Hans C. Boas

Coercion and leaking argument structures in Construction Grammar

Abstract This article investigates the role of coercion and contextual background information in influencing acceptability judgments. Focusing on data from English resultative constructions I propose a usage-based constructional approach that accounts for the factors that allow for a verbs conventionalized argument structure specifications to leak, thereby allowing otherwise unacceptable nonconventionalized utterances such as ??Ed hammered the metal safe to be judged acceptable by means of coercion. By putting less emphasis on independently existing meaningful constructions I argue that frame-semantic information at the level of lexical units (mini-constructions) can be used effectively to link semantic information to syntactic information to arrive at both lower-level and higher-level constructional descriptions for both decoding and encoding purposes.

Multilingual FrameNets in computational lexicography : methods and applications

This book demonstrates how the underlying principles of the English-based FrameNet project are successfully applied to the description and analysis of typologically diverse languages. The collection of stimulating articles exemplifies the liveliness of current research on cross-lingual applications of Frame Semantics to natural language processing.

Lexical and phrasal approaches to argument structure: Two sides of the same coin

Muller and Wechsler (MW Tomasello, 2003; Goldberg and Jackendoff, 2004; Jackendoff, 2011) that grammars should contain a phrasal component for certain constructions, such as the N-P-N construction” (MW (2) According to MW1 and (3) It also allows for some arguments to be expressed locally while saving others for expression elsewhere (partial fronting) and for the coordination of two or more verbs with matching argument structures (M&W, p. 2). The authors discuss a range of data from acquisition, psycholinguistics, and statistical distribution, which they claim “either fails to distinguish the two approaches, or supports the lexical approach” (M&W, p. 1). These points lead the authors to favor the lexical approach over the phrasal approach. M&W’s paper raises a number of important empirical, methodological, and theoretical issues surrounding the employment of the concept of argument

From the field to the web : implementing best-practice recommendations in documentary linguistics

New methods of documenting languages with digital technologies has led to a multitude of different formats that are difficult to reuse over time. To overcome the problems surrounding the portability of digital language documentation, linguists are in the process of formulating best-practice recommendations to increase the likelihood of their works long-term survival. This paper describes the implementation of a comprehensive set of current best-practice recommendations pertaining to content, format, discovery, access, citation, preservation, and rights in the context of the language documentation efforts of the Texas German Dialect Project. This project is different from others in that it is not primarily concerned with digitizing and archiving existing recordings. Instead, the archive it is creating is the end-result of a research project whose workflow begins with data-collection in the filed and ends with depositing digitized and annotated language materials in a web-accessible digital archive of Texas German. This paper shows how a number of conflicting best-practice recommendations can be resolved, thereby satisfying the diverse needs of academic research, teaching, and outreach to the community. As such, the results reported here are an important contribution to the search for strategies guaranteeing the long-term survival of digital language documentation resources.

The Texas German Dialect Archive: A Multimedia Resource for Research, Teaching, and Outreach

This paper describes the organization of the Texas German Dialect Project (TGDP), which aims to document and archive the remnants of Texas German. The mission of the Texas German Dialect Project is (1) to document Texas Ger man as it reflects the rich cultural and linguistic traditions of its residents; (2) to gath er basic research information about linguistic diversity; (3) to provide linguistic information fo r public and educational interests, and (4) to use the collected materials for the improvement of educ ational programs. The paper first gives a brief historical overview of the development of the T xas German community, starting with the settlement of the first German immigrants in Texas in the 1830s and continuing to the present day. Next, we describe the workflow of the TGDP. We th n discuss how the Texas German Dialect Archive (TGDA) is currently used for lingui stic research on new-dialect formation, language contact, and language death. Since the ope n-ended sociolinguistic interviews contain a wealth of information on the history and cultural p ractices of the Texas German community, the archive is also of interest to historians and anthr opologists. Finally, we show how the archive has been used for community outreach programs throughou t central Texas. The Texas German Dialect Archive: A Multimedia Resource for Research, Teaching, and Outreach

Computational Resources: FrameNet and Constructicon

This chapter discusses how ideas, concepts, and methodologies from cognitive linguistics have been applied to the creation of two specific computational resources for linguistics research. After this introductory section, section 34.2 discusses one of the most prominent computational resources inspired by cognitive linguistics, the FrameNet lexical database (http://framenet.icsi.berkeley.edu), which is structured according to the theory of Frame Semantics (Fillmore 1982). Section 34.3 shows how the FrameNet methodology and representational format for creating lexical entries has been expanded for the creation of a so-called ‘constructicon,’ aimed at creating entries for grammatical constructions. Section 34.4 briefly outlines how FrameNet and the Constructicon can be used for research in cognitive linguistics.

