The grammar network: how linguistic structure is shaped by language use

Description

The Grammar Network Cognitive linguists and psychologists have often argued that language is best understood as an association network; however while the network view of language has had a significant impact on the study of morphology and lexical semantics, it is only recently that researchers have taken an explicit network approach to the study of syntax. This innovative study presents a dynamic network model of grammar in which all aspects of linguistic structure, including core concepts of syntax (e.g. phrase structure, word classes, grammatical relations), are analyzed in terms of associative connections between different types of linguistic elements. These associations are shaped by domain-general learning processes that are operative in language use and sensitive to frequency of occurrence. Drawing on research from usage-based linguistics and cognitive psychology, the book provides an overview of frequency effects in grammar and analyzes these effects within the framework of a dynamic network model. Cover Half-title page Title page Copyright page Contents List of Figures List of Tables Preface List of Abbreviations 1 Introduction 1.1 Preliminary Remarks 1.2 Three General Principles of Usage-Based Linguistics 1.3 Goal and Scope of the Book Part I. Foundations 2 Grammar as a Network 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Some General Properties of Networks 2.3 A Nested Network Model of Grammar 2.4 Signs as Networks 2.5 Networks of Signs 2.6 Summary 3 Cognitive Processes and Language Use 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Linguistic Decisions 3.3 Social Cognition 3.4 Conceptualization 3.5 Memory-Related Processes 3.6 Competing Motivations 3.7 Acquisition and Change 3.8 Summary Part II. Signs as Networks 4 The Taxonomic Network 4.1 Introduction 4.2 The Taxonomic Organization of Constructions 4.3 Schema Extraction in Infancy 4.4 Statistical Patterns in the Ambient Language 4.5 The Acquisition of Constructional Schemas 4.6 The Emergence of Constructional Schemas in Language History 4.7 Conclusion 5 Sequential Relations 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Lexical Prefabs and Idiomaticity 5.3 Words, Clitics and Morphemes 5.4 Morphological Gradience 5.5 The Suffixing Preference 5.6 Syntactic Predictions 5.7 Syntactic Constituents 5.8 Conclusion 6 Symbolic Relations 6.1 Introduction 6.2 The Creation of Symbolic Associations in L1 Acquisition 6.3 The Network Approach to Lexical Semantics 6.4 The Structure of the Knowledge Network 6.5 The Role of the Context 6.6 The Meaning of Constructions 6.7 Conclusion Part III. Filler–Slot Relations 7 Argument Structure and Linguistic Productivity 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Theories of Argument Structure 7.3 The Network Approach to Argument Structure 7.4 Semantically Motivated Extensions of Verb-Argument Schemas 7.5 Frequency and the Internal Structure of Verb-Argument Schemas 7.6 Grammatical Ecology 7.7 Conclusion 8 A Dynamic Network Model of Parts of Speech 8.1 Introduction 8.2 The Network Approach to Grammatical Word Classes 8.3 Nouns and Verbs 8.4 Adjectives 8.5 Subclasses 8.6 Grammatical Function Words 8.7 Conclusion 9 Phrase Structure 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Constituent Types 9.3 The Conceptual Foundations of Compound Phrases 9.4 Grammatical Phrases 9.5 Word Order Correlations 9.6 Other Cognitive Processes That Influence Word Order 9.7 Filler–Slot Relations 9.8 Conclusion Part IV. Constructional Relations 10 Construction Families 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Horizontal Relations 10.3 The Mental Lexicon 10.4 Structural Priming 10.5 Sentence Processing 10.6 Language Acquisition 10.7 Language Change 10.8 Conclusion 11 Encoding Asymmetries of Grammatical Categories 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Cross-Linguistic Asymmetries in the Encoding of Grammatical Categories 11.3 Frequency, Economy and Social Cognition 11.4 Grammatical Relations 11.5 Optional and Differential Object Marking 11.6 The Diachronic Evolution of Object Case Marking 11.7 Case Marking and Semantic Maps 11.8 Conclusion 12 Conclusion 12.1 Grammar as a Network 12.2 Cognitive Processes and Language Use References Author Index Subject Index