Beyond the sentence

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerstin Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Frame Semantics ◽  
Cognitive Perspective ◽  
Pragmatic Markers ◽  
Grammatical Mood ◽  
Spoken Interaction ◽  
Interactive Experience ◽  
Grammatical Structures

Construction grammarians are still quite reluctant to extend their descriptions to units beyond the sentence. However, the theoretical premises of construction grammar and frame semantics are particularly suited to cover spoken interaction from a cognitive perspective. Furthermore, as construction grammar is anchored in the cognitive linguistics paradigm and as such subscribes to meaning being grounded in experience, it needs to consider interaction since grammatical structures may be grounded not only in sensory-motor, but also in social-interactive experience. The example of grounded language learning experiments demonstrates the anchoring of grammatical mood in interaction. Finally, phenomena peculiar to spoken dialogue, such as pragmatic markers, may be best accounted for as constructions, drawing on frame semantics. The two cognitive linguistic notions, frames and constructions, are therefore particularly useful to account for generalisation in spoken interaction.

Shared Similes in the Homeric Epics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan L. Ready
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Frame Semantics

Our Homeric poets strove to display their competence by doing what their predecessors and peers did. To discover the shared similes in the Iliad and the Odyssey, the chapter first reviews the (nearly) verbatim short vehicle portions and similar long vehicle portions found (a) in the Iliad and Odyssey or (b) in the Iliad or Odyssey and in other archaic Greek hexameter poems or lyric poems. The chapter then discusses “scenarios” to get at the mental templates underlying many of our Homeric poets’ vehicle portions, templates that reveal the extent of their use of shared vehicle portions. By linking this model of scenarios with an approach from cognitive linguistics known as Frame Semantics, one can detect the ease with which a Homeric poet learned the scenarios. Our poets’ demonstrations of their use of shared elements also comes to the fore when one examines their similes as two-part equations, each composed of a tenor and a vehicle.

Multimodal constructions in children

Gesture ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mats Andrén
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Developmental Progression ◽  
Traditional Sense ◽  
Theoretical Question

Swedish children’s use of the headshake from 18 to 30 months shows a developmental progression from rote-learned and formulaic coordination with speech to increasingly more flexible and productive coordination with speech. To deal with these observations, I make use of the concept of multimodal constructions, to extend usage-based approaches to language learning and construction grammar by inclusion of the kinetic domain. These ideas have consequences for the (meta‑)theoretical question of whether gesture can be said to be part of language or not. I suggest that some speech-coordinated gestures, including the headshake, can be considered part of language, also in the traditional sense of language as a conventionalized system.

Study abroad and the SLA of variable structures: A look at the present perfect, the copula contrast, and the present progressive in Mexico and Spain

Probus ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Kanwit ◽  
Kimberly L. Geeslin ◽  
Stephen Fafulas
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Present Perfect ◽  
Immersion Programs ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Grammatical Structures

AbstractThe present study connects research on the L2 acquisition of variable structures to the ever-growing body of research on the role of study abroad in the language learning process. The data come from a group of 46 English-speaking learners of Spanish who participated in immersion programs in two distinct locations, Valencia, Spain and San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Simultaneously, we tested a group of native speakers from each region to create an appropriate target model for each learner group. Learners completed a written contextualized questionnaire at the beginning and end of their seven-week stay abroad. Our instrument examines three variable grammatical structures: (1) the copulas

scholarly journals Raising Collocational Awareness with Humour

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-113
Author(s):  
Tünde Nagy
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Easy Task ◽  
Specific Meaning ◽  
Linguistic Structures

AbstractDespite the increased interest that collocations have received in EFL methodology lately, making language learners aware of these multiword constructions continues to represent a challenge for teachers. While there may be different ways of teaching collocations, finding activities that raise collocational awareness efficiently is no easy task. Collocational awareness can be defined as the ability of language learners (and users) to use and acknowledge word combinations in their entirety. Humour can be useful in this regard as it not only ensures a more relaxed atmosphere in the classroom but can also help students to acknowledge and remember specific linguistic structures (among them, also collocations) more easily. In line with Construction Grammar (Goldberg 1995, 1997, 2006), it is believed that collocations are to be treated as constructions, pairings of form with a specific meaning and varying degrees of predictability – teaching them as such can contribute to a better understanding and acquisition of these constructions. After offering a brief overview of the characteristics of collocations and reflecting on the possible advantages of using humour in class, the paper shows possible ways of teaching collocations with humour. The exercises and activities suggested focus on both the productive and receptive competence of language learners and also incorporate the necessary skills required in the language learning process: listening, reading, writing, and speaking.

SECONDARY PHENOMENA IN THE LINGUISTIC WORLDVIEW (COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE)

2021 ◽  
pp. 47-54
Author(s):  
S.G. Vinogradova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
English Language ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Cognitive Perspective ◽  
Conceptual Structures ◽  
Secondary Meaning ◽  
Human Thinking

The article opens with a brief overview of approaches to the study of secondary phenomena in the linguistic worldview. In particular, the author indicates the main reasons for secondary meaning formation including linguistic economy based on minimum of efforts aspiration and the associative and creative nature of human thinking. The author argues that in the framework of cognitive linguistics secondary meanings result from interpretation and the accompanying conceptual derivation and metarepresentation as processes of cognition. Such processes reflect a new understanding of the previously acquired knowledge, generating secondary conceptual structures, and choosing best ways of their anchoring in language considering cognitive dominants of linguistic consciousness as certain templates for construing reality through language. In the context of the above processes, the author examines secondary phenomena of the linguistic worldview analysing the examples of lexical and grammatical units of the English language. The discussion is focused on the outcomes of word formation in lexis, secondary interjections, secondary predicative structures, composite sentences.

