Constructions at the crossroads

2004 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 197-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dylan Glynn
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Linguistic Structure ◽  
Conceptual Domain ◽  
Lexical Field

Construction Grammar focuses on the meaning encoded in the syntagmatic structures of language. However, syntagmatic meaning and coding interact in a complex way with paradigmatic structures such as lexis, metonymy, and metaphor. How can Construction Grammar capture the formal and semantic structure of entrenched schematic constructions while rigorously accounting for all these parameters? Based on the analysis of the conceptual domain of ‘stealing’ in English, this study demonstrates that through combining three different approaches to linguistic structure, the study of the semantic frame, the cognitive model, and the onomasiological lexical field, we can more properly appreciate and explain lexical, metaphoric, and constructional interplay.

Features and Functions of Alexander Blok’s Concept-symbol «Comet» in the Poem of the Same Name (To the 140th Anniversary of the Birth)

2020 ◽  
Vol 81 (6) ◽  
pp. 74-82
Author(s):  
A. T. Gryaznova
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Conceptual Domain ◽  
Lexical Field

The study is set out to prove the expediency of incorporation of the notion concept-symbol into the linguopoetics terminology. The analysis of Blok’s poem «Comet» confirms a substantial heuristic potential of the concept-symbol. The applied etymological, lexical, field, contextual and conceptual analyses proved the ability of the concept-symbol to form a conceptual domain obtaining text-forming potential and correlating with the idea of a work of art. The concept-symbol is deeply incorporated in the author’s individual vision, bringing certain features of a neo-myth. The above features distinguish a concept-symbol from a figure-symbol used to provide logical emphases and cohesion among the elements of conceptual framework, as well as from the concept-frame which forms the plot component of the poem.

Conventional Figurative Language Theory and idiom motivation

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-30
Author(s):  
Dmitrij Dobrovol’skij ◽  
Elisabeth Piirainen
Keyword(s):  
Figurative Language ◽  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Central Point ◽  
Language Theory ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Conceptual Basis ◽  
Figurative Meaning ◽  
Actual Meaning

AbstractThe central point of discussion is how idiom motivation is reflected in the Conventional Figurative Language Theory. Most lexical units are motivated to a certain extent, i.e. they point to their actual meaning via the meanings of their parts, either parts of their structure or of their conceptual basis. Several types of motivation can be distinguished in the field of phraseology. Apart from the quite small number of idioms where no comprehensible link can be found between the literal reading and the figurative meaning that would allow for a meaningful interpretation of a given expression, all other idioms have to be considered transparent or motivated. Idioms form a very heterogeneous domain in terms of motivation. There are levels of motivation and semantic predictability both from the perspective of a speaker and from the perspective of the semantic structure of a given unit. In this paper, we present a typology of motivation that captures all types of transparent idioms. The typology of idiom motivation connects our theory to the Cognitive Theory of Metaphor and to the Construction Grammar approaches.

scholarly journals The Cognitive-Functional Properties of English WH-dialogic Constructions in Discourse

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guocai ZENG
Keyword(s):  
Functional Properties ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Cognitive Strategies ◽  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Objective World ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
Event Based

Within the theoretical frameworks of cognitive linguistics and cognitive construction grammar, this papertakes the pair of a WH-question and one of its answers in contemporary spoken English as the research object and regards such pairs as WH-dialogic constructions. In this study we construct an Event-based Schema-Instance Cognitive Model (ESI model) to analyze the cognitive-functional properties of this category of dialogic constructions. The discoursal expansion and textual cohesion in discourse achieved through the application of such dialogic constructions indicate that the usage of WH-dialogic constructions is one of the basic cognitive strategies for human beings to construe the objective world. 

scholarly journals Cognitive-Semiotic Mechanisms of Phraseme Building

2015 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-99
Author(s):  
Nikolay Fedorovich Alefirenko
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
And Storage ◽  
Information Accumulation

