Constructions as Triads of Form, Function, and Agency: An Agentive Cognitive Construction Grammar Study of English Modals

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Torres-Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
American English ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Symbolic Form ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Objective Truth ◽  
Form Function ◽  
Mental Schemas ◽  
Cognitive Construction Grammar

The present article introduces anagentive cognitive construction grammarapproach to the analysis of English central modals. One of the premises of the new theory is that speaker meaning cannot be captured by looking at form-function relations only but through the integration of additional conceptual layers such as agency, embodiment, and argument structure construction. This theoretical turn is supported empirically by a corpus study aimed at identifying specific modal constructions in the 520 million wordCorpus of Contemporary American English. The results show that(i) English modals are reliably identifiable as constructions at a clausal level, and(ii) that, depending on the type of agency (motional or stative), modal constructions can be divided into two main categories, namelymodal agentive constructionsandmodal referential constructions. The results also support the idea that modal constructions are triadic, that is, that they display symbolic form-function relations based on iconic-indexical, and speaker-driven processes (all of which are possible thanks to the conceptualizer’s possession of the concept of objective truth). These constructions provide conceptualizers with the mental schemas necessary to construe meaning across mental spaces.

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.

The role of semiotics in the unification of langue and parole: an Agentive Cognitive Construction Grammar approach to English modals

Semiotica ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Torres-Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Linguistic System ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Cognitive Construction Grammar

Abstract This article introduces Agentive Cognitive Construction Grammar, an emerging field that seeks to connect the linguistic system with speaker-meaning. The stated purpose is thus to tackle a pervasive disconnect in both cognitive linguistics and construction grammar, whereby the linguistic system (langue) and speaker selections (parole) are separated in the belief that language is essentially a mental process associated with the brain, and hence, separated from bodily experience. I contend this view by introducing a triadic model of construction (based on the Peircean sign) in which form and function are inextricably bound up with agency. This is possible because language is tethered to senses of movement and balance that connect experiences with the physical world with the mental. A major insight of the paper is that argument structure constructions partake of both linguistic and non-linguistic signs, which provides speakers with a means to verbalize their thoughts and distribute agency in specific events.

On English modals, modal meaning and argument structure

English Today ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Sergio Torres–Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Interesting Paper ◽  
Cognitive Construction Grammar

In an interesting paper, Fong (2020) raises objections to my approach to English modals (and modality in general) which he views as too general and not fully compliant with the postulates of Construction Grammar. In this response paper, I intend to explain in some depth the benefits of my approach, as well as the reasons why Construction Grammar, in particular Cognitive Construction Grammar (Goldberg, 1995, 2006, 2019), needs to be interrogated and adapted as a conceptual framework to explain language learning and processing.

scholarly journals A Multivariate Analysis of Diachronic Variation in A Bunch of noun: A Construction Grammar Account

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Shao ◽  
Yingying Cai ◽  
Graeme Trousdale
Keyword(s):  
Multivariate Analysis ◽  
Present Article ◽  
American English ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Detailed Account ◽  
Frequency Effects ◽  
Dominant Meaning ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Late Modern

On the basis of data retrieved from the Corpus of Historical American English, this paper provides a multivariate analysis of diachronic change in collocations of the sequence a bunch of followed by a noun in the Late Modern and contemporary English periods. Our results show that (1) the partitive semantics shifts in the period from the 1910s to the 1960s from the original dominant meaning ‘bundle’ to ‘group,’ while the quantifier function/‘large quantity’ meaning of bunch becomes more entrenched from the 1970s onwards, though the three meanings continue to co-exist in the contemporary language; and (2) there exist statistically significant correlations between semantic, pragmatic, and discourse properties of the noun collocates in the partitive and quantifier constructions. While much work on diachronic construction grammar is concerned with the question of how new constructions come into being, the present article complements such research by providing a detailed account of the nature of persistence of the earlier partitive construction and the embedding and gradual entrenchment of the newer quantifier construction. It therefore addresses the consequences of “constructionalization” on a source construction, and the nature of frequency effects in “post-constructionalization” changes.

scholarly journals From movement into action to manner of causation: changes in argument mapping in the into-causative

Linguistics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 247-283
Author(s):  
Susanne Flach
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Language Change ◽  
American English ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Lexical Diversity ◽  
Syntactic Form ◽  
Semantic Classes ◽  
Argument Mapping ◽  
Last 300 Years ◽  
Argument Roles

Abstract Over the last 300 years, the into-causative (he talked his father into giving him money) increased in frequency and lexical diversity. Changes of this kind are often taken as evidence of functional expansion. From a Construction Grammar (CxG) perspective, this paper argues that what appears to be a loss of restrictions on the verbal slot results from changes in argument mapping links. As the construction provides the argument roles by mapping semantics (causer, causee, result) onto syntax (subject, object, oblique), stronger mapping links increasingly facilitated the use of verbs that are semantically and syntactically atypical for the expression of causation. Data from the Corpus of Historical American English confirm three predictions of this hypothesis with respect to shifts in (i) the semantic classes of matrix verbs, (ii) their general argument structure preferences, and (iii) voice-marking. The results provide evidence for a subtle semantic change from movement into action to manner of causation. The increase in frequency and productivity are hence explained as the consequence of the syntactic form becoming a more reliable cue for causative meaning. We discuss implications for models of language change against the background of current issues in Diachronic Construction Grammar (DCxG) pertaining to constructionalization vs. constructional change.