A Case for Grace? Case-Grammar, Frame-Semantics, and Biblical Hebrew חֵן

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Carsten Ziegert
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Frame Semantics ◽  
Potential Conflict ◽  
Case Grammar ◽  
Basic Meaning ◽  
Biblical Texts

Abstract The traditional rendering “grace” for חֵן is controversial. Frame semantics, a theory originating in cognitive linguistics, anticipates that prototypical situations are evoked in language users’ minds each time a word is used. Thus, a “frame” for “חֵן situations” is reconstructed from Biblical texts. Apart from the basic meaning “beauty” which is offered in dictionaries, too, an extended meaning is presented: חֵן designates “the settling of a (potential) conflict between two parties that only one party can bring to a conclusion.”

Framing constructicography

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans C. Boas ◽  
Benjamin Lyngfelt ◽  
Tiago Timponi Torrent
Keyword(s):  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Frame Semantics ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
And Function ◽  
Computational Resources

Abstract Constructicography can be defined as a blend between Construction Grammar and Practical Lexicography, which aims at developing constructicons: repositories of form and function pairings in a language. In this paper, we present a comprehensive overview of this emerging field by (i) tracking the origins of both Frame Semantics and Construction Grammar and the repercussions of their intertwined developments to Computational Lexicography and Constructicography; (ii) comparing the impacts of the different degrees of interconnection between constructicons and framenets and (iii) discussing the possible applications of these resources. Also, we argue that Constructicography, while obviously building on the accumulated knowledge compiled by numerous Construction Grammar approaches to language, also contributes to its mother theory, since the effort to build coherent formalized computational resources forces constructionist analysis to go beyond describing families of constructions into the enterprise of describing a coherent construction grammar of a language.

scholarly journals Applied cognitive linguistics and foreign language learning. Introduction to the special issue

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Hijazo-Gascón ◽  
Reyes Llopis-García
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Second Languages

Abstract This introduction provides an overview of the intersection between Applied Cognitive Linguistics and Second/Foreign Language Learning. First, the relevance of Cognitive Linguistics (CL) for Applied Linguistics in general is discussed. The second section explains the main principles of CL and how each relates to the acquisition of second languages: (i) language and human cognition, (ii) language as symbolic, (iii) language as motivated; and (iv) language as usage-based. Section three offers a review of previous literature on CL and L2s that are different from English, as it is one the main aims of this Special Issue to provide state-of-the-art research and scholarship to enhance the bigger picture of the field of Second Language Acquisition beyond English as the target language. Spanish as L2/FL in Applied Cognitive Linguistics is the focus of the next section, which leads to a brief overview of the papers included in the Issue, featuring Spanish as the L2 with L1s such as English, French, German and Italian. Polysemy, Motion Events Typology, Cognitive Grammar and Construction Grammar are the Cognitive Linguistics areas addressed in the contributions here presented.

Automatic metaphor detection using constructions and frames

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jisup Hong
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Detection System ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Computational Resource ◽  
Frame Semantics ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Relative Success ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Conceptual Network

This paper presents MetaNet’s automatic metaphor detection system that applies theoretical principles from construction grammar, frame semantics, and recent developments in conceptual metaphor theory, including the theory of cascades (Lakoff 2014). The system has achieved relative success in identifying metaphorical expressions for a range of target domains from large corpora and holds promise as a useful tool for corpus-based study of metaphor. The detection system relies on MetaNet’s conceptual network of frames and metaphors as a computational resource for its functionality, and improves automatically as the representations stored in the network are built up. In addition, because of its theoretically principled design the system’s level of accuracy at identifying metaphorical expressions provides feedback to linguists about the accuracy of the frame and metaphor analyses in the network.

Modality and Mood in Cognitive Linguistics and Construction Grammars

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronny Boogaart ◽  
Egbert Fortuin
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Detailed Account ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Modal Verbs ◽  
Force Dynamics ◽  
Mental Spaces

From the start of cognitive linguistics, in the 1980s, researchers working within this framework have given ample attention to mood and modality. This is understandable since these categories crucially involve speaker attitude and perspective and cognitive linguistics has always concerned itself with the ways in which language users present a subjective construal of reality. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of how mood and modality are analyzed within different strands of cognitive linguistics, ranging from the models of force dynamics and Mental Spaces to Cognitive Grammar. Specific topics discussed include the polysemy of modal verbs, the analysis of tense as modality, and the highly detailed account of modal verbs offered by Langacker in terms of “grounding” and “subjectivity”. The emerging framework of construction grammar focuses on the linguistic contexts, that is constructions, in which modal forms are used, regarding these as constraints on polysemy.

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