Abstract The article deals with the problems of idioms production and perception related to the foresign forms emergence of information accumulation and storage contained in the cognitive-based derivation of phraseme building. It is suggested that presign stage of the semiosis process and the phraseme understanding is a cognitive model that precedes not only the formation of the phraseme semantic structure, but its perception. Since the cognitive model of phrasemic semiosis is a diagram of discursive meaning embodiment and discourse itself is form of its indirectly derivative existence, there is a need to show how the cognitive-discursive mechanisms of phraseme building is associated with foresign forms of sense accumulation and storage.

scholarly journals THE SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF THE WORD: POLYSEMY VS BROAD SEMANTIC WORD

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-36
Author(s):  
M.Yu. Evteeva
Keyword(s):  
Critical Role ◽  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Cognitive Metaphor ◽  
Definition Of

The paper deals with the modeling of the semantic structure of polysemantic and broad semantic words. The article suggests determining meanings of polysemantic words as lexical-semantic variants that potentially can be united by means of the invariant meaning though not obligatory for the semantic structure of such words – the invariant meaning of a polysemantic word is seen as something artificial. I argue that it is possible to construct the semantic structure of the broad semantic word on the basis of prototypical meanings which are interpreted as basic meanings. Such prototypical meanings are to be united by the use of a broad invariant meaning. This approach is applied while describing the semantics of the nuclear verbs in the action field (do and make in English, tun and machen in German, делать in Russian). Both types of meanings play a critical role in organizing the semantic structure of the broad semantic words: there is a single invariant while there can be more than one prototype, so that an invariant and definite prototype value is realised in speech. In addition the existence of interdependence of semantic derivation between prototypes and within the meaning itself is assumed. There can be a lot of semantic transfers, but they occur based on a regular cognitive model such as cognitive metaphor and cognitive metonymy. For example, the prototypical meanings of the verbs to do and to make remain the same while the nature of the object changes. Based on the conducted research, a new definition of a broad semantic phenomenon is offered along with distinctive criteria for the phenomena of poly- and broad semantics.

Constructing grammatical meaning

2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 721-764 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirjam Fried
Keyword(s):  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Linguistic Structure ◽  
Spontaneous Change ◽  
Verb Semantics ◽  
Communicative Functions ◽  
Grammatical Categories ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Patient Relations

In a usage-based analysis of four syntactic reflexives in Czech, this paper examines the question of representing speakers’ knowledge of polyfunctional grammatical categories. I argue that the reflexives form a prototype-based network of partially overlapping grammatical patterns, organized by the pragmatic concept of unexpected referential status in agent–patient relations. This concept is manifested in four distinct communicative functions: marking referential identity between agent and patient roles; distancing discourse participants from their involvement in the reported event; recasting a transitive event as a spontaneous change of state; expressing an attitude toward the reported event. Each function is shown to conventionally co-occur with a set of properties involving various combinations of the following: preferences in aspect and transitivity; semantic and/or pragmatic constraints on agents and patients; verb semantics; shifts in modality and pragmatic force; morphosyntactic constraints. Overall, the analysis supports the view that grammatical categories cannot be properly defined outside of broader grammatical context, thus arguing for a constructional approach to linguistic structure and for re-interpreting the principle of isomorphism in terms of ‘constructions’ in the sense of Construction Grammar.

Experimental Investigations of Computer Program Debugging and Modification

1976 ◽  
Vol 20 (24) ◽  
pp. 557-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Shneiderman ◽  
Don McKay
Keyword(s):  
Computer Program ◽  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Fortran Program ◽  
Influential Factors ◽  
Experimental Investigations ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Negative Results ◽  
Semantic Errors ◽  
Structure Complexity

Although greater emphasis is placed on the task of computer program composition, debugging and modification often consume more time and expense in production environments. Debugging is the task of locating syntactic and semantic errors in programs and correcting these errors. Modification is the change of a working program to perform alternate tasks. The factors and techniques which facilitate debugging and modification are poorly understood, but are subject to experimental investigation. Controlled experiments can be performed by presenting two groups of subjects with two forms of a program or different programming aids and requiring the same task. For example, in one study we presented an 81 line FORTRAN program containing three bugs to distinct groups of subjects. One of the groups received a detailed flowchart, but our results indicated that this aid did not facilitate the debugging procedure. Similar negative results were obtained for a modification task. In other experiments, comments and meaningful variable names were useful in debugging and modularity facilitated modification. Other potentially influential factors, which are subject to experimental study, include indentation rules, type of control structures, data structure complexity and program design. These and other human factor experiments in programming have led to a cognitive model of programmer behavior which distinguishes between the hierarchically structured, meaningfully acquired semantic knowledge and the rotely memorized syntactic knowledge. Errors can be classed into syntactic mistakes which are relatively easy to locate and correct and two forms of semantic mistakes. Semantic errors occur while constructing an internal semantic structure to a representation in the syntax of a programming language. Modification is interpreted as the acquisition of an internal semantic structure by studying a program, followed by modification of this structure and revision of the code.

