Towards a comprehensive Construction Grammar account of control

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Lyngfelt
Keyword(s):  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Frame Semantics ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Arbitrary Reference ◽  
Head Control ◽  
Control Patterns ◽  
Specific Control ◽  
Feature Percolation

Based on an extensive corpus study, this paper presents an overview of control patterns in Swedish infinitives and sketches a CxG account of the data. To capture the variety of control relations encountered, the approach combines elements of traditional CxG, Frame Semantics, and Sign-Based Construction Grammar. Three basic mechanisms are distinguished: control by selection, where the controlled element is coinstantiated with an argument of the selecting head; control by feature percolation, where the interpretation is determined by the syntactic and pragmatic context; and arbitrary “control”, which is treated as non-control, where the understood subject argument is specified for generic or arbitrary reference and, hence, needs no controller. More specific control patterns, including such issues as control shift and pragmatic control, are treated as specific variants of these three basic types.

Framing constructicography

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-85 ◽  
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.

Automatic metaphor detection using constructions and frames

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jisup Hong
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Detection System ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Computational Resource ◽  
Frame Semantics ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Relative Success ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Conceptual Network

This paper presents MetaNet’s automatic metaphor detection system that applies theoretical principles from construction grammar, frame semantics, and recent developments in conceptual metaphor theory, including the theory of cascades (Lakoff 2014). The system has achieved relative success in identifying metaphorical expressions for a range of target domains from large corpora and holds promise as a useful tool for corpus-based study of metaphor. The detection system relies on MetaNet’s conceptual network of frames and metaphors as a computational resource for its functionality, and improves automatically as the representations stored in the network are built up. In addition, because of its theoretically principled design the system’s level of accuracy at identifying metaphorical expressions provides feedback to linguists about the accuracy of the frame and metaphor analyses in the network.

Beyond the sentence

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerstin Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Frame Semantics ◽  
Cognitive Perspective ◽  
Pragmatic Markers ◽  
Grammatical Mood ◽  
Spoken Interaction ◽  
Interactive Experience ◽  
Grammatical Structures

Construction grammarians are still quite reluctant to extend their descriptions to units beyond the sentence. However, the theoretical premises of construction grammar and frame semantics are particularly suited to cover spoken interaction from a cognitive perspective. Furthermore, as construction grammar is anchored in the cognitive linguistics paradigm and as such subscribes to meaning being grounded in experience, it needs to consider interaction since grammatical structures may be grounded not only in sensory-motor, but also in social-interactive experience. The example of grounded language learning experiments demonstrates the anchoring of grammatical mood in interaction. Finally, phenomena peculiar to spoken dialogue, such as pragmatic markers, may be best accounted for as constructions, drawing on frame semantics. The two cognitive linguistic notions, frames and constructions, are therefore particularly useful to account for generalisation in spoken interaction.

Revisiting border conflicts between FrameNet and Construction Grammar

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiago Timponi Torrent ◽  
Ludmila Meireles Lage ◽  
Thais Fernandes Sampaio ◽  
Tatiane da Silva Tavares ◽  
Ely Edison da Silva Matos
Keyword(s):  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Frame Semantics ◽  
Lexical Unit ◽  
The Third ◽  
Border Conflicts ◽  
Definition Of

This paper proposes three policies for the annotation of constructions in FrameNet Brasil, and, potentially, in other FrameNets. Annotation policies are defined so as to both avoid uncontrolled redundancy in the database and respect the theoretical and methodological foundations of Frame Semantics and Construction Grammar. The first policy is concerned with the task of deciding whether a given piece of language should be analyzed as an instance of a construction, or as a valence pattern of a lexical unit; the second specifies criteria for the definition of Construct Elements; finally, the third policy regulates the interconnections between constructions and frames in the database.

Slovak comparative correlatives

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-229
Author(s):  
Jakob Horsch
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Processing Efficiency ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Slavic Languages ◽  
Universal Applicability

Abstract Comparative Correlatives (CCs) are biclausal constructions (e.g. The harder you work, the more you earn) that have complex semantics and form. This is the first construction grammar-based corpus study to investigate Slovak CCs, based on a 500-token sample. I argue that intra-clausal word-order phenomena can be explained through processing efficiency, based on Hawkins’ principle of Early Immediate Constituents (2004), and I use covarying-collexeme analysis (Stefanowitsch & Gries 2005) to provide evidence for the existence of meso-constructions. The findings of this study contribute to construction grammar’s “aspirations toward universal applicability” (Fried 2017: 249), proving that the theory is also suitable for analysis of syntactic patterns in Slavic languages.

