Pleonastic complex words as functional amalgams

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikos Koutsoukos ◽  
Laura A. Michaelis
Keyword(s):  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Derivational Morphemes ◽  
Complex Words

Abstract Syntactic amalgams are innovative phrasal constructions that combine otherwise incompatible subparts of other constructions (Lambrecht 1988; Brenier and Michaelis 2005). We describe pleonastic formations like flavorize in English and ψηλαφ-ίζ(ω) [psilafízo] ‘palpate’ in Modern Greek as functional amalgams at the word level. We examine these formations through the lens of (function-oriented) Sign-Based Construction Grammar (Sag 2012), arguing that once we see derivational morphemes as signs, and sign combination as construction-driven rather than head-driven, we can describe such words as coercive combinations that serve a variety of semiotic functions.

scholarly journals A Phonetic Complexity-Based Approach for Intelligibility and Articulatory Precision Testing: A Preliminary Study on Talkers With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (9) ◽  
pp. 2205-2214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mili Kuruvilla-Dugdale ◽  
Claire Custer ◽  
Lindsey Heidrick ◽  
Richard Barohn ◽  
Raghav Govindarajan
Keyword(s):  
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ◽  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Speech Impairments ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Perceived Impact ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
Level Analysis ◽  
Precision Testing ◽  
Lateral Sclerosis

Purpose This study describes a phonetic complexity-based approach for speech intelligibility and articulatory precision testing using preliminary data from talkers with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Method Eight talkers with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and 8 healthy controls produced a list of 16 low and high complexity words. Sixty-four listeners judged the samples for intelligibility, and 2 trained listeners completed phoneme-level analysis to determine articulatory precision. To estimate percent intelligibility, listeners orthographically transcribed each word, and the transcriptions were scored as being either accurate or inaccurate. Percent articulatory precision was calculated based on the experienced listeners' judgments of phoneme distortions, deletions, additions, and/or substitutions for each word. Articulation errors were weighted based on the perceived impact on intelligibility to determine word-level precision. Results Between-groups differences in word intelligibility and articulatory precision were significant at lower levels of phonetic complexity as dysarthria severity increased. Specifically, more severely impaired talkers showed significant reductions in word intelligibility and precision at both complexity levels, whereas those with milder speech impairments displayed intelligibility reductions only for more complex words. Articulatory precision was less sensitive to mild dysarthria compared to speech intelligibility for the proposed complexity-based approach. Conclusions Considering phonetic complexity for dysarthria tests could result in more sensitive assessments for detecting and monitoring dysarthria progression.

Phrasal names: A constructionist analysis

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geert Booij
Keyword(s):  
Functional Equivalence ◽  
Lexical Unit ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Constructionist Approach ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
Formal Properties

Some types of phrases share the naming function with complex words. Hence both phrases and words can be lexical units stored in the lexicon. This article discusses how the functional equivalence between words and phrases can be accounted for without ignoring their formal differences. Such types of phrases can be characterized in terms of phrasal schemas with specific properties, that is, as constructions. The article focuses on the formal properties of adjective+noun sequences with a naming function, in particular in Modern Greek and Dutch. The constructionist approach is able to do justice to the lexical unit properties of phrasal names, and highlights the parallelism between phrasal and morphological constructions.

Das graphematische Wort (im Deutschen): Eine erste Annäherung

2008 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nanna Fuhrhop
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Segment Sequence ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Concept Of Word ◽  
Complex Words

AbstractIn the field of phonology, the concept of ‘word’ has been well-defined in contemporary linguistics. In morphology and syntax, the different existing theories provide a basis for establishing a ‘word’ as well. In graphematics, too, establishing a concept for ‘word’ might appear simple: A graphematic word is the segment sequence between two spaces. But what does this segment-sequence look like? The essay addresses this question in three steps. It begins by discussing the graphematic syllable. It then explains the principle of writing complex words. In German, this may be the prototypical part of graphematic words. For the non-prototypical part, acronyms, abbreviations, punctuation (hyphen, apostrophe, word-level period) and numbers are discussed. The final section is devoted to the interaction between the different concepts of words (phonological, morphological, syntactic and graphematical), and shows that the graphematic word in German is especially determined by morphological and syntactic features.

