Antipassive constructions: Correlations of form and function across languages

Abstract This paper presents a cross-linguistic investigation of the antipassive within the framework of Radical Construction Grammar. Based on function, this study identifies constructions in 70 languages from 25 language families and four geographical macro areas. Iconically motivated correlations were found between functions and the morphosyntactic strategies they employ. The results of this study suggest that constructions indicating the lower individuation of patients and constructions indicating the lower affectedness of patients, previously grouped together as ‘antipassive’, should be considered two separate construction types. This is based on their separate functions, the distinct morphosyntactic strategies used to encode them across languages, and differences in productivity with regard to semantic classes of verbs.

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Framing constructicography

Lexicographica - International Annual for Lexicography / Internationales Jahrbuch für Lexikographie ◽

10.1515/lex-2019-0002 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 35 (1) ◽

pp. 41-85 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

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.

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The Hebrew dative: Usage patterns as discourse profile constructions

Linguistics ◽

10.1515/ling-2019-0022 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 57 (5) ◽

pp. 1073-1110 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Elitzur Dattner

Keyword(s):

Reference Point ◽

Argument Structure ◽

Construction Grammar ◽

Usage Pattern ◽

Statistical Tools ◽

Multivariate Statistical ◽

Form And Function ◽

The World ◽

Usage Patterns ◽

And Function

Abstract The dative in Hebrew poses a problem for a unified characterization as no single criterion seems to guides its interpretation. The present paper approaches this problem from a usage-based perspective, suggesting a multifactorial account of dative functions in Hebrew. Analyzing a corpus of Hebrew dative clauses with multivariate statistical tools I reveal the usage patterns associated with each dative function, showing that traditional descriptions of dative functions are not reflected in usage. Working within a Usage-Based perspective, in which the meaning of a word is its use in language, I argue that Hebrew has only four distinct dative usage patterns, termed Discourse Profile Constructions: conventional correspondences between a multifactorial usage pattern and a unified conceptualization of the world. The four Discourse Profile Constructions are: (i) the Extended Transitive Discourse Profile Construction, (ii) the Human Endpoint Discourse Profile Construction, (iii) the Extended Intransitive Discourse Profile Construction, and (iv), the Evaluative Reference point Discourse Profile Construction. By revealing such correspondences between usage patterns and conceptualizations, the present paper (i) broadens the Construction Grammar notion of Argument Structure Construction, and (ii), suggests an innovative account for the notion of usage as a factor in the conventional pairing between form and function.

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

Semiotica ◽

10.1515/sem-2018-0046 ◽

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.

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Ellipsis in Construction Grammar

The Oxford Handbook of Ellipsis ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198712398.013.8 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 187-204

Author(s):

Adele E. Goldberg ◽

Florent Perek

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Process ◽

Memory Trace ◽

Syntactic Structure ◽

Construction Grammar ◽

Functional Constraints ◽

Discourse Context ◽

Form And Function ◽

The Many ◽

And Function

This chapter emphasizes the shared communicative motivation of ellipsis constructions that leads to cross-linguistic similarities and certain predictable functional constraints. More specifically, ellipsis is licensed by a system of motivated constructions, i.e. learned pairings of form and function. Constructions capture a range of restrictions on form and function, including those related to semantics, discourse context, register, genre, and dialect. Generalizations across constructions are captured by a network of constructions with partially overlapping representations. Semantic recoverability is facilitated not by copying and deleting syntactic structure at the ellipsis site, but by a cognitive process that ‘points’ to information that is, typically but not always, available from the memory trace of an antecedent. This mechanism is independently required for fragments, non-elliptical expressions such as ditto and respectively, and the many examples that do not display the ‘connectivity’ effects that are predicted by copy and deletion accounts.

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Systemic polyfunctionality and morphology–syntax interdependencies

10.1093/oso/9780198712329.003.0010 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Farrell Ackerman ◽

Olivier Bonami

Keyword(s):

Construction Grammar ◽

Form And Function ◽

Morphological Organization ◽

Fertile Ground ◽

One To One ◽

Inheritance Hierarchy ◽

The One ◽

And Function ◽

Function Relation

The chapter examines classes of grammatical markers that can serve more than one function, polyfunctional markers, spoiling the one-to-one form and function relation which is what morphology tends to do. There are areas of the grammar more prone to this behaviour suggesting that there may be at work principles of morphological organization that lie orthogonally to sign-based principles such as Transparency. The distributions attested in Tundra Nenets provide a fertile ground for exploration because they combine polyfunctionality with cumulative exponence, where a single paradigm indexes two sets of features. Recasting Blevins’ (2016) abstractive analysis as a default inheritance hierarchy the analysis is guided by insights from Paradigm Function Morphology and Sign Based Construction Grammar, and treats polyfunctionality as the realization of a unifying morphomic feature that abstracts away what is common between different morphosyntactic configurations.

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Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) of DNA and RNA

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100152148 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 47 ◽

pp. 34-35

Author(s):

Patricia G. Arscott ◽

Gil Lee ◽

Victor A. Bloomfield ◽

D. Fennell Evans

Keyword(s):

Molecular Structures ◽

Inorganic Materials ◽

Resolving Power ◽

Scanning Tunneling ◽

Tunneling Microscopy ◽

Form And Function ◽

Dna And Rna ◽

Calf Thymus ◽

And Function ◽

The Relationship

STM is one of the most promising techniques available for visualizing the fine details of biomolecular structure. It has been used to map the surface topography of inorganic materials in atomic dimensions, and thus has the resolving power not only to determine the conformation of small molecules but to distinguish site-specific features within a molecule. That level of detail is of critical importance in understanding the relationship between form and function in biological systems. The size, shape, and accessibility of molecular structures can be determined much more accurately by STM than by electron microscopy since no staining, shadowing or labeling with heavy metals is required, and there is no exposure to damaging radiation by electrons. Crystallography and most other physical techniques do not give information about individual molecules.We have obtained striking images of DNA and RNA, using calf thymus DNA and two synthetic polynucleotides, poly(dG-me5dC)·poly(dG-me5dC) and poly(rA)·poly(rU).

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