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Volume 7, Issue 1, 2009
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Serializing languages as satellite-framed: The case of Fon
Author(s): Renée Lambert-Brétièrepp.: 1–29 (29)More LessLanguages expressing motion events through serial verb constructions are categorized in various ways according to the typology of motion events. This paper challenges the typological classification of serializing languages by proposing that a serializing language like Fon is better analyzed as a satellite-framed language, lexicalizing the core-schema of motion — Path — in a verb satellite, than as verb-framed or equipollently-framed. Semantic and syntactic arguments are presented and lead to a new definition of verbal satellite in functional terms. It is further demonstrated that there is no need for a special treatment of serializing languages like Fon when conceiving the typology of motion events as a bipolar typological continuum, with at one end the verb-framing pattern and at the other end, the satellite-framing pattern.
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English posture verbs: An experientially grounded approach
Author(s): John Newmanpp.: 30–57 (28)More LessThis paper considers a number of linguistic properties of English SIT, STAND, and LIE which are argued to be the cardinal posture verbs of English. The distinctiveness of just these three posture verbs is evidenced by their relatively high frequency within the class of posture verbs in English and matched by grammaticalization facts in other languages. The paper considers the difficulty of differentiating action and state senses of these verbs and explores the use of posture verbs with inanimate subjects. It is argued that human experiential realities of posture motivate a number of these facts.
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Metonymy-induced polysemy and the role of suffixation in its resolution in some Slavic languages
Author(s): Mario Brdarpp.: 58–88 (31)More LessThe central concern of the present paper are metonymy avoidance strategies as a limiting case of polysemy resolution. Specifically, I look into the role of suffixation in the resolution of metonymy-induced polysemy in a number of languages (Germanic, Romance, Slavic and Hungarian) in two frames, animals and their meat, and trees and woods. The particular mix of strategies a language makes use of is of course dependent on its structural makeup. It is established that Slavic languages do not really have many choices apart from suffixation in the resolution of metonymy-induced polysemy. The analysis of patterns of suffixation found in six Slavic languages reveals that unlike compounding, which as good as removes any ambiguity in spite of its underspecificity, suffixation as a polysemy-resolving strategy is even more underspecified, and as an interesting twist, prone to contract additional polysemy or just relegate it to another level.
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Symbol and Symptom: Routes from Gesture to Signed Language
Author(s): Sherman Wilcoxpp.: 89–110 (22)More LessThis study examines the developmental routes by which gesture is codified into a linguistic system in the context of the natural signed languages of the deaf. I suggest that gestures follow two routes as they codify, and thus that signed languages provide evidence of how material which begins its developmental life external to the conventional linguistic system, as spontaneous or conventional gestures, is codified as language. The Italian Sign Language modal form ‘impossible’ is studied in detail, exploring the developmental route that led from Roman gestures, through liturgical gestures as depicted in medieval Italian art, through everyday Italian and Neapolitan gestures to its modal meaning.
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Constructing a Second Language: Introduction to the Special Section
Author(s): Nick C. Ellis and Teresa Cadiernopp.: 111–139 (29)More LessThis Special Section brings together researchers who adopt a constructional approach to Second Language Acquisition (SLA) as informed by Cognitive and Corpus Linguistics, approaches which fall under the general umbrella of Usage-based Linguistics. The articles present psycholinguistic and corpus linguistic evidence for L2 constructions and for the inseparability of lexis and grammar. They consider the psycholinguistics of language learning following general cognitive principles of category learning, with schematic constructions emerging from usage. They analyze how learning is driven by the frequency and frequency distribution of exemplars within construction, the salience of their form, the significance of their functional interpretation, the match of their meaning to the construction prototype, and the reliability of their mappings. They explore conceptual transfer and the acquisition of second language meaning. They consider the implications of these phenomena for L2 instruction.
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The inseparability of lexis and grammar: Corpus linguistic perspectives
Author(s): Ute Römerpp.: 140–162 (23)More LessThis paper focuses on the interface of lexis and grammar and provides corpus evidence for the inseparability of two areas that have traditionally been kept apart, both in language teaching and in linguistic analysis and description. The paper will first give an overview of a number of influential research strands and model-building attempts in this area (Pattern Grammar and Collostructional Analysis, among others) and then explore the use of a selected lexical-grammatical pattern, the introductory it pattern (e.g. it is essential for EFL learners to come to grips with connotations, attested example) in corpora of expert and apprentice academic writing.
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Psycholinguistic and corpus-linguistic evidence for L2 constructions
Author(s): Stefan Th. Gries and Stefanie Wulffpp.: 163–186 (24)More LessIn Construction Grammar, highly frequent syntactic configurations are assumed to be stored as symbolic units in the mental lexicon alongside words. Considering the example of gerund and infinitival complement constructions in English (She tried rocking the baby vs. She tried to rock the baby), this study combines corpus-linguistic and experimental evidence to investigate the question whether these patterns are also stored as constructions by German foreign language learners of English. In a corpus analysis based on 3,343 instances of the two constructions from the British component of the International Corpus of English, a distinctive collexeme analysis was computed to identify the verbs that distinguish best between the two constructions; these verbs were used as experimental stimuli in a sentence completion experiment and a sentence acceptability rating experiment. Two kinds of short-distance priming effects were investigated in the completion data: we checked how often subjects produced an ing-/to-/’other’-construction after having rated an ing- or to-construction (rating-to-production priming), and how often they produced an ing-/to-/’other’-construction when they had produced and ing- or to-construction in the directly preceding completion (production-to-production priming). Furthermore, we considered the proportion of to-completions before a completion in the questionnaire as a measure of a within-subject accumulative priming effect. We found no rating-to-production priming effects in the expected direction, but a weak effect in the opposite direction; short-distance production-to-production priming effects from ing to ing and from ‘other’ and to to to, and, on the whole at least, a suggestive accumulative production-to-production priming effect for both constructions. In the rating task, we found that subjects rate sentences better when the sentential structure is compatible with the main verb’s collexemic distinctiveness.
