刊讯｜SSCI 期刊《认知语言学》2022年第1-2期

COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS

Volume 33, Issue 1-2, 2022

COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS（SSCI二区，2021 IF：1.796）2022年第1-2期共发研究性论文13篇。研究论文涉及消除歧义策略、介词标记、认知语法、语法化、历时构式语法、语义向量空间等。

目录

ARTICLES

Volume 33,Issue 1（special Issue featuring early career research）

■Ambiguity avoidance as a factor in the rise of the English dative alternation, by Eva Zehentner, Pages 3–33.

■Putting the argument back into argument structure constructions, by Laurence Romain, Pages 35–64.

■Individual differences in word senses, by Rachel E. Ramsey, Pages 65–94.

■Sound symbolism in Chinese children’s literature, by Xiaoxi Wang, Pages 95–120.

■The emergence of Information Structure in child speech: the acquisition of c’est-clefts in French, by Morgane Jourdain, Pages 121–154.

■Improvisations in the embodied interactions of a non-speaking autistic child and his mother: practices for creating intersubjective understanding, by Rachel S. Y. Chen, Pages 155–191.

■From ‘clubs’ to ‘clocks’: lexical semantic extensions in Dene languages, by Conor Snoek, Pages 193–220.

■English modal enclitic constructions: a diachronic, usage-based study of ’d and ’ll, by Robert Daugs, Pages 221–250.

Volume  33, Issue  2

■What makes the past perfect and the future progressive? Experiential coordinates for a learnable, context-based model of tense and aspect, by Laurence Romain, Adnane Ez-zizi, Petar Milin and Dagmar Divjak, Pages 251–289.

■LOOKing for multi-word expressions in American Sign Language, by Lynn Hou, Pages 291–337.

■Changes in the midst of a construction network: a diachronic construction grammar approach to complex prepositions denoting internal location, by Guillaume Desagulie, Pages 339–386.

■Metonymy and argument alternations in French communication frames, by James Law, Pages 387–413.

■Phonotactically probable word shapes represent attractors in the cultural evolution of sound patterns, by Theresa Matzinger and Nikolaus Ritt, Pages 415–446.

摘要

Ambiguity avoidance as a factor in the rise of the English dative alternation

Eva Zehentner, Department of English, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Abstract This paper discusses the role of cognitive factors in language change;specifically, it investigates the potential impact of argument ambiguity avoidanceon the emergence of one of the most well-studied syntactic alternations in English,viz. the dative alternation (We gave them cake vs We gave cake to them). Linkingthis development to other major changes in the history of English like the loss ofcase marking, I propose that morphological as well as semantic-pragmatic ambiguity between prototypical agents (subjects) and prototypical recipients (indirectobjects) in ditransitive clauses plausibly gave a processing advantage to patternswith higher cue reliability such as prepositional marking, but also fixed clauselevel (SVO) order. The main hypotheses are tested through a quantitative analysisof ditransitives in a corpus of Middle English, which (i) confirms that the spread ofthe PP-construction is impacted by argument ambiguity and (ii) demonstrates thatthis change reflects a complex restructuring of disambiguation strategies.

Key words constituent order; dative alternation; disambiguation strategies; Middle English; prepositional marking

Putting the argument back into argument structure constructions

Laurence Romain, Department of Modern Languages, University of Birmingham College of Arts and Law, Strathcona, Edgbaston

Abstract This paper shows that low-level generalisations in argument structure constructions are crucial to understanding the concept of alternation: low-level generalisations inform and constrain more schematic generalisations and thus constructional meaning. On the basis of an analysis of the causative alternation inEnglish, and more specifically of the theme (i.e., the entity undergoing the eventdenoted by the verb), I show that each construction has its own schematic meaning. This analysis is conducted on a dataset composed of 11,554 instances of the intransitive non-causative construction and the transitive causative construction. The identification of lower-level generalisations feeds into the idea that language acquisition is organic and abstractions are formed only gradually (if at all) from exposure to input. So far, most of the literature on argument structure constructions has focused on the verb itself, and thus fails to capture these generalisations. I make up for this deficit through an in-depth analy is of the causative alternation.

