scholarly journals Competing constructions: The pluralization of presentational haber in Dominican Spanish

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeroen Claes
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Conditional Inference ◽  
Structural Priming ◽  
Main Hypothesis ◽  
Puerto Rican Spanish ◽  
Cognitive Constraints ◽  
Conditional Inference Tree ◽  
Dominican Spanish ◽  
The Individual

AbstractDrawing on Cognitive Construction Grammar (CCxG), I present an analysis of the pluralization of haber in Dominican Spanish (e.g. Habían fiestas ‘There were parties’) as an ongoing language change from below during which the singular argument-structure construction (<AdvPhaberObj>) is being replaced by a pluralized schema (<AdvPhaberSubj>). Using a mixed-effects regression analysis, in which the individual speakers and the NPs' head nouns were included as random intercepts, I show that speakers pluralize presentational haber in 47% of the cases and that the variation is conditioned by three general cognitive constraints (markedness of coding, structural priming, and statistical pre-emption). Using a conditional inference tree, I show that the former two cognitive constraints work in tandem to promote the pluralized construction for the encoding of conceptualizations that statistical preemption tends to reserve to the singular construction. The results also unveil that the variation is associated with social class membership. These data confirm the main hypothesis, while at the same time corroborating and strengthening the conclusions of an earlier investigation of haber pluralization in Puerto Rican Spanish.

A Cognitive Construction Grammar approach to the pluralization of presentational haber in Puerto Rican Spanish

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeroen Claes
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Puerto Rican ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Structural Priming ◽  
Puerto Rican Spanish ◽  
Conditioning Factors ◽  
Typical Action ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Verb Tense

AbstractIn this paper, I present an analysis of the pluralization of haber ‘there is/are’ in Puerto Rican Spanish (e.g., habían fiestas ‘there were parties’) as an ongoing language change from below in which the impersonal argument-structure construction (<AdvPhaberObj>) is being replaced by a personal variant (<AdvPhaberSubj>). Speakers pluralize presentational haber in about 41% of the cases, and linguistic conditioning factors are ‘typical action chain-position of the noun's referent,’ polarity of the clause, verb tense, comprehension-to-production priming, and production-to-production priming. I argue that the effect of these independent variables can be traced back to three cognitive factors: the preference for unmarked coding, statistical preemption, and structural priming. Social distributions can also be modeled in constructionist frameworks, with results for social class, formality, and gender advocating in favor of considering this variation as an ongoing change from below, which allows speakers to position themselves in terms of gender and social class.

Rising Stars and Underdogs: The Role Race and Parental Education Play in Predicting Mentorship

2021 ◽  
pp. 0044118X2110046
Author(s):  
Veronica Fruiht ◽  
Jordan Boeder ◽  
Thomas Chan
Keyword(s):  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Conditional Inference ◽  
Youth Of Color ◽  
Social Success ◽  
Conditional Inference Tree ◽  
Tree Models ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Inference Tree

Research suggests that youth with more financial and social resources are more likely to have access to mentorship. Conversely, the rising star hypothesis posits that youth who show promise through their individual successes are more likely to be mentored. Utilizing a nationally representative sample ( N = 4,882), we tested whether demographic characteristics (e.g., race, SES) or personal resources (e.g., academic/social success) are better predictors of receiving mentorship. Regression analyses suggested that demographic, contextual, and individual characteristics all significantly predicted access to mentorship, specifically by non-familial mentors. However, conditional inference tree models that explored the interaction of mentorship predictors by race showed that individual characteristics mattered less for Black and Latino/a youth. Therefore, the rising star hypothesis may hold true for White youth, but the story of mentoring is more complicated for youth of color. Findings highlight the implications of Critical Race Theory for mentoring research and practice.

Language Change, Variation, and Universals

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter W. Culicover
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Conceptual Structure ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Plains Cree ◽  
Theoretical Foundations ◽  
Parameter Theory ◽  
Grammatical Functions ◽  
The Way

This volume is about how human languages get to be the way they are, why they are different from one another in some ways and not others, and why they change in the ways that they do. Given that language is a universal creation of the human mind, the puzzle is why there are different languages at all, why we don’t all speak the same language. And while there is considerable variation, there are ways in which grammars show consistent patterns. The solution to these puzzles, the author proposes, is a constructional one. Grammars consist of constructions that carry out the function of expressing universal conceptual structure. While there are in principle many different ways of accomplishing this task, the constructions that languages actually use are under pressure to reduce complexity. The result is that there is constructional change in the direction of less complexity, and grammatical patterns emerge that reflect conceptual universals. The volume consists of three parts. Part I establishes the theoretical foundations: situating universals in conceptual structure, formally defining constructions, and characterizing constructional complexity. Part II explores variation in argument structure, grammatical functions, and A′ constructions, drawing on data from a variety of languages, including English and Plains Cree. Part III looks at constructional change, focusing primarily on English and German. The study ends with some observations and speculations on parameter theory, analogy, the origins of typological patterns, and Greenbergian ‘universals’.