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.

Argument structure satisfaction via unselected adjuncts

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seiko Fujii ◽  
Russell Lee-Goldman
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Main Clause ◽  
Semantic Approach ◽  
The Core ◽  
Frame Element

Abstract This paper presents a frame-based constructional approach to argument structure satisfaction via unselected adjuncts, by focusing on one such case in Japanese. It points out an intriguing constructional phenomenon whereby causal adjunct clauses marked with node ‘because’, as used with main-clause predicates that evoke communication frames (such as Telling and Warning), serve to satisfy main-clause argument structure. The node clause precedes the main-clause speech act of telling/warning, and can be interpreted as a speech-act causal (Sweetser 1990). The node clause at the same time conveys the content of informing or warning, i.e., the core Frame Element message, which is absent as a main-clause complement. This analysis of argument structure satisfaction via unselected adjuncts provides evidence for a Frame Semantic approach to argument structure that incorporates Construction Grammar.

Meek as milk and large as logic: A corpus study of the non-standard poetic simile

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 203-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roi Tartakovsky ◽  
Yeshayahu Shen
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
Salient Feature ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Poetic Discourse ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Operational Criteria ◽  
Unexpected Difficulty ◽  
National Corpus

A novel distinction is proposed between two types of closed similes: the standard and the non-standard. While the standard simile presents a ground that is a salient feature of the source term (e.g. meek as a lamb), the non-standard simile somewhat enigmatically supplies a non-salient ground (e.g. meek as milk). The latter thus violates a deep-seated norm of similes and presents interpreters with unexpected difficulty, whereby the concept set up to be an exemplar of a quality is actually less than ideal to fulfil this role. The main question addressed here is how these two simile types are relatively distributed across poetic and non-poetic corpora. We elaborate the criteria for what constitutes the non-standard simile, including separating it out from adjacent phenomena like the ironic simile (e.g. brave as a mouse), and go on to explain our operational criteria for salience. Then, we report culling 329 closed similes from an anthology of poetry and 350 closed similes from two corpora of non-poetic discourse, the Corpus of Historical American English and the British National Corpus. An independent judge rated the salience of each ground-and-source pair of each of the similes, presented in randomized order. Results show that while the standard simile is found in both types of discourse, the non-standard kind is only marginally present in the non-poetic corpora but makes up over 40% of the similes in the poetic corpus. We conclude by discussing the implications of these results for theories of poetic language and literariness.

A constructionist approach to the teaching of phrasal verbs

English Today ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 46-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Torres-Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Syntactic Parsing ◽  
Phrasal Verbs ◽  
Transitive Verb ◽  
Initial Basis ◽  
Semantic Associations ◽  
Potential Mapping ◽  
Constructionist Approach

The central issue of the present article is the analysis of phrasal verbs (hereafter termed multiword verbs [MWVs]) from the perspective of construction grammars (Goldberg, 1995; Suttle and Goldberg, 2011). As is well known, English MWVs present special challenges to L2 learners due, among other things, to the shapelessness of their conceptual components and the ensuing impossibility to arrive at equivalent word-meaning correspondences (mappings) in the learners’ mother language (see Gillette et al., 1999). This brings us to the first theoretical claim of this paper – namely, that MWVs (also termed phrasal verbs, verb-particle collocations, verb-particle combinations etc.) are lexical chunks that can be retrieved by speakers either as wholes, without special recourse to syntactic parsing, or as verb-particle semantic associations (Cappelle et al., 2010). This idea is combined with the notion that MWVs inherit their syntax-semantics from prototypical Argument Structure Constructions (Goldberg, 2013a) within Verb Argument Constructions (VACs) frames. VACs are thus associated with prototype verbs like ‘go‘, ‘come’, ‘get’, ‘put’, etc., to project their meaning upon less-frequent verbs occupying a V-slot frame (a verbal position). It follows that MWVs function as hyponyms that express specific semantic nuances not available in prototype verbs. For example, in the sentence ‘Arya scooped up a rock and hurled it at Joffrey's head’ (George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones [1996]), the verb scoop up suggests a caused motion usually conveyed by the verb LIFT, i.e. the prototype of the simple transitive Verb Argument Construction. From this vantage, it is suggested that a way to activate the weak verb-object interface is through its assignation to specific prototypes bootstrapping (providing an initial basis for) both the conceptualisation of the MWVs and their potential mapping to specific words (which I term inherited surface forms).

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