Article published in:
Corpus-based Approaches to Construction Grammar
Edited by Jiyoung Yoon and Stefan Th. Gries
[Constructional Approaches to Language 19] 2016
► pp. 39–64

Development and representation of Italian light-fare constructions

This contribution analyzes the development and use of light fare ‘do’ constructions in Child-directed Speech and in Child Language with the twofold goal of showing that a Construction Grammar approach is viable, and of providing support to usage-based, functional predictions on language acquisition. The analysis of naturalistic data derived from the CHILDES database lead to two main findings: first, a representation of fare Light Verb Constructions as a family of constructions organized like a radial category is possible, second, there exists a fare pivot schema that children generalize at an early stage because it serves the purpose of naming new events, activities or situations.
Published online: 08 September 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.19.03quo
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