aim of this paper is to tackle the root of the problem: It begins by sketching out linguistic nativism as conceptualized within generativism, pointing to aspects within this position that stand in conflict with the interdisciplinary literature. It will then review select areas of research in a succinct manner in order to substantiate the criticism and characterize the counterposition as found within the biological sciences. The paper will culminate in addressing these disconnects on conceptual grounds, i.e. invoking the term emergence as employed in neuroscience as a possible means to reconcile those biological insights with linguistic nativism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of constructions has become increasingly important in theories of language acquisition and use during the last 20 years. Constructions are form-meaning pairings that are learned and stored as pieces of linguistic knowledge. Fillmore, Kay, and O'Conner (1988), and Goldberg (1995, 2006, 2019) were among the first linguists who paved the way for this alternative constructivist view on grammar. Since then, Construction Grammar (CxG) has become a widely accepted descriptive and processing model that is based on a large body of scientific research (e.g., Herbst, Schmid, & Faulhaber, 2014; Herbst, 2016; Hilpert, 2019; Hoffmann, 2022; Stefanowitsch, 2011). However, it is only recently that linguists have addressed the question of whether second/foreign language learners' linguistic competence depends on constructions (e.g., Boas, 2022; De Knop & Gilquin, 2016). If CxG is widely recognized in the branch of first language acquisition, it is also indispensable to transfer this concept to Applied Linguistics to design suitable teaching materials and methods. Drawing upon the proposition "foreign language learning is construction learning" (Ellis, 2001; Herbst, 2016), this article aims to suggest a proposal for teaching English collocations following Herbst's (2016) seven principles of Pedagogical Construction Grammar (PCxG). In particular, this article aims to suggest ways to apply these principles to developing supplementary teaching materials, activities, and tasks for teaching English collocations and collostructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term grammaticalization originally denoted a particular outcome of language change (lexis > morphology), then got expanded to practically all studies involving language change, the processes that create such changes, and a theory modeling these. These expansions have been challenged in the literature as conceptually flawed. A usage-based analysis of the evolution of the concept culminates in the use of the term grammaticalization as a "flag" of a particular approach to linguistics. However, the theoretical premises of grammaticalization studies are entirely compatible with the premises of Diachronic Construction Grammar (DCxG). All studies within the "expanded" concept of grammaticalization can be explicitly modeled within DCxG, which provides formalism of sufficient detail to map the gradual nature of language change in cases of grammaticalization and beyond. Consequently, the most vigorous attacks on grammaticalization lose power when grammaticalization is seen as part of a larger, more complete theory of language and language change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examines two cognitive linguistics approaches to foreign language teaching. One draws on the conventionality of language use that a variety of expressions can be understood as instances of more general patterns, e.g., kick them out and eat it up as verb-object-particle, whereas the other centers on linguistic creativeness such as novel combinations or associations, e.g., chest down the ball. Noting that English verb-particle constructions (VPCs) exemplify both linguistic conventionality and creativeness, two types of instruction have been developed–namely, top-down instruction and bottom-up instruction. The top-down instruction presents VPCs as instances of conventional argument structures such as motion and resultative constructions (Goldberg, 2015), whereas the bottom-up instruction focuses on creative compositions of literal and metaphorical meanings (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). The two types of instruction were provided for Korean EFL learners, and their knowledge of VPCs was measured by a pretest, an immediate posttest, and a four-week delayed posttest. Results of the immediate posttest showed that both types of instruction were effective in improving the learners' knowledge of literal and figurative VPCs. In the delayed posttest, significantly greater retention was observed for the construction-based top-down instruction. This finding highlights the importance of argument structures as super-constructions in teaching VPCs to EFL learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This text is a review of a book on Construction Grammar (CxG) applied to the French language. The book explores the historical development of the term "construction" and its usage in linguistic theories. It consists of nine contributions organized into four sections, covering topics such as schematicity, the grammar-lexicon continuum, and the diachronic extension of CxG. The review praises the book for its multidisciplinary approach and critical examination of CxG, but suggests that more chapters in English would make it more accessible to a wider audience. [Extracted from the article]

