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How the Entrenchment-and-Conventionalization Model might enrich Diachronic Construction Grammar
The case of (the) thing is (that)
- Source: Belgian Journal of Linguistics, Volume 34, Issue 1, Dec 2020, p. 306 - 319
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- 31 Dec 2020
Abstract
Abstract
Explanations of language change in terms of Diachronic Construction Grammar generalize over gradual adaptations of the linguistic behaviour of individual speakers and communities. Presenting a diachronic case study of the pattern (the) (Adj) thing (clauserel) is (is) (that), I argue that the time course of formal, semantic and pragmatic changes, of changes in frequency and of changes regarding dispersion over speakers and choices of lexical items offer a glimpse of the gradual individual and communal adaptations underlying processes such as constructionalization and constructional change. I interpret data extracted from various corpora from the perspectives of Diachronic Construction Grammar and the Entrenchment-and-Conventionalization Model (Schmid 2020) and discuss how the latter perspective might enrich the former.