Constructions and Frames - Volume 15, Issue 1, 2023

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.

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.

Employing Frame Semantics as implemented in the Berkeley FrameNet database, this paper analyzes English sentences expressing concerns of risk derived from the British National Corpus and their Japanese translations (created for the purposes of the current study). It introduces the ideas of content and interpretation predicates, frame integration, and head-switching as effectual devices for recognizing obscure constructional equivalences across languages. Our findings shed light on the development of a new contrastive framework for verbal predicativity: that is, a framework based on the recognition of content and interpretation predicates and how it intersects with the categorical distinction in lexicalization patterns between verbs and adverbs.

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.