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Article published In:
The Wealth and Breadth of Construction-Based Research
Edited by Timothy Colleman, Frank Brisard, Astrid De Wit, Renata Enghels, Nikos Koutsoukos, Tanja Mortelmans and María Sol Sansiñena
[Belgian Journal of Linguistics 34] 2020
► pp. 320–331

Why we avoid the ‘Multiple Inheritance’ issue in Usage-based Cognitive Construction Grammar

| Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg

This squib revisits the phenomenon of ‘Multiple Inheritance’ (MI) and discusses reasons why many usage-based, cognitive construction grammarians seem to be avoiding it when modeling the constructicon and linguistic knowledge. After a brief discussion of the concept and some examples from the literature, the paper examines potential reasons for the apparent disinterest. Finally, the author points to some open questions regarding MI by discussing a specific example, namely modified NPN constructions like day after hellish day or hour after hour of dominoes. It can be argued that these strings inherit their characteristic features from several different abstract templates.

Keywords: multiple inheritance, Usage-based Cognitive Construction Grammar, unification, NPN constructions
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Multiple inheritance – Definition and examples
  • 3.Avoidance of MI in usage-based cognitive constructional research
  • 4.A concrete example – Modified NPN constructions
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 28 May 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/bjl.00056.som
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