The book "Nodes and Networks in Diachronic Construction Grammar" edited by Lotte Sommerer and Elena Smirnova is a collection of papers that explore language change within the framework of Diachronic Construction Grammar (DCxG). The book is divided into three parts: "The Nodes: Creation, Change and Loss," "The Links: Vertical and Horizontal Relations," and "Beyond Existing Models." The papers cover topics such as the emergence and loss of linguistic nodes, constructional competition, and the reconfiguration of constructional networks. The book offers valuable insights into how to model constructional networks and raises important questions for future research. However, it is primarily focused on English constructions and could benefit from more diverse linguistic data. [Extracted from the article]

This paper describes the way in which represented speech is introduced in ten eastern Bantu languages, and explains the different constructions used as stages of a linguistic cycle. In this cycle, verbs of speech develop into quotative markers, and eventually cease to be used to introduce direct speech. This cycle can be understood as a systematic and unidirectional series of constructional changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an overview of Diachronic Construction Morphology (DCxM), a field that examines how the relationship between form and meaning in language evolves over time. It emphasizes the need for more research on morphological change within the constructionist approach, particularly in languages other than English and Germanic languages. The article explores the role of productivity in morphological constructions, the connection between morphological change and category change, and similarities between morphological change and change in other aspects of language structure. It also introduces the Construction Morphology framework, morphological schemas, and the significance of network relations in understanding word structure. The text includes examples from various languages and summaries of case studies on morphological change, highlighting the importance of constructional approaches in comprehending language change. [Extracted from the article]

This study investigates diachronic changes in constructional networks illustrated with examples from the Manchuric branch of Tungusic, an endangered language family spoken in Northeast Asia. Earlier studies have noted pronounced differences between this branch and the rest of the family, such as a reduction in morphological complexity and partial restructuring of the morphosyntactic system. Based on the framework of Diachronic Construction Grammar, this study investigates aspects of nominal morphology, including flagging and indexing. These are especially promising for a better understanding of the evolution of Manchuric and have not often been discussed in terms of Construction Grammar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dogon pseudo-subjects are bare meteorological, temporal-environmental, and partonymic nouns of low referentiality/specificity that occur in fixed noun-verb collocations. The pseudo-subject controls the choice of verb in all cases, but it fails to behave like a true subject in linear position, in a quotative-subject construction, or in pronominal-subject agreement. The pseudo-subject is the sole nominal in these meteorological and temporal collocations, but in partonymic collocations it co-occurs with a true subject denoting the possessor-experiencer. The latter has all of the clear subject properties except controlling the choice of verb. Pseudo-subjects have some similarities with, but are distinct from, a range of typologically familiar phenomena including impersonal subjects, direct objects, possessums stranded by possessor raising, East Asian-style second subjects or post-topic subjects, incorporated nouns, and adverbial adjuncts. They can be classified as pseudo-incorporated nominals if this category is broad enough to include subject-like as well as object-like nominals. The relevant constructions are easily modelled in construction grammars, but not in arboreal syntax. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-linguistically, very few complete sentences, as opposed to a myriad of phrases, lexicalize to become words. I here offer an account for this skewed distribution, along the lines of Construction Grammar, by analyzing a set of mono-clausal sentences in Hebrew which have indeed become – or are on the verge of becoming – words. I adopt the distinction between categorical and thetic propositions, and show that only the latter can evolve into words. A thetic – unlike a categorical – proposition, much like a verb-phrase, enables a tight semantic bonding between its components to form an 'interpretatively cohesive' unit, which may lead to semantic change. An evaluative thetic – unlike a categorical – proposition is comment-like, hence 'semantically-incomplete', and in need of a topic from prior discourse to predicate