- Home
- e-Journals
- Constructions and Frames
- Previous Issues
- Volume 12, Issue 1, 2020
Constructions and Frames - Volume 12, Issue 1, 2020
Volume 12, Issue 1, 2020
-
Trees, assemblies, chains, and windows
Author(s): Ronald W. Langackerpp.: 8–55 (48)More LessAbstractFor describing grammatical organization, metaphors based on a variety of source domains – including trees, networks, chains, paths, and windows – all appear to have some validity. In Cognitive Grammar, they pertain to facets of assemblies, where semantic and phonological structures are connected by relations of symbolization, composition, and categorization. Assemblies have a temporal dimension; consisting in sequenced processing activity that runs concurrently on different time scales, they involve both seriality and hierarchy. In their hierarchical aspect, they are comparable to constituency trees, and in their connections, to dependency trees. Assembly elements, which can be characterized at any level of specificity, are connected in both syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations. A person’s linguistic ability comprises a vast assembly of conventional units, a portion of which are activated as part of the transient assembly constituting a particular expression. Lexicon and grammar effect the implementation of semantic functions – affective, interactive, descriptive, and discursive – which emerge with varying degrees of salience depending on their symbolization by segmental, prosodic, and other means. Assemblies thus make possible a unified approach to processing, structure, function, and use.
-
Constructions, generalizations, and the unpredictability of language
Author(s): Thomas Herbstpp.: 56–95 (40)More LessAbstractAttempts at predicting syntactic behavior from semantic or other generalizations are often unsatisfactory. It is argued that the notion of competition as used by Goldberg (2019) can serve as an explanation for unpredictability in language because established formulations that are preferred over others automatically distort the collocational profiles of verbs in argument structure constructions. As a consequence of this, an approach of seeing items as items-in-constructions (and not as elements attracted to them) is argued for. It is then shown how this items-in-constructions view can be applied to designing models of reference constructicons and mental constructicons.
-
Intersubjectification in constructional change
Author(s): Martin Hilpert and Samuel Bourgeoispp.: 96–120 (25)More LessAbstractThis paper addresses constructional change in a dialogical construction that is illustrated by utterances such as sarcastic much?, which typically serve the purpose of an interactional challenge. Drawing on web-based corpus data, we argue that this construction is currently undergoing a process of change that expands its range of possible uses. Specifically, we observe the emergence of uses with a different intersubjective function, in which the writer does not aim for confrontation but is rather seeking the solidarity and alignment of the addressee. We offer an account of this development in terms of constructional change, and we use this case study to explore how intersubjectification and the dialogic nature of language can be accommodated more thoroughly in a constructional theory of language change.
-
From construction grammar to embodied construction practice
Author(s): Sabine De Knoppp.: 121–148 (28)More LessAbstractIn recent years, foreign language pedagogy has recognized the need to focus on larger meaningful sequences of words and on communicative goals. Construction grammar (CxG) has a number of assets to address these issues. First, with the postulate of meaningful schematic templates, CxG makes it possible to establish a structured inventory of abstract constructions. In this paper, this is illustrated by the inventory of German constructions with the preposition bis ‘up to, until’. Second, constructions, having a certain degree of schematicity, are particularly suitable to be practiced as whole sequences. Interactive activities based on ‘embodied teaching and learning’ can help foster the entrenchment of constructions.
-
Advances in Embodied Construction Grammar
Author(s): Jerome A. Feldmanpp.: 149–169 (21)More LessAbstractThis paper describes the continuing goals and present status of the ICSI/UC Berkeley efforts on Embodied Construction Grammar (ECG). ECG is semantics-based formalism grounded in cognitive linguistics. ECG is the most explicitly inter-disciplinary of the construction grammars with deep links to computation, neuroscience, and cognitive science. Work continues on core cognitive, computational, and linguistic issues, including aspects of the mind/body problem. Much of the recent emphasis has been on applications and on tools to facilitate new applications. Extensive documentation plus downloadable systems and grammars can be found at the ECG Homepage.1
Most Read This Month

-
-
Change in modal meanings
Author(s): Martin Hilpert
-
-
-
Cascades in metaphor and grammar
Author(s): Oana David, George Lakoff and Elise Stickles
-
-
-
What is this, sarcastic syntax?
Author(s): Laura A. Michaelis and Hanbing Feng
-
- More Less