ABORDAGEM CONSTRUCIONAL DA REDUPLICAÇÃO DE BASE VERBAL EM PORTUGUÊS CONSTRUCTIONAL APPROACH TO VERBAL BASE REDUCTION IN PORTUGUESE

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Alexandre Victorio GONÇALVES ◽  
Luciana Albuquerque Daltio VIALLI
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Formation Process ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Doctoral Thesis ◽  
Constructional Morphology ◽  
Morphology Model ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
Key Words Morphology

Resumo: Neste artigo, pretendemos utilizar os dados de Vialli (2013), que reuniu, em sua tese de doutoramento, cerca de cem formas de composição reduplicativa em português, à luz do modelo de morfologia construcional (MC) originalmente proposto por Booij (2005, 2007, 2010). Esse modelo aplica a gramática das construções (GOLDBERG, 1995) ao componente morfológico, analisando as formações lexicais por meio de esquemas e subesquemas que representam o pareamento entre o polo formal e o polo semântico de palavras morfologicamente complexas. Entendendo que a reduplicação verbal (composição ViVi) pode ser satisfatoriamente descrita com os instrumentos da MC, procuramos explicar, formal e semanticamente, construções como “bate-bate” (“bater repetidamente”, “carrinho do parque de diversões”) e “agarra-agarra” (“agarrar repetidas vezes”), mostrando as motivações morfológicas e as extensões de significado desse tipo de formação e distinguindo-o da repetição, fenômeno que ocorre em nível sintático.Palavras-chave: Morfologia. Formação de palavras. Construção. Reduplicação. Composição.Abstract: In this article, we intend to explain the Vialli (2013)”s data –  which met, in her doctoral thesis, about a hundred forms of reduplicative compounding in Brazilian Portuguese – based on constructional morphology model (MC), originally proposed by Booij (2005 2007, 2010). This model applies construction grammar (GOLDBERG, 1995) to morphology component, analyzing the lexical formations through schemes and subschemas representing the pairing between the formal pole and the semantic pole of morphologically complex words. Understanding that the verbal reduplication (composition ViVi) can be satisfactorily described with the instruments of MC, we try to explain, formal and semantically, formations such as "bat-bate" ("hit repeatedly"; "playground toy") and "agarra-agarra" (grab repeatedly), showing the morphological motivations and meaning extentions of this type of word-formation process and distinguishing it from the repetition phenomenon that occurs in the syntatic level. Key words: Morphology. Word formation. Construction. Reduplication. Compounding

Morphology in Construction Grammar

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geert E. Booij
Keyword(s):  
Word Formation ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Ordered Array ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter presents a whole range of arguments for a Construction Grammar approach to morphology. It shows that the lexicon contains both (simplex and complex) words and word formation schemas of various degrees of abstraction, and provides evidence supporting the view that morphological construcitons have holistic properties. The chapter considers both word formation and inflectional morphology and discusses the relationship between morphological and syntactic constructions. The findings confirm that the lexicon is to be reinterpreted as the "constructicon," a structured and hierarchically ordered array of constructions and constructs with phrasal or word status.

