Chapter published in:
Nodes and Networks in Diachronic Construction GrammarEdited by Lotte Sommerer and Elena Smirnova
[Constructional Approaches to Language 27] 2020
► pp. 141–166
Productivity and schematicity in constructional change
In Diachronic Construction Grammar, many
instances of language change can be captured in terms of variation
in the schematicity and productivity of constructions. These two
notions are often thought to be interrelated, which suggests that
they might be collapsed and treated as essentially the same
property. By contrast, this paper argues that schematicity and
productivity, while related, should be kept separate and considered
in their own right. Cases are reported from the literature showing
that the relation between schematicity and productivity is at best
indirect. It is argued that a distinction should be made between the
schematicity of lexical slots inside a particular construction and
the schematicity of the constructional meaning itself. Only the
former is directly related to productivity. The latter may or may
not be, and if so, only in very specific ways that can be assessed
not by looking merely at the lexical items attested in the slots of
the construction, but only by examining the semantics of earlier
uses in their entirety. To illustrate this idea, a case study of
recent change in the abstract uses of the
way-construction is reported on, in which the
increasing range of abstract verbs can be related to an increase in
the variety of abstract situations conceptualized as motion in uses
of the construction. This is interpreted as an increase in the
schematicity of the motion component of the constructional
meaning.
Keywords: schematicity, productivity, constructional meaning,
way-construction
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Diachronic Construction Grammar and constructional networks
- 3.Productivity and schematicity
- 3.1Schematicity
- 3.2Productivity
- 3.3The relation between productivity and schematicity
- 4.Case study: Abstract uses of the way-construction
- 5.Conclusion
-
Notes -
References
Published online: 13 May 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.27.04per
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.27.04per
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Trousdale, G.
Cited by
Cited by 3 other publications
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De Kinderen, Sybren, Monika Kaczmarek-Hes & Kristina Rosenthal
Ungerer, Tobias
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