Approaching German syntax from a constructionist perspective

Over the last decade or so, Construction Grammar (CxG) has evolved into an influential paradigm in linguistic research. CxG subsumes a family of related constructional approaches to language including Cognitive Construction Grammar (Lakoff 1987, Goldberg 1995, Boas 2013), Berkeley Construction Grammar (Fillmore et al. 1988, Kay and Fillmore 1999, Fillmore 2013), Sign-based Construction Grammar (SBCG; Sag 2011, Boas and Sag 2012, Michaelis 2013), Radical Construction Grammar (Croft 2001, 2013), and Cognitive Grammar (Langacker 1987, 2008; Broccias 2013), among others (for an overview see Hoffmann/Trousdale 2013, Ziem and Lasch 2013, and Lasch and Ziem 2014). Although such approaches differ not only in methodological terms but also with respect to the types of linguistic phenomena addressed, they all embrace the view that both lexicon and grammar essentially consist of constructions, i.e. non-compositional (and compositional) formmeaning pairings of varying abstractness and syntagmatic complexity. Building on this basic assumption, this volume investigates a variety of grammatical phenomena in German from a constructional point of view, including argument structure constructions, prepositional constructions, comparative correlatives, and relative clause constructions. Each contribution is anchored in a constructional approach to language, and the constructional nature of each phenomenon addressed is demonstrated in detail. Why German? Since its beginnings in the 1980s, constructional research has primarily focused on English, although languages such as Czech, Finnish, French, and Japanese have also received considerable attention. Since the 2000s, there has also been a significant amount of constructional research on German, including Järventausta (2006), Imo (2007), Nikula (2007), Chang (2008), Cloene and Willems (2006a, b), Deppermann (2007), Rostila (2008), Felfe (2012), Zeldes (2012), Hein (2015), and Lasch (2017); as well as a number of edited volumes such as Fischer and Stefanowitsch (2006), Stefanowitsch and Fischer (2008), Günthner and Bücker (2009), Engelberg et al. (2011), Lasch and Ziem (2011),

From the past into the present: From case frames to semantic frames

Abstract This paper first shows how Frame Semantics grew out of earlier work on Case Grammar. Then, it discusses some of the basic principles of Frame Semantics and shows how these have been implemented in FrameNet, an online corpus-based lexicographic database (http://framenet.icsi.berkeley.edu). Using semantic frames to structure the lexicon of English, FrameNet provides a wealth of information showing how frame elements (situation-specific semantic roles) are realized syntactically (valence patterns). Finally, the paper provides an overview of how frame-semantic principles have been applied to cover non-lexical phenomena using compatible annotation and data formats. This so-called “constructicon” offers entries of grammatical constructions that are also based on corpus data and that are parallel to lexical entries in FrameNet.

On the variability of Texas German wo as a complementizer

Abstract This paper investigates the multiple functions of wo in the complementizer position of relative and non-relative clauses in Texas German (= TxG), a critically endangered diaspora dialect of German, in order to determine whether its distribution is unique or comparable to that of wo in Standard German. We further attempt to determine whether the different functions of wo in the complementizer position are due to internal or external factors. Finally, we address the question of whether the variability of wo is perhaps indicative of the imminent demise of TxG.

Wie viel Wissen steckt in Wörterbüchern? Eine frame-semantische Perspektive

Abstract In this paper I argue that it is often not possible to systematically distinguish between linguistically relevant knowledge and linguistically irrelevant knowledge. Based on a discussion of various meanings of words and the contexts in which they can occur I propose, following Fillmore (1982), a frame-semantic approach to the description and analysis of word meanings. Presenting a number of examples from the FrameNet lexicographic database for English, I discuss the types of different knowledge necessary to properly interpret a word’s meaning in context. Finally, I claim that the FrameNet approach to lexical description is also advantagous for the description of other languages and domains.