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Constructions and their acquisition: Islands and the distinctiveness of their occupancy
Author(s): Nick C. Ellis and Fernando Ferreira-Juniorpp.: 188–221 (34)More LessThis paper presents a psycholinguistic analysis of constructions and their acquisition. It investigates effects upon naturalistic second language acquisition of type/token distributions in the islands comprising the linguistic form of English verb-argument constructions (VACs: VL verb locative, VOL verb object locative, VOO ditransitive) in the ESF corpus (Perdue, 1993). Goldberg (2006) argued that Zipfian type/token frequency distribution of verbs in natural language might optimize construction learning by providing one very high frequency exemplar that is also prototypical in meaning. Ellis & Ferreira-Junior (2009) confirmed that in the naturalistic L2A of English, VAC verb type/token distribution in the input is Zipfian and learners first acquire the most frequent, prototypical and generic exemplar (e.g. put in VOL, give in VOO, etc.). This paper further illustrates how acquisition is affected by the frequency and frequency distribution of exemplars within each island of the construction (e.g. [Subj V Obj Oblpath/loc]), by their prototypicality, and, using a variety of psychological and corpus linguistic association metrics, by their contingency of form-function mapping.
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Reconstructing verb meaning in a second language: How English speakers of L2 Dutch talk and gesture about placement
Author(s): Marianne Gullbergpp.: 221–244 (24)More LessThis study examines to what extent English speakers of L2 Dutch reconstruct the meanings of placement verbs when moving from a general L1 verb of caused motion (put) to two specific caused posture verbs (zetten/leggen ‘set/lay’) in the L2 and whether the existence of low-frequency cognate forms in the L1 (set/lay) alleviates the reconstruction problem. Evidence from speech and gesture indicates that English speakers have difficulties with the specific verbs in L2 Dutch, initially looking for means to express general caused motion in L1-like fashion through over-generalisation. The gesture data further show that targetlike forms are often used to convey L1-like meaning. However, the differentiated use of zetten for vertical placement and dummy verbs (gaan ‘go’ and doen ‘do’) and intransitive posture verbs (zitten/staan/liggen ‘sit, stand, lie’) for horizontal placement, and a positive correlation between appropriate verb use and target-like gesturing suggest a beginning sensitivity to the semantic parameters of the L2 verbs and possible reconstruction.
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Language typology, task complexity and the development of L2 lexicalization patterns for describing motion events
Author(s): Teresa Cadierno and Peter Robinsonpp.: 245–276 (32)More LessThe present paper focuses on the acquisition of L2 constructions for the expression of motion from a typological (Cadierno, 2008; Talmy, 1985, 1991, 2000) and a psycholinguistic perspective with implications for pedagogy (Robinson, 2003a, 2007; Robinson & Gilabert, 2007a, 2007b). Specifically, we report the results of a cross-linguistic study which examined the extent to which the manipulation of pedagogic tasks in terms of cognitive complexity can facilitate the development of target-like lexicalization patterns and appropriate L2 ways of thinking-for-speaking for the expression of motion by adult L2 learners with typologically similar and typologically different L1s and L2s, i.e., Danish vs. Japanese L1 learners of English. The results of the study show that level of L2 proficiency, assessed using a cloze test, predicts more target-like reference to L2 motion across both L1 groups. Typological similarity between the L1 (Danish) and L2 (English) results in greater use of motion constructions incorporating mention of ground of motion compared to their use by Japanese L1 speakers. More cognitively complex tasks lead to production of more target-like lexicalization patterns, but also only for speakers of the typologically similar L1, Danish.
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Constructing a Second Language: Some final thoughts
Author(s): Ewa Dąbrowskapp.: 277–290 (14)More LessAll the papers in this special section address issues central to cognitive linguistics research: usage-based models with their focus on frequency; multi-word units and the relationship between lexical and grammatical knowledge; and the nature of lexical meaning, especially construal or “thinking for speaking”. Cognitive Linguistics is thus clearly a useful paradigm for L2 research. The contributors also emphasise that many of the processes operating in L1 acquisition are relevant in L2A as well. In this paper, I discuss the opposite side of the coin: how cognitively-inspired L2 research can inform work on first language learning and theoretical linguistics, focussing in particular on three issues that have been extensively studied in an L2 context but neglected by the other language sciences: transfer of knowledge between constructions, the role of explicit learning, and individual differences in linguistic knowledge.
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Motion events in Spanish L2 acquisition
Author(s): Teresa Cadierno and Lucas Ruiz
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