Causal framing for medical instrumentality

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 164-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Sambre ◽  
Cornelia Wermuth
Keyword(s):  
Medical Research ◽  
Medical Model ◽  
Causal Chain ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Frame Semantics ◽  
Research Papers ◽  
Linguistic Structure ◽  
Linguistic Patterns ◽  
Conceptual Background ◽  
Conceptual Relations

This paper explores the linguistic patterns of instrumentality in the titles of English medical research papers, at the interface between conceptual and linguistic structure, and offers a contribution to the little studied interrelationships between static and dynamic conceptual relations in medical ontology and LSP terminology. It is demonstrated how causal cues constitute the conceptual background against which instrumentals are profiled in the causal chain of the medical model. Taking inspiration from Talmy, frame semantics and construction grammar, the linguistic patterns in which causal and instrumental frame elements are co-activated are transcribed as complex patterns with partial morphological, syntactic and lexical marking of the conceptual relations under study. The paper offers an exploratory typology of causal cues for instrumentals and describes how multiple instruments can appear in medical LSP. The findings are relevant for those interested in the nexus between ontology, constructional aspects of expert language and frame semantics

scholarly journals das ist ein: (--) äh ja ANschluss ja. Das ja als Turnhalte- und Anschlusssignal im gesprochenen Deutsch.

2017 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dario Marić
Keyword(s):  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Linguistic Structure ◽  
Thematic Framework ◽  
New Construction ◽  
Intonation Unit

Spoken production is subjected to speed and needs in the conversations that can locally be changed, which makes it dynamic and flexible. Often the thematic framework of the next ut-terance is determined while the appropriate complex linguistic construction for it is not yet available. Delays and pauses before continuing in the utterances are traces of searching words and an indication that we often decide on the linguistic structure in terms of complex and schematic constructions in the construction grammar before we fill it with vocabulary. This paper is about the functions of organizing the conversations, phonetic and phonological fea-tures of a particular ja from within the turn, often the utterance, and the intonation unit in German which at the problems of finding words of speakers mainly mean "immediately re-sume". In this context, intonation incorporation of this ja into what is uttered just before and immediately after it, is especially indicative. Continuation-ja with independent intonation contour namely announces new construction, while intonation incorporated continuation-ja prevents premature conclusion of the listener that the sentence will be interrupted and an-nounce one or more components of the utterance or correction of specific components.

‘The fool sees with his nose’: metaphoric mappings in the sense of smell in Patrick Süskind’s Perfume

2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanna B. Popova
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Model ◽  
External World ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Linguistic Structure ◽  
Sense Of Smell ◽  
Fundamental Factor ◽  
Language Structure ◽  
Perception Verbs ◽  
The World ◽  
Alternative Modality

Based on linguistic studies of perception verbs and on a general cognitive-linguistic premise of embodiment as a fundamental factor for explaining aspects of language behaviour, the article seeks to examine the representation of smell in the novel Perfume by Patrick Süskind. It argues that there are cognitive and experiential motivations for the metaphoric mappings in the sense of smell in the novel. Our cognitive model of the external world, as far as it is based on perception, derives mainly from the sense of vision, a fact that provides motivated explanation for certain aspects of language structure. We see and know through our eyes, and a representation of the world through an alternative modality should resort to equally alternative ways of expression. A study and an explanation of these alternative ways are then offered. That an analysis of linguistic structure can be seen to contribute to an overall understanding of a complex work like Perfume is taken to add validity to the theoretical claims on which the analysis is based.

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