A Study into the Prototypicality of Chinese Labile Verbs

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liulin Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Spontaneous Occurrence ◽  
Cognitive Construction Grammar

Trying to situate Chinese into the typology of labile verbs (verbs that may be used transitively or intransitively), this paper analyzes Chinese labile verbals under the framework of cognitive construction grammar. By exhaustively looking at labile verbals in a small corpus, it is found that as an isolating language in which causative (transitive use) or anticausative (intransitive use) is not morphologically marked, Chinese is particularly rich in labile verbals. After estimating how often several target verbals are used transitively and intransitively, two factors grounded in human cognition are revealed determining verbal lability in Chinese: change of state and spontaneity of the event. Change-of-state events give way to two competing profiling strategies, realized as a transitive construction and an intransitive construction, respectively. The degree and direction (transitive-dominated or intransitive-dominated) of verbal lability are sensitive to the likelihood of spontaneous occurrence of the event.

scholarly journals The Chinese Notional Passive Construction under the View of Cognitive Construction Grammar

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-110
Author(s):  
Liulin ZHANG
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Language ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Special Situation ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
Passive Construction ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
State Construction ◽  
History Of ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Cognitive Construction Grammar

The notional passive construction (NPC, henceforth) is claimed to be the most common form of passive and the earliest mode of passive expression in Chinese. However, under the view of cognitive construction grammar, NPC remains a mystery with its form not clearly defined and its function not particularly discussed. Taking a character-based historical approach, this paper studies the form designated by NPC, the ‘theme + verbal’ structure in corpus data. Results show that the ‘theme + verbal’ structure is extremely stable in the history of the Chinese language, denoting change of state. In conjunction with some cross-linguistic findings, a change-of-state construction can thereby be proposed for the form ‘theme + verbal’. Accordingly, the idea of the so-called “notional passive construction” is challenged in the way that it essentially refers to a special situation of the change-of-state construction when the event expressed by the verbal is not likely to occur spontaneously- it is not a construction itself, yet plausibly passive.

Language and creativity: a Construction Grammar approach to linguistic creativity

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Hoffmann
Keyword(s):  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Evolutionary Adaptation ◽  
Theory Construction ◽  
Conceptual Blending ◽  
Cognitive Linguistic ◽  
Explanatory Account ◽  
The Way

AbstractCreativity is an important evolutionary adaptation that allows humans to think original thoughts, to find solutions to problems that have never been encountered before and to fundamentally change the way we live. One particular domain of human cognition that has received considerable attention is linguistic creativity. The present paper discusses how the leading cognitive linguistic theory, Construction Grammar, can provide an explanatory account of creativity that goes beyond the issue of linguistic productivity. At the same time, it also outlines how Construction Grammar can benefit from insights from Conceptual Blending.

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.

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.

scholarly journals Ficar, tornar-se e virar em construções relacionais: variação e/ou mudança construcional?

2018 ◽  
pp. 68-82
Author(s):  
Bruna Gois Pavão Ferreira ◽  
Márcia Dos Santos Machado Vieira
Keyword(s):  
Central Place ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
State Change ◽  
Functional Differences ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
State Construction ◽  
Constructionist Approach

Based on constructionist approach of Goldberg (1995, 2003, 2013) and Traugott & Trousdale (2013), this research focuses on the relational construction of state change and the variation/alternation between the verbs ficar, tornar-se e virar (stay, become and turn) in this type of construction in Brazilian Portuguese. The verbal forms that alternate are investigated in the same context (predicative construction of a change of state) and motivations for the variation to occur. The main objective of this research is to identify: (i) constructional verbal patterns of change of state in Brazilian Portuguese based on frequency and in the relations of form and/or meaning by family similarities existing in the instances of use of such verbal forms; (ii) the configuration of the relational construction of state change (in view of state construction formulated in Goldberg, 1995); (iii) the functional differences between the microconstructions with ficar, tornar-se e virar, seeking to analyze how the variation/alternation between such verbs occurs in the construction of change of state. The data were collected in academic articles, journalistic texts and texts accessed in some sites of evaluation or complaint and analyzed according to some parameters, among which: (a) the type of subject and of predicative syntagma; (b) the more permanent/more transient aspect of the construction; (c) the degree of formality of the context in which it was recorded. This paper also evidences the central place of variation in Construction Grammar.

Maximizing the explanatory power of constructions in cognitive construction grammar(s)

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Gonzálvez-García
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Dynamic Interaction ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Illocutionary Force ◽  
Radical Construction ◽  
Cognitive Construction Grammar

Abstract This squib suggests two possible ways in which cognitively-oriented constructionist approaches (Cognitive Construction Grammar, Radical Construction Grammar, and Embodied Construction Grammar) could enhance the explanatory power of constructions. First, the anatomy of a construction should spell out how the morphosyntactic realizations of arguments are specifically mapped onto their inherent semantico-pragmatic properties, while also including detailed information concerning illocutionary force, information structure, register, politeness, etc. Second, it is argued that coercion should be best understood as a continuum allowing for varying degrees of (in-)compatibility between the verb and the construction taken as a whole. Moreover, parameterization and linguistic cueing prove useful to handle the dynamic interaction of the morphosyntactic, semantico-pragmatic, and discourse-functional hallmarks of constructions, including those which invite metonymic inferencing.

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