Abstract
The article aims to analyze some structures in English judged within the framework of Construction Grammar with a specific emphasis on the notions of conceptualization and categorization. The grammar of a language is understood as cross-mapping of form and meaning, the grammatical constructions are viewed as regular idiomatic pairings of form and meaning that do not appear compositional when interpreted thus understood as evoking specific mental configurations outside domains of lexical and truth semantics. The analysis of constructions can evolve into an insightful instrument of linguistic analysis if the grammatical constructions are explained as the result of the conceptualization of referential scenes that can be further categorized into several frames as knowledge representations. The article concerns grammatical constructions that express a variety of propositional meanings that are created in the cognitive-communicative process of interpretation which embraces at least three types of knowledge produced by the language user’s mind: conceptualization of referents, activating language knowledge, processing the textual and contextual semantics. The theoretical provisions and framework of Construction Grammar are instrumental in disclosing the nature of the form-meaning unity of grammatical constructions. The article argues that the constructions under study should be viewed not only as typical structure-building mechanisms. Through cataloging certain types of referent object conceptualization, it is possible to make clear what schemata can be cognized in referent scene concepts. The study aims at working out research procedures to treat grammatical idiomaticity, collocational preferences, certain covert constraints imposed by the notion of a grammatical construction on certain lingual expressions.
Keywords: Construction Grammargrammatical constructionconceptualizationreferent sceneconstrual
Introduction
Lingual representation of cognition has been in the focus for quite a while since W. von Humboldt and F. de Saussure and was further emphasized and elaborated by cognitive science and cognitive linguistics in particular embodiments, spatial cognition being the most comprehensive area. Talmy (1983) brought into the issue of language reflection of cognition the dimension of the linguistic typology providing as well a fundamental conceptual framework for such issues as language reflection of topological features of objects, languages preferences in spatial configurations thus encoding same referents differently in terms of conceptualizing and fronting their various features. Generally speaking, the notion of a conceptual configuration of reference objects through the perception of their shape, color, movement/rest, perceived relation to the environment, etc. may be applied to semantic domains of various lingual structures viewed as grammatical constructions.
Problem Statement
As grammar of a language is an interface between form and meaning, hard and fast boundaries between lexicon and syntax being blurred, the grammatical constructions as pairings of form and meaning that aren’t interpreted compositionally, but idiomatically, should become an insightful instrument of linguistic analysis (Kay & Michaelis, 2019). The problem discussed in the article concerns grammatical constructions that show a range of propositional meanings, such as possessivity, perceived activity, caused resultativity, comparison, etc. The research starting from the stand that the value of language expression is created in its interpretation and not in truth condition semantics, must result in certain cognitive bases for the interpretation of some spatial, existential and experiential properties of objects and phenomena within theoretical provisions and framework of Construction Grammar (CxG).
Research Questions
Research questions fall mainly in the area of grammar and semantic correspondences: syntactic structures correspond to semantic structures, but the question whether the construction under study should be viewed as typical structure-building mechanisms in English, and what knowledge about referent scenes is relevant for scene construal needs to be theorized and developed through cataloging certain types of referent object conceptualization using an inventory of schemes contained in referent scene concepts.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study is to work out research procedures to treat linguistic expressions that are characterized by grammatical idiomaticity, collocational preferences, certain covert constraints imposed by the notion of grammatical construction, as well as to specify a common framework for the analysis of 'syntactic' and 'word-building (derivational)' construction kinds. The material to be discussed includes constructions manifesting propositions of possessivity, perceived activity, caused resultativity, comparison, etc.
The grammar of constructions or Construction Grammar (CxG) is today’s generative-cognitive understanding of language mechanics (Boas & Ziem, 2018), which embodies perhaps in the most comprehensive way several fundamental definitions of modern linguistics suggested by Kubryakova (1994): its poly-paradigmatic content, expansion into adjacent fields of knowledge and methodology of other sciences, functionalism, explanatory goals of linguistic research, semantic emphasis of research. As CxG incorporates the principles and notions of traditional and cognitive linguistics, as well as borrowed from philosophy, anthropology, information theory, cognitive linguistics and semiotics (Croft & Sutton, 2016; Kay & Michaelis, 2019; Vieira & Wiedemer, 2019), this composite research area provides a certain estimation of what is the fundamental principle of structure and functioning of language as a sign system of verbal communication. It may consist in recognizing the fact that the composite nominative units of the language or expressions made of such units (whether derivationally, as a word-building construction, or as a syntactically organized composite verbal analytical phrase) (Zeller, 2018) should be valued in two aspects. First, they can be semantically and pragmatically interpreted only when considered communicatively, i.e. as elements constituting utterances (sentences). This standing is based on the notion in cognitive linguistics regarding the role of interpretation and construal of the semantics of lingual expressions: the meaning is not a composition of elements bridged together by a construction. Second (consequentially to the first), the constructions are not built on the principle of syntagmatic connection of units that are members of various lexical and grammatical paradigms, i.e. not by way of syntagmatic sequencing speech chains, but on a different basis.