on, which may lead to a change in grammatical status. All verb-phrases meet these two criteria but only few sentences do, hence, I argue, the skewed distribution of sources from which new words evolve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The comparison of constructions across languages faces a major challenge: Both similarities and differences can appear on the whole scale from form to meaning. In this paper, we propose an approach combining the descriptive and explanatory power of Construction Grammar and Frame Semantics by applying the analysis of constructions and frames on a full-text scale. More concretely, we propose a contrastive and translatological analysis of (partially) schematic constructions in English, Brazilian Portuguese and German which may diverge in form, but are relatable to one another across languages by their conventional pragmatics and/or the semantic frames they evoke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While most work in diachronic construction grammar considers individual constructional changes, these changes share an understudied relationship with broader changes at the level of the semantic frame. Literary corpus data shows that in the Spending frame in French, between the 12th and 20th centuries, the selection rates of four alternating frame elements shifted: Purpose, Cause of expense, Goods, and Seller. This frame-level shift is examined alongside related constructional changes including lexicalization, pejoration, and constructional loss. The analysis suggests that constructional change does not proceed independently but is driven by shifts in framing due in part to sociocultural changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The semantic classification of over 2,200 constructions in the Russian Constructicon has emerged objectively from empirical analysis. The resulting semantic classification comports with and goes beyond frame semantics, revealing complex patterns of related constructions verified against corpus data and by a panel of native speakers. Our model of a constructicon can inform and complement existing approaches with additional findings. We detail our discovery procedure and the semantic relationships that link constructions. While our methods and findings are based on a single language, they can serve as a basis for cross-linguistic comparison in the field of Construction Grammar and constructicography research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belgian Journal of Linguistics (BJL) will be ending with its 37th volume, as a new journal called Nota BeNe will be launched in 2024. The BJL has had a rich history since its establishment in 1986, covering a wide range of linguistic topics and approaches. The thematic volumes of the BJL have been edited by a diverse group of scholars, both junior and senior, from Belgium and abroad. The new journal, Nota BeNe, will continue and expand on this tradition, fostering collaboration between linguists in Belgium, the Netherlands, and beyond. [Extracted from the article]

The goal of this paper is to present the results of a corpus analysis aimed at identifying n-grams (i.e., lexical sequences) with the modals can, could and be able to. While details about the functional profile of these verbs are still being discussed (e.g., Leclercq & Depraetere 2022), it is surprising that relatively scarce attention is given to the lexico-grammatical patterns in which they are found and which come with their own semantic and pragmatic features. Using the methodology developed in Cappelle and Depraetere (2016b), a total of 1,640 n-grams were extracted from COCA (Davies 2008-). A number of these patterns are discussed and, in keeping with the approach developed in Construction Grammar (Hilpert 2019), it is shown that an enhanced understanding of these verbs can be achieved when viewed as part of more complex networks of constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is a corpus-based constructionist analysis of Old English (OE) constituent order, focusing on verb-initial declaratives and þa-VS main clauses. The main objective of the investigation is to determine the degree of the formal and functional similarity of both patterns in order to establish whether they functioned as two independent constructions (in Construction Grammar terms), with their relation based on functional contrast. The other possibility taken into consideration in the analysis is that the two patterns should rather be treated as variants of the same construction, as suggested in some previous, non-constructionist studies of the topic, which would make it possible to analyse them as allostructions. The study shows that on the general level of the language network, the two clause types are surprisingly different in many respects: their form is less similar than previously assumed, they have drastically different corpus distributions, they show different collocational preferences and perform different discourse functions. Nevertheless, on the lower level of the network, the two constructions show some overlaps in the presentational, narrative and reporting function. At the same time, however, there is a deep functional difference between texts authored by Ælfric and other OE prose records. