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Corpus-based Approaches to Construction Grammar
Edited by Jiyoung Yoon and Stefan Th. Gries
[Constructional Approaches to Language 19] 2016
► pp. 241–262

A geometric exemplar-based model of semantic structure

The Dutch causative construction with laten

This paper addresses an under-investigated issue of the structure of constructional meaning, presenting an innovative corpus-based bottom-up approach, which represents the semantic similarities between exemplars of a construction with the help of Multidimensional Scaling. The study explores the main semantic dimensions and senses of the Dutch causative construction with the auxiliary laten ‘let’. The quantitative analyses of 731 corpus examples, which were coded for 35 various contextual variables, show that the constructional semantics is organized as a doughnut, with an empty centre and extensive periphery. The main senses, which are represented by clusters of similar exemplars, are not discrete, but represent a continuum. These findings are contrasted with previous accounts, which assumed a discrete prototype-based structure of the meaning.

Published online: 8 September 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.19.09lev
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