scholarly journals The Syntactic Coercion Between “N1Adv shi N2” and “S bi N1 hai N2” Constructions

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Ying Li
Keyword(s):  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Personal Names ◽  
Cognitive Construction Grammar

Though many researchers have studied “N1Adv shi N2” and “S bi N1 hai N2” constructions, none of them have done some research on the correlation between them. In view of it, this thesis analyzes the syntactic coercion of the construction “N1Adv shi N2” on the construction “S bi N1 hai N2” from the perspective of the Cognitive Construction Grammar. The findings are: the latter inherits from the former the characteristics of nouns as adjectives, generic reference of nouns, and no negation, etc., but blocks the characteristic of personal names with specific reference; the latter partially inherits from the former some characteristics of nouns, such as the nouns referring to people, but blocks the information of geographical and personal names. In addition, the metonymic thinking model link proposed in this thesis has complemented the four types of links between constructions by Goldberg. 

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.

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.

German es – a Construction Grammar approach

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroyuki Miyashita
Keyword(s):  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Event Type ◽  
Syntactic Form ◽  
Episodic Event ◽  
Syntactic Function ◽  
Syntactic Differences ◽  
Type 3

AbstractIn German, neutral pronoun, es which corresponds to English it, is said to be used in addition to pronominal uses without any reference. In the tradition of German linguistics, non-referential es has been treated as a formal subject or an expletive that has only syntactic function and no meaning. In this paper, this view is challenged and es is regarded as a construction as a pair of syntactic form and meaning in the sense of Goldberg’s Construction Grammar. According to syntactic differences, non-referential es is classified into three types. In the analysis the semantic characteristics of these types are discussed. Type 1 expresses an objective indication of the existence/occurrence of a spontaneous event, Type 2 expresses an objective indication of the existence/occurrence of a spontaneous event for the experiencer expressed by dative, and Type 3 expresses an indication of the existence/occurrence of a new subject referent in a single episodic event. These constructions are sometimes extended to creative uses. Finally, a unitary account of these constructions is proposed and the correlation is summarized. German es with no specific reference is thus understood as a construction family which shares an objective construal.

Exploring the pedagogical potential of vertical and horizontal relations in the constructicon:The case of the family of subjective-transitive constructions with decir in Spanish

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-145
Author(s):  
Francisco Gonzálvez-García
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
Passive Construction ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Inheritance System ◽  
The Family ◽  
Secondary Predication ◽  
Vertical Level ◽  
Cognitive Construction Grammar

Abstract This paper explores the pedagogical implications and implementations of a Cognitive Construction Grammar (Goldberg, Adele E. 2006. Constructions at work: The nature of generalization in language. New York: Oxford University Press) approach for the teaching of construal in the L2 class of Spanish at an advanced level. To this end, this paper focuses on instances of secondary predication (involving a direct object and an object-related XPCOMP) with decir “say” and other verbs of saying and calling in present-day Spanish, under the rubric of the denominative subjective-transitive construction. This construction comprises a number of lower-level configurations involving a reflexive direct object (the reflexive subjective-transitive construction), and an imperative verb (the imperative subjective-transitive construction). The verb decir is also frequently attested in the reflex passive construction (the impersonal subjective-transitive construction), under which two different, though closely connected, lexically-filled lo que se dice XPCOMP configurations can be posited, which may function as a focusing/emphasizer subjunct or as a summative conjunct in present-day Spanish. A default inheritance system of the type invoked in Cognitive Construction Grammar is shown to capture broad and specific generalizations at a horizontal level (among the verbs attested in the (sub-)construction(s)) and a vertical level (among constructions of varying degrees of specificity) and can thus be informally used to optimize the pedagogical efficiency of the input for the explicit instruction of grammar in the advanced Spanish L2 class.

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.

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