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For instance, consider case alternations in auxiliary constructions ([3]): (6) Mimi-ka sakwa-lul mek-e-lul/*ka po-ass-ta Mimi- nom apple- acc eat conn - acc / nom try- pst - decl "Mimi tried to eat the apple". Park, Chongwon 2019 Reference point and case: A Cognitive Grammar exploration of Korean 264 John Benjamins 9789027204295 10.1075/hcp.68 For a free word order language like Korean, case plays key roles in licensing arguments, signaling grammatical functions, marking information structure, and so forth. Chapter 6 provides a CG analysis for case assignment to F/D (frequency/durative) adverbials in Korean. In contrast, the negative auxiliary verb can assign either nom or acc to the preceding main verb, while the auxiliary I siph- i "would.like" allows only nom to the main verb. [Extracted from the article]

It was Traugott herself who observed that "to treat [the development of DMs] as a case of something other than grammaticalization would be to obscure its similarities with the more canonical clines" ([5]: 15). In order to show that there is a problem with this hypothesis, Traugott (p. 95) draws on the history of the English DM I I mean i , described by Brinton ([1]: 111-127) and slightly reanalyzed by Heine I et al. i ([2]: 100-106). Traugott, Elizabeth Closs Discourse structuring markers in English: A historical constructionalist perspective on pragmatics Constructional Approaches to Language 33 Amsterdam, Philadelphia John Benjamins 2022 xviii + 293 9789027210913 9789027257925 In the course of the last decades, work on discourse markers (DMs) has developed into a flourishing field of research. [Extracted from the article]

In summary, I Using Corpus Methods to Triangulate Linguistic Analysis i is an interesting, carefully designed, and useful collection of studies that provides readers with valuable insights on the triangulation of corpus and non-corpus methods. Chapter 9 is a contribution by Stefan Th. Gries that triangulates experimental (sentence-completion) data of second language learners with corpus data of native speakers to better understand the phenomenon of syntactic alternation priming. Here, noun sequences generated from the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA) (https://www.english-corpora.org/coha/) were manually classified into pre-determined semantic categories by paid workers on the Mechanical Turk platform (as used in Chapter 2), to generate what the authors describe as "user-based" data. [Extracted from the article]

In part 1, we find chapters that offer an accessible introduction to corpus linguistics (Chapter 1), LCR (Chapter 2) and SLA (Chapter 3). Part 4 nicely illustrates how the editors situate both SLA and corpus linguistics on equal footing, offering a collection of ten chapters that look at relevant SLA constructs and how they can be researched with corpora. Key aspects in corpus design and corpus use for SLA (Chapters 5 to 12) Part 3. The editors are joined here by Florence Myles, probably one of the few SLA researchers that has consistently tried to bridge gaps between corpus linguistics and SLA during the past decades ([3]). [Extracted from the article]

This point fully exemplifies Diessel's argument that adult language use, specifically the cognitive processes involved in adult language use, is the driving force behind language change. It approaches the study of grammar from an interdisciplinary perspective, including usage-based linguistics, cognitive linguistics, construction grammar, cognitive psychology, etc. Diessel, H. 2019 The grammar network: How linguistic structure is shaped by language use Cambridge Cambridge University Press xvii + 289 9781108671040 Many cognitive linguists and usage-based linguists ([4]; [16], [17]; [10]; [6]; [3]; [11]) view grammar as a network, especially in terms of morphology and lexical semantics. [Extracted from the article]

This paper analyses the prosodic features of independent constructions introduced by a ver si using spoken data coming from two corpora of colloquial Peninsular Spanish: the Val.Es.Co. corpus (Briz Gómez 2002; Cabedo and Pons 2013) and the COLA corpus from Madrid (Jorgensen 2007). After pointing out the limitations of conceptualizing a ver si as a discourse particle, we propose a constructional approach, that posits three separate modal a ver si-constructions: verificative, optative and counter-expectative. The prosodic analysis shows acoustic differences between the three constructions, both in terms of their melodic contours and their syllabic length. These results support a constructional approach that recognizes prosody as a component of grammatical constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

