The cognition of caused-motion events in Spanish and German: An Agentive Cognitive Construction Grammar analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Sergio Torres-Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Grammar Analysis ◽  
Cognitive Construction Grammar

A construction grammar analysis of the transitivebeperfect in present-day Canadian English

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
YURI YERASTOV
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Underlying Structure ◽  
Canadian English ◽  
Syntactic Theory ◽  
Fixed Material ◽  
Grammar Analysis ◽  
Generative Approach ◽  
Surface Realization

This article offers a syntactic analysis of the construction [be doneNP], e.g.I am done dinner, I am finished my homework, as found in Canadian English and some US dialects. After situating this construction in the context of a productive transitivebeperfect in Scots/English dialects, [be doneNP] will be distinguished from a set of its conceptual and structural relatives, and ultimately be shown not to be reducible to a surface realization of another underlying structure. From the perspective of syntactic theory, the article problematizes the parsimony of the mainstream generative approach (most recently in MacFadden & Alexiadou 2010) in accounting for the facts of [be doneNP] on strictly compositional grounds, as well as the mainstream view of lexical items as projecting theta grids and subcategorization frames (as e.g. in Grimshaw 1979; Emonds 2000). Following Fillmoreet al.(1988), Goldberg (1995, 2005) and others, what will be suggested instead is a construction grammar approach to [be doneNP], under which a construction holistically licenses its argument structure. Along these lines [be doneNP] will be characterized as an abstract construction with some fixed material.

Cognitive Construction Grammar

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans C. Boas
Keyword(s):  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Plausible Account ◽  
Cognitive Principles ◽  
Organizing Principles ◽  
Cognitive Construction Grammar

This chapter focuses on Cognitive Construction Grammar (CCG), which aims at providing a psychologically plausible account of language by investigating the general cognitive principles that serve to structure the network of language-specific constructions. It traces the foundations of CCG, discusses the major organizing principles and the architecture of CCG, and describes the organization of constructional knowledge in CCG. The chapter also compares CCG with other strands of Construction Grammar to show what ideas they share and where they differ, and looks at the interaction of multiple constructions, the role of networks, and inheritance hierarchies, as well as frequency and productivity from a CCG perspective.

scholarly journals Working out multiword verbs within an Applied Cognitive Construction Grammar framework

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-86
Author(s):  
Sergio Torres-Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Focus On Form ◽  
Working Out ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Cognitive Construction Grammar

AbstractThis article presents a constructionist approach to the teaching of multiword verbs. To that end, I outline a pedagogical model, Applied Cognitive Construction Grammar (ACCxG), which is deemed to provide insight into a novel classification of multiword verbs as constructions (form-function pairings). The ACCxG framework integrates four cognitively-driven rationales, namely Focus on Form, Task-based Language Teaching, Data-driven Learning, and Paper-based Data-Driven Learning. It is argued that the syntax-semantics of multiword verbs can be better understood through recourse to their relation with syntactic constructions (Argument Structure Constructions). Endorsing this rationale entails, among other things, the recognition that the same general cognitive mechanisms intervening in the construction of our experience of the world are at play during the construction of linguistic knowledge.

scholarly journals Towards a construction grammar account of the distributive PO in Polish

2015 ◽  
pp. 165-176
Author(s):  
Adam Przepiórkowski
Keyword(s):  
Potential Problem ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Grammar Analysis ◽  
Apparent Ability

Towards a construction grammar account of the distributive PO in PolishPolish distributive constructions involving the form po are well known for their syntactic and semantic idiosyncrasy. The aim of this paper is to show that, contrary to the received wisdom, two different lexemes po take part in such constructions: a preposition and an adnumeral operator. This explains some of the idiosyncratic behaviour, namely, the apparent ability of po to combine with different grammatical cases. A preliminary Construction Grammar analysis is proposed which eschews the potential problem of missed generalisations that such a dual account of po might engender.

Why we avoid the ‘Multiple Inheritance’ issue in usage-based cognitive construction grammar

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lotte Sommerer
Keyword(s):  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Multiple Inheritance ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
Cognitive Construction Grammar

Abstract This squib revisits the phenomenon of ‘Multiple Inheritance’ (MI) and discusses reasons why many usage-based, cognitive Construction Grammarians seem to be avoiding it when modeling the constructicon and linguistic knowledge. After a brief discussion of the concept and some examples from the literature, the paper examines potential reasons for the apparent disinterest. Finally, the author points to some open questions regarding MI by discussing a specific example, namely modified NPN constructions like day after hellish day or hour after hour of dominoes. It can be argued that these strings inherit their characteristic features from several different abstract templates.

Cognitive Sociolinguistic Aspects of Football Chants: The Role of Social and Physical Context in Usage-based Construction Grammar

2015 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Hoffmann
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Text Type ◽  
Physical Context ◽  
Context Factors ◽  
Grammar Analysis ◽  
Authentic Language ◽  
Context Constraints

AbstractUsage-based approaches to language stress that a speaker’s mental grammar arises from and is shaped by language use and that the resulting mental representations include rich contextual linguistic and non-linguistic information. Yet, despite the fact that sociolinguistic research has pointed out the great importance of social and physical context factors as well as individual styles that speakers draw on to create their linguistic identities in authentic language use, usage-based Construction Grammar approaches have so far not paid enough attention to these phenomena. While the growing field of Cognitive Sociolinguistics has already tried to incorporate a wide variety of sociolinguistic phenomena into their cognitive analyses, most Construction Grammar approaches usually only include sociolinguistic parameters (such as text type, register or dialect) as independent variables in their analyses. In this paper, I argue that such an approach ignores recent sociolinguistic insights into the active stylization of individuals by dynamic linguistic acts of identity. In this paper, I will show the importance of these insights by focussing on English football chants. First, I will illustrate how football chants can be analysed as linguistic constructions that are constrained by complex social and physical context factors. In a next step, I will then argue that the complex social and physical context constraints as well as the potential to function as linguistic acts of identity are not only relevant for these types of constructions, but also need to be taken into account in usage-based Construction Grammar analysis in general.

You can't cry your way to candy: Motion events and paths in the x's way construction

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konrad Szczesniak
Keyword(s):  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
Universal Principles ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Motion Event ◽  
Constructionist Approach ◽  
Open Class ◽  
Event Schemas

AbstractThis paper examines previous analyses of the x's way construction, focusing on the readings attributed to it within the Construction Grammar framework and constraints on the types of verbs allowed in the construction. It questions some of the characterizations of the construction and offers an alternative view that accounts for uses of the construction that have not been considered before. Specifically, it will demonstrate that metaphoric uses, particularly those with obtainment readings, reveal interesting properties of the construction that define how it assembles motion events and paths in these events. These will be shown to follow constraints of differing rigidity. While motion events can involve disparate subevents blended together, paths do not allow any integration of incongruous elements. The construction follows universal principles which govern how complex event schemas can be blended out of simpler schemas in linguistic constructions. More generally, as a closed-class form, not only does the construction conform to event-schema protocol, but its meaning associated with a motion event is a spare reading typical of a closed-class form. Thus the present analysis attempts to reconcile its constructionist approach to the way construction with the traditional division into closed- and open-class forms.

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