The constructional motivation of indefinite generics in Modern Greek

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-55
Author(s):  
Sophia Marmaridou
Keyword(s):  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Proper Noun ◽  
Semantic Change ◽  
Indefinite Article ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Generic Construction ◽  
The Cross

This paper argues for the discoursal motivation of constructions and the constructional motivation of a Modern Greek indefinite article, by focusing on generics and some other nominal constructions in Modern Greek containing the indefinite determiner enas/mia/ena (“a/an”, masc./fem./ neut. respectively). Moreover, it illustrates the cross-linguistic relevance of Construction Grammar. A family of indefinite nominal constructions is identified, including the Indefinite Generic Construction, the Indefinite Proper Noun Construction, the Indefinite Predicate Nominal Construction, and the Proverbial Indefinite Construction, which is further shown to be primed by specific pragmatic and discoursal features. On the basis of the proposed analysis, and consistently with established views on semantic change (Traugott 1989), I suggest that the expressivity and the discoursal characterization associated with this family of indefinite constructions in Modern Greek motivate the partial de-semanticization of the indefinite determiner, its synchronic variability (after Hoffmann & Trousdale 2011) and, ultimately, its function as an article in the language.

scholarly journals From compounding to derivation The emergence of derivational affixes through “constructionalization”

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Hüning ◽  
Geert Booij
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Change ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Complex Word ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Construction Morphology ◽  
Recent Developments

AbstractThe rise of new derivational affixes can be analyzed adequately as a case of “constructionalization” within the framework of Construction Morphology as developed by Booij (2010). We review some aspects and problems of previous accounts that view the emergence of derivational affixes as a case of grammaticalization or as a case of lexicalization, respectively. In line with recent developments in grammaticalization research, not the isolated element (word or affix) is viewed as the locus of change, but the complex word as a whole - seen as a “construction” in the sense of Construction Grammar - and its relation with other constructions. Morphological change can be conceived as constructional change at the word level.

scholarly journals Adult Bilinguals’ Orthographic Representations: Cognates vs. Non-Cognates in Complex English Word Spelling

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Maria Rigobon
Keyword(s):  
Reading Ability ◽  
English Word ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Orthographic Representations ◽  
Other Information ◽  
Interdisciplinary Framework ◽  
Word Spelling ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
Encoding Strategies

Spelling complex English words is more difficult than reading them, suggesting that spelling requires higher quality orthographic representations and a greater degree of word knowledge compared to reading. Without high-quality orthographic representations, spellers often rely on other information (e.g., phonological to orthographic encoding) to aid spelling. However, the quasi-regular nature of English orthography-to-phonology relations often render encoding strategies ineffective. This study examined whether alternative orthographic representations might facilitate the spelling of complex English words. Specifically, would English-Spanish bilingual university students benefit from orthographic similarities of English-Spanish cognates compared with non-cognates when spelling complex words? Cognates are words that share similar spellings and meanings across languages; given the Spanish orthography’s transparent nature, cognates might help inform English spelling. Bilingual students (n = 77) were asked to spell complex English words, half of which were Spanish cognates, with item-level spelling accuracy modeled using word-level (e.g., cognate status) and person-level (e.g., general reading ability) predictors. Results indicate that participants had a higher probability of spelling complex cognate words correctly compared to non-cognate words matched on other word features (e.g., frequency and word length). Findings from this study expand an interdisciplinary framework of understanding bilinguals’ lexical access and strength of orthographic representations across languages.

Verbal Semantics in Ancient Greek Possessive Constructions with eînai

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-33
Author(s):  
Maria Carmela Benvenuto ◽  
Flavia Pompeo
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Content ◽  
Distinct Pattern ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Possessive Constructions ◽  
Precise Role

The aim of this paper is to investigate ‘eînai (‘be’) plus dative’ and ‘eînai plus genitive’ possessive constructions, paying special attention to the semantic content of the verb eînai in order to identify the function and the distribution of the various combinatorial patterns of the constructions in question, and the precise role of the verbal items. In particular, the present analysis, carried out within the framework of Construction Grammar, will attempt to demonstrate that each possessive variant constitutes a semantically and pragmatically distinct pattern where the semantic content of the verb eînai is the result of form-meaning configurations over and above the morpheme and word level. From this perspective, the cluster of semantic, pragmatic and morpho-syntactic values attributed to participant slots constitutes an integral part of constructions.

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