N-is/ist constructions are elements in the left periphery of English/German sentences that have developed pragmatic meaning: they can be used as discourse markers with various functions, depending on the nominal element that is used in the construction. We use evidence from parallel and comparable corpora of English and German to investigate variable article use in these focaliser constructions and model factors that may play a role in article omission/retention (such as modification, choice of head noun, degree of syntactic integration of the focaliser). Our evidence shows that article use largely depends on the lexical head in German but is constrained by different factors in English (notably modification). We interpret our results against the backdrop of construction grammar, arguing that article omission plays a different role in the two languages. From a contrastive point of view, formal syntactic separation in English is easier to achieve than in German and thus facilitates use of English N-is constructions as focalisers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese Passive Construction with Retained Object (CPCRO) has aroused extensive attention from scholars especially advocators of Generative Grammar due to its syntactic idiosyncrasy. Previous researches primarily concerned with such syntactic idiosyncrasy concentrate on issues of its syntactic derivation but fail to provide an empirically responsible and consensual explanation for all its instantiations. This paper initiates a new perspective by focusing on its semantics on the basis of Construction Grammar. It is argued that CPCRO is a construction with its constructional meaning characterized by a causative meaning that profiles the causee's change. This passive causative meaning is elaborated by three verb-class-specific semantic variants, i.e., the passive cause-motion variant associated with motion verbs or verbs entailing motion and specifying the causee's change of location, the passive cause-result variant associated with verbs of making or creating and specifying the causee's change of state, and the passive cause-receive/lose variant associated with ditransitive verbs or verbs with the potential of taking double objects and specifying the causee's change of possession. They are structured into a polysemy network in the sense that the passive cause-result variant is metaphorically extended from the passive cause-motion variant, whereas the passive cause-receive/lose variant encoding the object-dual-based conceptualization of Event Structure directly relates to the passive cause-motion variant which encodes the location-dual-based conceptualization, and indirectly to the passive cause-result variant which preserves the location-dual-based conceptualization due to the invariance principle of metaphorical mapping, through profile shift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the question of the (speaker-level) 'cognitive how' of (language-level) constructional attrition, defined as a systemic decrease in the occurrence of a construction in the history of a language. Presenting and analysing data from an historical idiolectal corpus on the frequency development in individual speakers' use of a partially schematic construction instantiated by such types as be obliged to and be permitted to, it offers a first attempt to measure whether a general decline in the frequency of this construction can also be observed to be an internal development during a speaker's lifespan. The results confirm this to be the case in a sizeable group of speakers and the paper provides an initial insight into how this may contribute to a genuinely cognitive account of the speaker-external development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Construction grammar – most notably Cognitive Construction Grammar (Goldberg 2006), Radical Construction Grammar (Croft 2001) and Cognitive Grammar (Langacker 2008) – has been extremely inspiring in providing tools for modelling gradience in variation and change. Verbal constructions have been investigated within the paradigm of construction grammar from a number of angles including idiomaticization processes as well as argument structure constructions (Boas 2003; Engelberg 2009; Faulhaber 2011; Goldberg 1995; Rostila 2007). Usage-based approaches (Barlow & Kemmer 2000; Bybee & Hopper 2001; Diessel 2015, 2019; Langacker 1988; Tomasello 2003) have pointed out that usage is the place to look for variation and change. Data-driven, corpus-based approaches have introduced quantitative methods for analyzing constructional functionality and variety synchronically (Stefanowitsch & Gries 2003; Gries 2006; Glynn 2014) and diachronically (Hilpert 2006). These techniques have given rise to detailed studies of verbal constructions, lexicalization and idiomaticization. This volume presents papers which in their majority have arisen in connection with the workshop "Variation and Grammaticalization of Verbal Constructions", held at the 51st SLE Annual Meeting at Tallinn, 29th August – 1st September 2018. Its focus is on verbal constructions in Germanic languages, constructional variation and degrees of polyfunctionality between lexical, idiomatic and grammaticalized usages. The major object of this volume is to investigate the conditions and interdependencies of such variations and polyfunctionalities. The theoretical and conceptual foundations of the studies united here rest upon grammaticalization theory, usage-based constructional approaches, and frame semantics, allway in combination with empirical testing. The scope of interest comprises synchronic as well as diachronic phenomena in various registers and communicative types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from the term "family of constructions", the present article investigates lexical and syntactic variation in a subtype of German concessive conditionals which is marked by was ('what') in combination with expressions of irrelevance like egal ('no matter'). 