Phrasal lexemes, compounds and phrases: A constructionist perspective

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Masini
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Basic Unit ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Lexical Items

The paper addresses the issue of the syntax-lexicon distinction from a Construction Grammar perspective. In the constructionist framework, the construction is the basic unit of linguistic analysis and there is no clear-cut division between lexical items and syntactic structures. Under this view, phenomena which are intermediate between syntax and the lexicon are expected. Apart from well-known cases such as idioms and compounds, there can be found in various languages a number of multi-word expressions that are not fully syntactic objects. I refer to these units as phrasal lexemes. The paper shows that, although phrasal lexemes follow the syntactic patterns of the language, they clearly have a lexical, naming function and, furthermore, they are more restricted compared to canonical phrases. This is exemplified by two case studies from Italian, namely noun-preposition-noun combinations and verb-conjunction-verb combinations. Construction Grammar not only offers efficient tools for describing these expressions, but also allows to treat phrasal lexemes as distinct with respect to both words and canonical phrases, without abandoning any of these notions.

From Lexis to Discourse

2020 ◽  
pp. 53-60
Author(s):  
Sangeetha Noval ◽  
Kripa K. Gautam
Keyword(s):  
Authentic Sample ◽  
Basic Unit ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Esl Learners

Any exercise of structuring written or spoken discourse starts from Lexis, the most basic unit of communication. We may call it the initiator of discourse. Despite considerable efforts made towards developing the word power of the ESL learners, they face difficulty in using the vocabulary appropriately in a variety of socio-cultural contexts in which they are required to operate. The present chapter attempts to demonstrate how this five-stage pedagogy will enhance learner's ability to make use of the available lexical items in authentic situations so as to produce meaningful discourse. The proposed pedagogy is the result of our experiment with authentic sample of students and language exercises. The five-stage pedagogy comprises the following stages:

scholarly journals On the place of turn and sequence in grammar

Pragmatics ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 507-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan K. Lindström
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Surface Pattern ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Sequential Organization ◽  
Attribute Value

This study elaborates the concept of a positionally sensitive grammar with respect to the sequentiality of turns and the turn constructional units in conversation. The linguistic object of the analysis is clausal constructions in Swedish that are initiated by the finite predicate verb: Polar questions, receipt questions (news receipts), conditional protases and pro-drop declaratives. These constructions share potentially the same syntactic surface pattern but are constrained by different sequential conditions of use. The study proposes an integrated interactional linguistic analysis which takes into account both syntactic and sequential aspects of turn construction. A grammatical attribute-value matrix, based on the framework of construction grammar (CxG), is introduced. The analysis shows that regularities of sequential organization may provide robust distinctive constructional features while a pure syntactic analysis remains less distinctive. The decisive constructional features are systematically captured by a notation designed for sequential and syntactic organization.

scholarly journals Lexicalist vs. exoskeletal approaches to language mixing

2018 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maren Berg Grimstad ◽  
Brita Ramsevik Riksem ◽  
Terje Lohndal ◽  
Tor A Åfarli
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Language Mixing ◽  
Functional Features ◽  
Mixing Patterns ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
The One

Abstract This article presents empirical evidence that disfavors using highly lexicalist minimalist models, such as the one presented in Chomsky (1995), when analyzing language mixing. The data analyzed consist of English – Spanish mixed noun phrases discussed in Moro (2014) as well as English – Norwegian mixed noun phrases and verbs taken from the Corpus of American Norwegian Speech. Whereas the lexicalist model in Chomsky (1995) only can explain a subset of the mixing patterns attested in both authentic English – Spanish mixed noun phrases and the American Norwegian corpus, we show that an alternative exoskeletal model can account for all of them. Such a model would entail that rather than assuming lexical items with inherent, functional features that determine the derivation, syntactic structures are generated independently from the lexical items that come to realize them.

Rule and Construction: The Transitivity of Resultatives in English

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-130
Author(s):  
Yuzhi Shi
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Surface Structures ◽  
Semantic Relationship ◽  
Resultative Construction ◽  
Lexical Items

The resultative construction has been one of the focuses in exploring the interfaces between semantics and syntax. In the generativist tradition, constructions are regarded as the surface structures that are generated by a set of phrasal rules. In cognitive linguistics, especially the approach of construction grammar, constructions are viewed as the fixed pairings of forms and meanings that are regarded as symbolic like lexical items. This article argues that constructions are schemas determined by certain rules, and a set of subconstructions may be produced by a base construction. The article shows that the transitivity of the resultative construction is governed by the semantic relationship between the verb and the resultative phrase, which in turn determines concrete syntactic configurations. Grammar constructions consisting of two or more elements are essentially different from those atomic lexical items, a point distinguishing my analysis from construction grammar. Without the assumption of any underlying structures, unlike the generativist model, this article uncovers the surface rules that determine concrete constructions.