Key words alternations; argument structure constructions; construction grammar; distributional semantics; vector space models

Individual differences in word senses

Rachel E. Ramsey, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Abstract While it is possible to express the same meaning in different ways (‘bread and butter’ versus ‘butter and bread’), we tend to say things in the same way. As much as half of spoken discourse is made up of formulaic language or linguistic patterns. Despite its prevalence, little is known about how the processing system treats novel patterns and how rapidly a sensitivity to them arises in natural contexts. To address this, we monitored native English speakers’ eye movements when reading short stories containing existing (conventional) patterns (‘time and money’), seen once, and novel patterns (‘wires and pipes’), seen one to five times. Subsequently, readers saw both existing and novel phrases in the reversed order (‘money and time’; ‘pipes and wires’). In four to five exposures, much like existing lexical patterns, novel ones demonstrate a processing advantage. Sensitivity to lexical patterns—including the co-occurrence of lexical items and the order in which they occur—arises rapidly and automatically during natural reading. This has implications for language learning and is in line with usage-based models of language processing.

Key words individual differences; network theory; polysemy;  quantitative methods; word sense disambiguation

Sound symbolism in Chinese children’s literature

Xiaoxi Wang, Concepts et Langages (STIH, EA4509), Sorbonne Université, Paris, France

Abstract Iconicity is a fundamental property of spoken and signed languages.However, quantitative analysis of sound-meaning association in Chinese has not been extensively developed, and little is known about the impact of sound symbolism in children’s literature. As sound symbolism is supposed to be a universal cognitive phenomenon, this research seeks to investigate whether iconic structures of Mandarin are embodied in native Chinese speakers’ language experience. The paper describes a case study of Chinese storybooks with the goal of testing whether phonosemantic association is prominent between name sounds and character features. A quantitative method was used to investigate the distribution of different phonological units in character denomination depending on their physical and emotional traits. The results show that phonemes and syllable combination patterns are closely related to perceivable character features. By comparing schematic mapping in Chinese with other languages, the study illuminates a cross-lin guistic tendency in addition to a Chinese-specific iconic relation between sound and meaning.

Key words children’s literature; Chinese; cognitive linguistics; cross-modal correspondence; iconicity; sound symbolism

The emergence of Information Structure in child speech: the acquisition of c’est-clefts in French

Morgane Jourdain, Department of Comparative Language Science,  University of Zürich, Zürich-Oerlikon, Switzerland

Abstract Constructions marking information structure in French have been widely documented within the constructionist framework. C’est ‘it is’ clefts have been demonstrated to express the focus of the sentence. Nevertheless, it remains unclear how children are able to acquire clefts, and how they develop information structure categories. The aim of this study is to investigate the acquisition of clefts in French through the usage-based framework, to understand (i) whether IS categories emerge gradually like other linguistic categories, and (ii) how children build IS categories. For this, I analysed 256 c’est-clefts produced by three children between age 2 and 3. I show that most early clefts are produced by children with the chunk c’est moi associated with the concrete function of requesting to perform an action themselves. This chunk then becomes a frame with slot, extending the function to other human referents and discourse participants with the function of requesting adults to perform an action. Another large portion of early clefts seems to belong to a frame with slot c’est X whose function is to identify the agent who carried out an action. These findings suggest that the information structure category of focus emerges gradually

Key words acquisition; clefts; French; information structure

Improvisations in the embodied interactions of a non-speaking autistic child and his mother: practices for creating intersubjective understanding

Rachel S. Y. Chen,University of California, Berkeley, USA; and San Francisco State University, San Francisco, USA