12,894 examples from the DeReKo corpus (Deutsches Referenzkorpus) are analysed manually for seven variables. Both the quantitative and the qualitative results suggest that combinations of was with an expression of irrelevance, or "[IRR was]" for short, form part of a recently entrenched constructional schema [IRR w-] of concessive-conditional subordinators which are emerging into the family of concessive-conditional constructions in present-day German. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In English, sequences consisting of the verb have, a noun phrase and a past participle vary in meaning. This meaning variation has been discussed both in the context of grammatical description and language change, mostly based on a handful of examples. This study seeks to combine theoretical and methodological approaches from construction grammar and interactional linguistics in the description of this meaning variation. Theoretically, this implies distinguishing between abstracted meaning potential and situated meaning of linguistic elements. Methodologically, this means taking both a coarse-grained view by means of a quantitative corpus-based approach that abstracts over a number of instances and a fine-grained view by means of qualitative analysis of talk-in-interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the study of grammaticalization phenomena from the perspective of Construction Grammar (Coussé et al. 2018). It is concerned with modal uses of the English verb get that express a permitted action, as in The prisoners always get to make one phone call. Different views exist on the contexts in which permissive get emerged. Gronemeyer (1999: 30) suggests that the permissive meaning derives from causative uses (I got him to confess). An alternative is proposed by van der Auwera et al. (2009: 283), who view permissive get as an extension of its acquisitive meaning (I got a present). We revisit these claims in the light of recent historical data from American English. Specifically, we searched the COHA (Davies 2010) for forms of get followed by to and a verb in the infinitive. Besides examples of permissive get, we retrieved examples of obligative got to (I got to leave), causative get (Who did you get to confess?), possessive got (What have I got to be ashamed of?), and a category that we label inchoative get (You're getting to be a big girl now). Drawing on distributional semantic techniques (Perek 2016, 2018), we analyse how permissive get and inchoative get developed semantically over time. Our results are consistent with an account that represents an alternative to both Gronemeyer (1999) and van der Auwera et al. (2009), namely the idea that permissive get evolved out of inchoative uses that invited the idea of a permission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the current paper is to reinterpret some results of two previous studies on the mastery of figurative expressions from the perspective of usage-based linguistics. The reanalysis aims to shed more light on the learning and use of figurative language by multilingual students by exploring the complex interplay of linguistic creativity, expressivity, and conventionality in figurative expressions. The reinterpretation shows that many of the examples that were previously categorized as novel figurative expressions used in students' writing, can be analyzed as instances of regular patterns, i.e. constructions, with certain lexical idiosyncrasies. Modifications of conventionalized figurative expressions are discussed and reinterpreted in terms of strength of entrenchment of links between form and meaning within certain constructions or links between constructions and conventionalized pragmatic information in the multilinguals' mental construction. Implications for the treatment of Swedish figurative expressions in the second language class room are, in line with previous research, that focusing on regularity might reduce unpredictability, often seen as the core difficulty in the learning of such expressions in an L2. The paper also offers some directions for further investigation of the socio-cognitive processes involved in the learning of figurative language in an additional language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Late Modern English period, several expressions arose with concessive 'despite what might be expected' meaning, among them anyway, nonetheless and all the same (Lenker 2010). The topic of this paper is the rise of the specialized concessive construction "but (be) X all the same". In the full rhetorical formula of which it is a part, X is initially represented as not having properties Y but nevertheless as having sufficient other relevant properties to be classified as X, as in "...fear. It is not the eye-rolling, quaking fear seen in police states, but it is fear all the same" (1963 coha). Here the writer concedes that there is fear despite Y (see Horn [1991] on "redundant information") and invites the