Archive for: December 2008

Does Cognitive Linguistics live up to its name?

Bert Peeters

There can be no doubt that structural linguistics, which flourished half a century ago on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, lived up to its name: it was structural because it considered languages to be self-contained entities that had either to be shaped into a rigorous structure, or actually possessed a structure which was real and merely waiting to be discovered. There can be no doubt either that transformational grammar, which in its heydays pushed structuralism into quasi-total oblivion, lived up to its name: it was transformational because it posited several successive strata or structures in sentence generation which were linked by means of transformations of all sorts. On the contemporary scene, there can be no doubt that functional linguistics lives up to its name: it attaches a great deal of importance to the way in which languages function and to the functions of language. The question that will be raised in the next few pages is the following: does Cognitive Linguistics, as we know it today, live up to its name?

English Constructions

Adele E. Goldberg and Devin Casenhiser

Princeton University

Abstract

Constructions have been defined variously in the literature, but the traditional use of the term corresponds to a conventional pairing of form with (semantic or discourse) function. This article provides examples of uncontroversial instances of constructions, clarifies some of the debates surrounding the term currently, and also briefly explores a broad based range of constructionist theories that have converged on the basic idea that traditional constructions play a central theoretical role in language.

1. A brief history of “constructions”

Constructions: A new theoretical approach to language

Adele E. Goldberg

Summary A new theoretical approach to language has emerged in the past 10-15 years that allows linguistic observations about form-meaning pairings—constructions–to be stated directly. Constructionist approaches aim to account for the full range of facts about language, without assuming that a particular subset of the data is part of a privileged “core”. Researchers argue that unusual constructions shed light on more general issues, and serve to illuminate what is required for a complete account of language.

Keywords: language, linguistics, constructions, grammar, learning, generalizations