Abstract The human capacity for intersubjective engagement is present, even when one is limited in speaking, pointing, and coordinating gaze. This paper examines the everyday social interactions of two differently-disposed actors—a nonspeaking autistic child and his speaking, neurotypical mother—who participate in shared attention through dialogic turn-taking. In the collaborative pursuit of activities, the participants coordinate across multiple turns, producing multi-turn constructions that accomplish specific goals. The paper asks two questions about these collaborative constructions: 1) What are their linguistic and discursive structures? 2) How do embodied actions contribute to these constructions? Findings show that the parent and child repeatedly co-produced multi-turn constructions that had consistent structures, implying a sophisticated ability to anticipate the completion of action trajectories. Examining the embodied actions of interactants revealed that the child often accommodated to the parent’s demands for participation. Nonetheless, the child occasionally pursued his own goals by improvising with and within multi-turn constructions. He launched constructions to redirect parental attention, and otherwise produced surprising actions within the turn-taking structure of these constructions. The paper concludes that multi-turn constructions in the midst of activities are a primordial site in which to begin observing the competencies of non-speaking autistic children for intersubjective engagement

Key words autism; construction; dialogic resonance; embodied interaction; joint attention

From ‘clubs’ to ‘clocks’: lexical semantic extensions in Dene languages

Conor Snoek,  Indigenous Studies, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Canada

Abstract This study examines the semantics of a root form underlying a wide range of Dene lexical expressions. The root evolved from a simple nominal denoting “club” to expressions lexicalizing the movement of stick-like objects and the rotation of helicopter blades. These semantic extensions arise through sourcein-target and target-in-source metonymies. Drawing on Cognitive Linguistics, especially the theory of metonymy, offers a method of describing the range of meanings expressed by this root in a concise manner. Focusing on the results of metonymic meaning extensions also opens the way to addressing questions in the history of Dene languages. This study contributes to increasing the typological scope of Cognitive Linguistic approaches and argues for the usefulness of the theory in addressing problems in Dene linguistics.

Key words cognitive cultural models; Dene languages; historical linguisitcs; metonymy; semantic change

English modal enclitic constructions: a diachronic, usage-based study of ’d and ’ll

Robert Daugs, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany

Abstract English modal enclitics (’d and ’ll) are typically conceived of as colloquial pronunciation variants that are semantically identical to their respective fullforms (would and will). Although this conception has already been challenged by Nesselhauf, Nadja. 2014. From contraction to construction? The recent life of ’ll. In Marianne Hundt (ed.), Late modern English syntax, 77–89. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press and Daugs, Robert. 2021. Contractions, constructions and constructional change: Investigating the constructionhood of English modal contractions from a diachronic perspective. In Martin Hilpert, Bert Cappelle & Ilse Depraetere (eds.), Modality and diachronic construction grammar, 12–52. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, who argue for the constructional status of both enclitics, the present study proposes a refinement according to which the differences between enclitics and full forms can be pinpointed to specific co-occurrence patterns. Rather than rashly postulating a general ’d-construction or an ’ll-construction, the data indicate that lower-level instances, like I’d V, we’ll V, or it would V, are very much capable of capturing the meaning differences between enclitics and full forms without recourse to higher, more abstract level. This is achieved by assessing the changes in the associative links these patterns entertain in a data-driven, bottom-up fashion. By utilizing the COHA and a variety of quantitative methods, it can be shown that, although enclitic patterns become more frequent and more varied, they remain overall still more restricted than the full forms, which promotes the emergence of ‘new’ symbolic associations. The results are integrated into current research in Diachronic Construction Grammar (Hilpert, Martin. 2013. Constructional change in English: Developments in allomorphy, word formation, and syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Hilpert, Martin. 2021. Ten lectures in diachronic construction grammar. Leiden: Brill) and dynamic, network-oriented models of language (Schmid, Hans-Jörg. 2020. The dynamics of the linguistic system: Usage, conventionalization, and entrenchment. Oxford: Oxford University Press).

Key words constructional change; modal enclitics; patterns of associations; schema entrenchment and conventionalization

What makes the past perfect and the future progressive? Experiential coordinates for a learnable, context-based model of tense and aspect

Laurence Romain and Petar Milin, Department of Modern Languages, University of Birmingham,Birmingham, UK.

Adnane Ez-zizi, Department of Modern Languages, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK;and School of Engineering, Arts, Science and Technology, University of Suffolk, Ipswich, UK

Dagmar Divjak, Department of Modern Languages, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK;and Department of English Language & Linguistics, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.