addressee to reinterpret the initial X retrospectively (see Haselow [2013] on functions of "final particles"). Using data mainly from clmet3.0 and coha, I discuss the conventionalization of this construction in terms of Diachronic Construction Grammar and argue alongside, for example, Goldberg (2004); Cappelle (2017) and Finkbeiner (2019) that pragmatics should be given a larger role in construction grammar than has often been the case in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Furthermore, the analysis presented here is a persuasive fusion of empirical, cognitive and formalistic arguments; Sommerer neatly re-contextualises the Old English data and a number of classical handbook examples in the detailed analysis of this pathway of change. Sommerer, Lotte 2018 Article Emergence in Old English: A Constructionalist Perspective Topics in English Linguistics 99 1 De Gruyter Mouton 357 10.1515/9783110541052 Investigations of article development in English are wide-ranging and well-established across the gamut of linguistic frameworks, though the issue still remains a vexed question. These issues are as fundamental as disagreements regarding whether an indefinite article exists in Old English ([8]), whether the category "article" exists before Middle English ([2]: 300), or what motivates the seemingly unidirectional grammaticalisation of the Old English words ' I se i ' and ' I an i ' ([7]: 82). As such, it seems debateable as to whether the article category really does arise in the Old English period as Sommerer suggests: as it stands, only two of the seven criteria are fully met in Old English data and a third is partially met with well-founded exceptions. [Extracted from the article]

The linguistic treatment of verbal irony has more often than not focused on novel, ad hoc ironies. Research in the last decade, however, suggests that there is a considerable number of utterances that are either schematic or lexically filled and interpreted as ironic by convention. By analyzing three of these, i.e. Tell me about it, XP pro BE not (A Michelangelo he is not) and stand-alone insubordinate as if (As if anyone could pronounce that), the present paper will show that these expressions are best analyzed as constructions (Goldberg 1995, 2006). The paper will further show that the Viewpoint account of irony (Dancygier 2017; Tobin & Israel 2012) describes the data at hand most adequately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comparative Correlatives (CCs) are biclausal constructions (e.g. The harder you work, the more you earn) that have complex semantics and form. This is the first construction grammar-based corpus study to investigate Slovak CCs, based on a 500-token sample. I argue that intra-clausal word-order phenomena can be explained through processing efficiency, based on Hawkins' principle of Early Immediate Constituents (2004), and I use covarying-collexeme analysis (Stefanowitsch & Gries 2005) to provide evidence for the existence of meso-constructions. The findings of this study contribute to construction grammar's "aspirations toward universal applicability" (Fried 2017: 249), proving that the theory is also suitable for analysis of syntactic patterns in Slavic languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This corpus-based study tests the Principle of No Synonymy across levels of abstraction by examining the syntactic realizations of subject extraposition (e.g., it is important to, it seems that), and by investigating at which level(s) of formal description a difference in form also entails a difference in function. The results show that distinct pairs of form and function, i.e. constructions, can be found at different levels of abstraction, but that these constructions also subsume formal realization patterns that do not encode a difference in function. This suggests that the Principle of No Synonymy largely breaks down at low levels of formal description. The study also offers a constructional account of subject extraposition by identifying a number of subject extraposition constructions, thereby showing that this is a syntactic phenomenon that is best analyzed as a family of constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Goldberg (1995), placement verbs (such as put) are instantiated in the Caused-Motion Construction. Rohde (2001), however, argued that placement verbs in fact occur in a different construction, which she names the Caused-Position Construction, whose semantic value is not 'cause to move' but rather 'cause to be positioned'. The present paper redefines and justifies the postulation of Caused-Position Construction. The Caused-Position Construction is compatible with not only placement verbs but also a variety of other verbs, such as verbs of creation (write or build) or certain stative verbs (want or need), many of which also occur in the Locative Inversion construction. Further, a similar distinction between Caused-Motion and Caused-Position can be attested in Mandarin as well, which suggests that the distinction between two patterns of spatial causation may not be idiosyncratically confined to the English language but motivated by the general patterns of human cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]