Framing from grammar to application

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Paul Sambre
Keyword(s):  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Thematic Issue ◽  
Frame Semantics ◽  
Social Perspective ◽  
Seminal Work ◽  
Case Grammar ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
Discourse Patterns ◽  
Different Dimensions ◽  
Do So

This thematic issue of the BJL presents eight contributions on the notion of framing, ranging from theoretical to applied perspectives, and reflecting a range of issues on lexico-grammatical and discourse issues. More than forty years after Charles Fillmore’s (1968, 1977) seminal work on case grammar, the general objective of this volume is to show the vividness of the linguistic debate which arose out of Fillmore’s frame semantics. We do so both by bringing together a range of empirical materials reaching from strictly grammatical and lexical to discourse patterns, and by stimulating discussions with other, cognitively or socially oriented models and applications. More specifically, the contributions in this volume cluster around two axes. The first one concentrates on how a form-meaning model of language in frame semantics interacts not only with its ‘sister theory’ of construction grammar (Östman and Fried 2004: 5) and other cognitive frameworks, but also with work on framing from a social perspective. The second axis deals with applying these sister theories to objects and corpora of different dimensions, from lexico-grammatical issues at the sentence level to larger stretches of discourse.

Incorporating the multi-level nature of the constructicon into hypothesis testing

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Pijpops ◽  
Dirk Speelman ◽  
Freek Van de Velde ◽  
Stefan Grondelaers
Keyword(s):  
Hypothesis Testing ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Intermediate Level ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Testing Hypotheses ◽  
Corpus Studies ◽  
Multi Level

Abstract Construction grammar organizes its basic elements of description, its constructions, into networks that range from concrete, lexically-filled constructions to fully schematic ones, with several levels of partially schematic constructions in between. However, only few corpus studies with a constructionist background take this multi-level nature fully into account. In this paper, we argue that understanding language variation can be advanced considerably by systematically formulating and testing hypotheses at various levels in the constructional network. To illustrate the approach, we present a corpus study of the Dutch naar-alternation. It is found that this alternation primarily functions at an intermediate level in the constructional network.

‘Invisible’ spatial meaning: a text-based study of covert Path encoding in Ancient Greek

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 485-515
Author(s):  
Noemi De Pasquale
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Path Information ◽  
Linguistic Units ◽  
Linguistic Approaches ◽  
Semantic Typology

Abstract This paper aims to explore the main constructions showing a covert encoding of Path of motion in Classical Greek (5th–4th century BC). Based on a corpus study of five texts belonging to different literary genres, it applies the theoretical frameworks and conceptual tools of contemporary linguistic approaches, such as the semantic typology of motion events and Construction Grammar, to the data from an ancient language, in order to address the non-compositional expression of Path. The results of the analysis reveal that, in addition to the overt morphosyntactic encoding of Path information, Ancient Greek resorts to more implicit patterns, in which coercion, meaning extension and inference play a crucial role. Furthermore, as opposed to traditional views on motion expression, this study shows that the encoding of spatial meaning is rarely committed to a single lexical or morphological tool within the clause, but rather it distributes across different linguistic units and results from their interaction with one another.

Singular Agreement in Special Partitive Constructions in Dutch

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 335-370
Author(s):  
Lotte Hogeweg ◽  
Stefanie Ramachers ◽  
Helen de Hoop
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Specific Function ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Dominant Pattern ◽  
Syntactic Pattern ◽  
The Subject

Dutch partitive constructions of the type one of the (few) X who Y show a striking pattern of singular subject-verb agreement in their relative clause. This paper presents a corpus study showing that the prescriptively “incorrect” singular agreement pattern is in fact the dominant pattern in Dutch. In order to explain this, we argue that this type of partitive construction often has a specific function in context, namely, to point out that the subject is special or extraordinary, usually for the reason presented by the relative clause. We apply a usage-based approach to this construction within the framework of Construction Grammar, arguing that the prevalent implicature of the subject’s specialness has become a conventionalized part of the meaning of the construction. This analysis then can be used to explain the syntactic pattern of singular agreement within the relative clause. A similar albeit less pronounced pattern can be found in German.*

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