Abstract We examined how language supports the expression of temporality within sentence boundaries in English, which has a rich inventory of grammatical means to express temporality. Using a computational model that mimics how humans learn from exposure we explored what the use of different tense and aspect (TA) combinations reveals about the interaction between our experience of time and the cognitive demands that talking about time puts on the language user. Our model was trained on n-grams extracted from the BNC to select the TA combination that fits the context best. It revealed the existence of two different subsystems within the set of TA combinations, a “simplex” one that is supported lexically and is easy to learn, and a “complex” one that is supported contextually and is hard to learn. The finding that some TA combinations are essentially lexical in nature necessitates a rethink of tense and aspect as grammatical categories that

form the axes of the temporal system. We argue that the system of temporal reference may be more fruitfully thought of as the result of learning a system that is steeped in experience and organised along a number of functional principles.

Key words cognitive grammar; computational modelling; naïve discriminative learning; tense and aspect; usage-based approaches to language

LOOKing for multi-word expressions in American Sign Language

Lynn Hou, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA,

Abstract Usage-based linguistics postulates that multi-word expressions constitute a substantial part of language structure and use, and are formed through repeated chunking and stored as exemplar wholes. They are also re-used to produce new sequences by means of schematization. While there is extensive research on multi-word expressions in many spoken languages, little is known about the status of multi-word expressions in the mainstream U.S. variety of American Sign Language (ASL). This paper investigates recurring multi-word exLinguists have debated whether complex prepositions deserve a constituent status, but none have proposed a dynamic model that can both predict what construal a given pattern imposes and account for the emergence of nonspatial readings. This paper reframes the debate on constituency as a justification of the constructional status of complex prepositional patterns from a historical perspective. It focuses on the Prep NPIL of NPlm construction, which denotes a relation of internal location between a located entity (a trajector) and a reference entity (a landmark). Four subschemas of the Internal Location construction are examined: MIDDLEcxn (in the middle of), CENTERcxn (in/at the center of), HEARTcxn (in/at the heart of), and MIDSTcxn (in the midst of). All occurrences are extracted from the COHA, along with their co-occurring landmark NPs. Using vocabulary growth curves, all patterns are shown to be productive over the whole period covered by the corpus, although at different levels. Using word2vec, a semantic vector space with the landmark collocates of each pattern is made. Curves indexed on association scores are plotted to see how densely semantic areas have been populated across four consecutive periods: 1810s–1860s, 1870s–1910s, 1920s–1970s, and 1980s–2000s. Two divisions of labor have emerged. MIDSTcxn and HEARTcxn are in complementary distribution and operate mostly at the level of abstract locations whereas MIDDLEcxn and CENTERcxn are in parallel distribution and operate at the level of concrete locations

Key words American Sign Language; chunking; grammaticalization; multi-word expressions; visual perception

Changes in the midst of a construction network: a diachronic construction grammar approach to complex prepositions denoting internal location

Guillaume Desagulier， Université Paris 8, UMR 7114 MoDyCo, Institut Universitaire de France, Saint-Denis, France

Abstract  Linguists have debated whether complex prepositions deserve a constituent status, but none have proposed a dynamic model that can both predict what construal a given pattern imposes and account for the emergence of nonspatial readings. This paper reframes the debate on constituency as a justification of the constructional status of complex prepositional patterns from a historical perspective. It focuses on the Prep NPIL of NPlm construction, which denotes a relation of internal location between a located entity (a trajector) and a reference entity (a landmark). Four subschemas of the Internal Location construction are examined: MIDDLEcxn (in the middle of), CENTERcxn (in/at the center of), HEARTcxn (in/at the heart of), and MIDSTcxn (in the midst of). All occurrences are extracted from the COHA, along with their co-occurring landmark NPs. Using vocabulary growth curves, all patterns are shown to be productive over the whole period covered by the corpus, although at different levels. Using word2vec, a semantic vector space with the landmark collocates of each pattern is made. Curves indexed on association scores are plotted to see how densely semantic areas have been populated across four consecutive periods: 1810s–1860s, 1870s–1910s, 1920s–1970s, and 1980s–2000s. Two divisions of labor have emerged. MIDSTcxn and HEARTcxn are in complementary distribution and operate mostly at the level of abstract locations whereas MIDDLEcxn and CENTERcxn are in parallel distribution and operate at the level of concrete locations

