Nodes and Networks in Diachronic Construction Grammar

“The present volume brings together an exciting range of proposals on how a dynamic network model of language can contribute to the analysis of diachronic change. The corpus methods used by the authors include state-of-the art techniques like collostructional analysis, distributional semantics and even more advanced computational tools like artificial neural networks, which have yet to become more widely applied in (historical) linguistic research. The contributions illustrate not only how a cognitively oriented network perspective can provide diachronic scholars with a new conceptual framework in which constructional change can be modelled as are configuration of linking patterns between nodes, but also how the careful analysis of language change can in turn inform network models which have so far been largely posited based on synchronic observations. The volume thus provides strong evidence that historical corpus data can complement psycholinguistic experiments in assessing the psychological plausibility of network structures, and the way in which these are shaped by speakers’ general cognitive abilities such as analogical reasoning.”

“The volume has provided new insights into the modeling of constructional networks and is an important contribution to DCxG. Furthermore, it is a very stimulating and thought-provoking book that challenges the reader to think about how to best model the constructional network. As such, it can be expected to feed future work in (Diachronic) Construction Grammar.”