Supplemental relative clauses: Internal and external syntax

2012 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 573-608 ◽  
Author(s):  
RUSSELL LEE-GOLDMAN
Keyword(s):  
Internal Structure ◽  
Linear Order ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Order Constraints ◽  
Syntactic Constraints ◽  
Restrictive Relative Clauses

The internal syntactic structures of restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses are largely identical. This paper argues that despite a uniform internal structure, the external distributions – specifically, linearization with respect to the head – of non-restrictive relative clauses are subject to several conditions. In particular, sentential non-restrictive relative clauses with which and what can appear to the left of their heads in limited (and distinct) syntactic contexts. These lexical and syntactic constraints are represented within the framework of Sign-based Construction Grammar. In light of these observations, the paper revisits claims about the internal structure of parenthetical as-clauses. Prior claims that as cannot be a relativizer are shown to be unfounded, and new data are presented in favor of treating them as relative clauses with the external distribution of sentential adverbials. This is possible given the ability to state separately specifications of construction-internal syntactic structure and construction-external linear-order constraints.

Memory Processes Involved in Morning Recall of Mental Rem-Sleep Experience: A Psycholinguistic Study

1981 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 391-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Cipolli ◽  
P. Salzarulo ◽  
A. Calabrese
Keyword(s):  
Rem Sleep ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Morning Report ◽  
Physiological Variable ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Memory Processes ◽  
Night Awakening

For two nights 10 subjects were asked to recall their mental sleep experience after experimental awakening during REM sleep (night report) and again upon spontaneous morning awakening (morning report). The two types of report were subjected to linguistic analysis and compared. The number of sentences used to describe the mental sleep experience, their syntactic structures, and over-all report length were similar. Those contents common to both reports were in both cases encoded in about one fourth of the sleep-related kernel sentences, these kernel sentences being distributed over about two-thirds of the sentences of the report, generally the longer ones. The organization of the morning reports reflects the consolidation of the contents in memory. The only significant physiological variable, waking time, was negatively correlated to the numbers of kernel sentences and sentences reproducing contents previously encoded in the night reports. The organization of the morning report primarily appears to be the result of retrieval and encoding procedures relative to the mental sleep experience preceding the night awakening rather than simply to the encoded contents of the night report.

Sinclair, pattern grammar and the question of hatred

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Teubert
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Grammatical Structure ◽  
Dependency Grammar ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Grammatical Categories ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Local Grammar

The view of pattern grammar is that syntactic structures and lexical items are co-selected and that grammatical categories begin to align very closely with semantic distinctions. While this is certainly a valid position when analysing the phenomenon of collocation, it does not really solve the problem for open choice issues. Not all language use can be subsumed under the idiom principle. The noun hatred, for instance, can co-occur with any discourse object for which hatred can be expressed. It can also co-occur with other lexical items standing for various circumstantial aspects. The grammatical structure itself often does not tell us whether we find expressed the object of hatred or some circumstantial aspect, as these structures tend to have more than one reading. Lexicogrammar, or local grammar, is more than equating a syntactic structure with a semantic pattern. We have to be aware of the different functions or readings a given grammatical structure can have. The framework of valency/dependency grammar can help us to make the necessary distinctions.

On Expletive Negation Some Remarks With Regard to Catalan

1991 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Teresa Espinal
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Item ◽  
Main Clause ◽  
Subordinate Clause ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Especial Reference ◽  
Subordinate Clauses ◽  
Comparative Structure ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Logical Specifications

The aim of this paper is to identify which syntactic structures allow the interpretation of meaningless or expletive negation and under what conditions formal negation appears in the syntax of natural languages, with especial reference to Central Catalan. I shall describe two syntactic environments: (a) the negation which occurs at the subordinate clause of a comparative structure of inequality, and (b) the negation which occurs at the subordinate clause in the subjunctive tense-mood of certain predicates. In both structures I shall assume that there is a lexical item at the main clause which subcategorizes, among other possible complements, for a que (than, that) clause. At D-structure there is, furthermore, a NegP which is the complement of this conjunction. At the level of LF no expletive is specified, because the logical specifications of the lexical items which subcategorize for these subordinate clauses absorb the value of the negative operator.

Why Construction Grammar is radical

2004 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 321-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Traditional View ◽  
Compelling Evidence ◽  
Radical Construction

This article reviews some of the foundational assumptions of Croft'sRadical Construction Grammar. While constructions have featured prominently in much recent work in cognitive linguistics, Croft adopts the ‘radical’ view that constructions are the primary objects of linguistic analysis, with lexical and syntactic categories being defined with respect to the constructions in which they occur. This approach reverses the traditional view, according to which complex expressions are compositionally assembled through syntactic rules operating over items selected from the lexicon. The ubiquity of idioms, especially so-called constructional idioms, provides compelling evidence for the essential correctness of the radical constructional view. The possibility of a radical constructional approach to phonology is also discussed.

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