Constructions and Frames - Volume 14, Issue 2, 2022

Abstract

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

In this paper we analyse a family of compound constructions in Persian that show two interesting properties: (1) they split into two semantic patterns, human agent noun and instrument noun, and (2) they display categorial ambiguity between noun and adjective. The compounds in question, which are formed with the verbal stem -yāb ‘find’, are collected from diachronic and synchronic corpora and analysed in the framework of Construction Morphology (Booij 2010). We argue that the instrumental pattern is an innovation under the influence of loan-translated English instrument nouns. This pattern dovetailed with a much older morphological construction for human agent nouns. This raises questions about the relation between the two constructions in the contemporary speaker’s lexicon. For the dual functionality of the words as nouns and adjectives, we argue that it can be understood as a second order schema (Booij & Masini 2015) or sister construction (Jackendoff & Audring 2019, 2020), whereby no precedence is ascribed to either of the two patterns.

Abstract

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.

This article reviews English Comparative Correlatives: Diachronic and Synchronic Variation at the Lexicon-Syntax Interface9781108477215

This article reviews Reference point and case: A Cognitive Grammar exploration of Korean9789027204295