Key words collostructions; density maps; diachronic construction grammar; distributional semantic models; internal location; semantic vector space

Metonymy and argument alternations in French communication frames

James Law， Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA

Abstract This study describes metonymic argument alternations, in which a constructional slot can be filled by any of a set of semantic roles that index one another, and provides a diachronic corpus analysis of two such alternations in French. In the Reveal secret frame and other communication frames, the Medium can indexically replace the Speaker and the Topic can indexically replace the Information. A regression analysis shows that while TOPIC FOR INFORMATION metonymy is more syntactically and pragmatically restricted, MEDIUM FOR SPEAKER metonymy has seen an increase in usage over time across the frame. This change is related to sociocultural developments and has implications for the study of figurative language and lexical semantic change. While it is well understood that figurative mechanisms such as metonymy affect language change, here it is demonstrated that cultural shifts drive changes in metonymies themselves, with corresponding impacts for linguistic structure.

Key words argument alternations; corpus; frames; metonymy; semantic change

Phonotactically probable word shapes represent attractors in the cultural evolution of sound patterns

Theresa Matzinger, Department of English, University of Vienna, Vienna,Austria; and Centre of Language Evolution Studies, University of Toruń, Toruń, Poland

Nikolaus Ritt, Department of English, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Abstract Words are processed more easily when they have canonical phonotactic shapes, i.e., shapes that are frequent both in the lexicon and in usage. We explore whether this cognitively grounded constraint or preference implies testable predictions about the implementation of sound change. Specifically, we hypothesise that words with canonical shapes favour, or ‘select for’, sound changes that (re-) produce words with the same shapes. To test this, we investigate a Middle English sound change known as Open Syllable Lengthening (OSL). OSL lengthened vowels in disyllables such as ME /ma.kə/ make, but more or less only when they became monosyllabic and when their vowels were non-high. We predict that word shapes produced by this implementation pattern should correspond to the shapes that were most common among morphologically simple monosyllables and disyllables at the time when OSL occurred. We test this prediction against Early Middle English corpus data. Our results largely confirm our prediction: monosyllables produced by OSL indeed conformed to the shapes that were most frequent among already existing monosyllables. At the same time, the failure of OSL to affect disyllables (such as body) prevented them from assuming shapes that were far more typical of morphologically complex word forms than of simple ones. This suggests that the actuation and implementation of sound changes may be even more sensitive to lexical probabilities than hitherto suspected. Also, it demonstrates how diachronic data can be used to test hypotheses about constraints on word recognition and processing.

Key words argument alternations; corpus; frames; metonymy; semantic change

期刊简介

About this Journal

Objective目标

Cognitive Linguistics presents a forum for linguistic research of all kinds on the interaction between language and cognition. The journal focuses on language as an instrument for organizing, processing and conveying information. Cognitive Linguistics is a peer-reviewed journal of international scope and seeks to publish only works that represent a significant advancement to the theory or methods of cognitive linguistics, or that present an unknown or understudied phenomenon.

认知语言学为各种语言学研究语言与认知的相互作用提供了一个论坛。该期刊专注于语言作为组织，处理和传达信息的工具。《认知语言学》是一本具有国际范围的同行评审期刊，旨在仅发表代表认知语言学理论或方法的重大进步的作品，或呈现未知或未充分研究的现象的作品。

Topics主题

• the structural characteristics of natural language categorization (such as prototypicality, cognitive models, metaphor, and imagery); 自然语言分类的结构特征（如原型性、认知模型、隐喻和意象）

• the functional principles of linguistic organization, as illustrated by iconicity;标示性说明的语言组织的功能原理

• the conceptual interface between syntax and semantics;语法与语义之间的概念界面

• the experiential background of language-in-use, including the cultural background;语言使用的体验背景，包括文化背景

• the relationship between language and thought, including matters of universality and language specificity语言与思想的关系，包括普遍性和语言特异性问题

官网地址：

Cognitive Linguistics (degruyter.com)

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