SMS Texting Practices and Communicative Intention

2010 ◽  
pp. 252-265
Author(s):  
Susana M. Sotillo
Keyword(s):  
Text Messaging ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Semantic Category ◽  
Text Messages ◽  
Analysis Tool ◽  
Communicative Intention ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Predicate Argument Structure ◽  
Structural Simplification

This study focuses on the predicate-argument structure of frequently used lexical verbs in the text messages of members of five SMS social networks. Using a text analysis tool, lexical verbs were identified, coded for semantic category, and tagged for analysis in a corpus of 31, 288 words. Three research questions are addressed in relation to lexical verb usage, structural simplification, recovery of implied argument, and achievement of communicative intention via mobile telephony. The results reveal that (1) predicate-argument structures determined by certain lexical verbs become simplified in text messages; (2) particular ?-roles assigned to particular arguments become implicit but are easily recovered; and (3) text messaging language constitutes a variety of naturally occurring language. It is possible that such language variations in use may bring about language change over time.

A multifactorial analysis of contact-induced change in speech reporting in written White South African English (WSAfE)

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
HAIDEE KRUGER ◽  
BERTUS VAN ROOY
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
Conditional Inference ◽  
Similar Frequency ◽  
Frequency Distributions ◽  
Slowing Down ◽  
Conditional Inference Tree ◽  
Contact Language ◽  
Trajectories Of Change ◽  
A Site

This article presents a corpus analysis of changes over a period of two centuries in speech-reporting constructions in written White South African English (WSAfE), a native variety of English that has been in contact with Afrikaans throughout its history. The analysis is based on register-differentiated comparable diachronic corpora of WSAfE, its parent variety, British English (BrE), and the contact language, Afrikaans. Three related reported-speech constructions are analysed, focusing on changes in the relative frequencies of variants of each construction. These constructions show ongoing change, with similar trajectories of change for WSAfE and BrE in some cases, but divergent trajectories in others. In the latter case, WSAfE and Afrikaans converge on similar frequency distributions, which follow from an accelerated rate of change or a slowing down of the rate of change for particular features in WSAfE in comparison to BrE. Descriptive findings are supported by conditional inference tree modelling. The effect of frequency on reinforcing similar patterns of change in WSAfE and Afrikaans, as well as simplification through the levelling of register differences in WSAfE and Afrikaans are proposed as explanations. The study highlights the importance of converging norms in a multilingual publication industry as a site of contact.

Cognition in construction grammar: Connecting individual and community grammars

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-337
Author(s):  
Lynn Anthonissen
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Small Individual ◽  
Age Cohorts ◽  
Term Change ◽  
Language User ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Linguistic Behavior

AbstractThis paper examines, on the basis of a longitudinal corpus of 50 early modern authors, how change at the aggregate level of the community interacts with variation and change at the micro-level of the individual language user. In doing so, this study aims to address the methodological gap between collective change and entrenchment, that is, the gap between language as a social phenomenon and the cognitive processes responsible for the continuous reorganization of linguistic knowledge in individual speakers. Taking up the case of the prepositional passive, this study documents a strong community-wide increase in use that is accompanied by increasing schematicity. A comparison of the 50 authors reveals that regularities arising at the macro-level conceal highly complex and variable individual behavior, aspects of which may be explained by studying the larger (social) context in which these individuals operate (e. g., age cohorts, community of practice, biographical insights). Further analysis, focusing on how authors use the prepositional passive in unique and similar ways, elucidates the role of small individual biases in long-term change. Overall, it is demonstrated that language change is an emergent phenomenon that results from the complex interaction between individual speakers, who themselves may change their linguistic behavior to varying degrees.

scholarly journals A Dynamic Network Approach to the Study of Syntax

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Diessel
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Model Building ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Dynamic Network ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Network Approach ◽  
Linguistic Structure ◽  
Network Analyses

Usage-based linguists and psychologists have produced a large body of empirical results suggesting that linguistic structure is derived from language use. However, while researchers agree that these results characterize grammar as an emergent phenomenon, there is no consensus among usage-based scholars as to how the various results can be explained and integrated into an explicit theory or model. Building on network theory, the current paper outlines a structured network approach to the study of grammar in which the core concepts of syntax are analyzed by a set of relations that specify associations between different aspects of a speaker’s linguistic knowledge. These associations are shaped by domain-general processes that can give rise to new structures and meanings in language acquisition and language change. Combining research from linguistics and psychology, the paper proposes specific network analyses for the following phenomena: argument structure, word classes, constituent structure, constructions and construction families, and grammatical categories such as voice, case and number. The article builds on data and analyses presented in Diessel (2019; The Grammar Network. How Linguistic Structure is Shaped by Language Use) but approaches the topic from a different perspective.

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