This different principle is non-trivial connectibility of linguistic signs in a construction building act, each of which has a specific semantic (pragmatic, discourse) function that is not overt as it is not resulting of added up meaningful values of the connected elements. As constructionism recognizes the supremacy of the communicative function in structuring the content of language expressions, CxG must accordingly set the relationship between the communicative implementation of language units and their status in the language as the basis for the explanatory potential of a language structure theory (Boas & Ziem, 2018). Constructional grammar thus presents a semiotic theory of language in which the boundaries of traditionally distinguished subsystems and levels of language are erased: since all language levels (beginning with sound matter comprised by the phonetic and prosodic level, to morpheme, word derivational constructions, utterances, and whole texts) language signs and lingual expressions behave like constructions (Zeller & Jochen, 2018), it is worth considering for explanatory value of language theory, not separate units and their role, position, meaning and functions in the language system, but rather the mechanics of this unit being engaged in construction-building. For Cognitive Construction Grammar it will be insightful to disclose cognitive parameters of interpretation (categorization) of the content turn out to be intrinsic of cognition for the processes of forming and interpreting the constructions.
Research Methods
To pursue such a goal as conceptual schemes of referent object and scenes a variety of instruments can be applicable, but first of all linguist's intuition and introspection, which have been adopted in Cognitive Linguistics and Construction Grammar probably on a unanimous vote. The conceptual analysis as is well-understood is semantic in its core, so analyzing the lexical and grammatical meaning of construction elements manifests semantic methods. The collocation of construction components is revealed and judged within the collocational analysis. CxG inherits the still used Generative Grammar techniques of analyzing semantic-syntactic correspondence employing decomposing surface and deep structures as underlying the real utterances (Hanink, 2018; Singh, 2018).
Within the domain of constructional grammar approach to revealing cognition in a language, there are several principles developed to set the definition of a construction: a) the symbolism postulate (as lingual signs constructions have a form-content correlation) (Croft & Sutton, 2016); b) the inclusion postulate (constructions form relationship kinds: 'element – construction' and 'element – element' (Zeller, 2018); c) the semantic idiomaticity postulate (the semantics of a construction is not compositional: a construction meaning is fully motivated by its components) (Fillmore, Kay, & O’Connor, 1988; Kay & Michaelis, 2019); d) categorization postulate (in cognitive view a construction is a construal of the referent scene, as it provides interpretation of reality and builds its categorization) (Rakhilina & Testelets, 2016).
Findings
In the analyzed corpus of various English structures quite a number belong to constructions, including, first of all, analytical and semi-analytical structures with verbals (infinitives, gerunds, and participles) denoting perceived or caused activities: “complex object” construction (
This idea brings in an oppositional technique: constructions can be revealed in oppositions of structurally identical lingual expressions displaying different categorization results, for example,
Existential sentence pattern organizes a polynominal opposition of semantic frames – it can produce a scale of construal frames differing in degrees of abstraction:
N-Adj constructions conceptualize different parameters of objects and substances such as quality and quantity: the construction
Categorization can be formed in a context that adds to interpretation relevant parameters for categorizing referent scenes, e.g.
It should be reiterated after Rakhilina and Testelets (2016) that constructions as lingual signs possess both formal and meaningful parts, and they both are compositional, but for a construction, it is enough to have one of them – either expression plan or the content plan – to be idiomatic, i.e. not derived from the meaning or form of the components. The syncretism of various meanings expressed in one form is a fairly frequent phenomenon that has long been the subject of linguistic analysis, which provides strong bias for interpreting the entire conceptual structure that is costrued as a result of nomination of a certain referent scene – state of affairs, events, movement, etc. requiring extensive knowledge or a developed world view and volumes of language knowledge. One cannot but think about the continuity of thought in theoretical framework in this area of cognitive grammar, because the study of constructions necessarily evokes widely-known lingual phenomena as well as techniques and approaches in treating them, for example, understanding polysemy, ambiguity and uncertainty (vagueness) both at the level of vocabulary and grammatical structures, which after Noam Chomsky, John Lyons and Ronald Langacker have already become hackneyed textbook-familiar examples of how the conditionality of construction meaning is manifested in the fact that interpreting lingual expressions depends on the speaker’s knowledge of both described events – referent scenes, and the linguistic means that are available in the language to express them. Let us see some examples. A sentence
Conclusion
The rise of the role of grammatical constructions in explaining the mechanics of such a structurally-based language as English (owing to its typologically prominent highly analytical and isolating features) is probably triggered by the fact that language units at the systemic-paradigmatic level, as noted by Novella Kobrina (1981), are characterized by the incompleteness of their meaning, it is in a certain sense relational (or relative) – both grammatically and lexically. Only due to overwhelming interaction and interpenetration of all parts of the language system in its functioning, can virtually infinite meaning domains be expressed (p.30). As is stated in the research of interpretative function of the language, the role of language units in performing cognitive, communicative, and interpretative functions (Boldyrev, 2019) is associated not with their systemic-paradigmatic status, but rather with their use in the processes of representing knowledge, building communication, in the acts of interpreting the meanings expressed by language means “in solidarity” with each other. We feel obliged to indicate after the research highlighted in this article one more interpretational task that is served by lingual units – they are means of construing categories of referent scenes as being results of cognition about the extra-lingual world. This idea is a true confirmation of F. de Saussure’s theory that the leading role in the language belongs to its structural organization by which he understood the totality of all relations, ties, and connections between the units of the language. This undeniable conception is further elaborated by understanding the mechanics of a language as a certain continuum of language means in their use in which all connections and relations between levels and units are continuously updated thus integrating meanings and functions in lingual units and constructions. The very nature of the language manifests itself as a dynamic, functional system imbued by specific lingual “creativity”, i.e. the ability to adapt old means to new goals (Boldyrev, 2019; Kobrina, 1981).
To conclude, we would like to emphasize that the Construction Grammar (CxG) in cognitive perspective is aimed at identifying the path from the form to its content in the process of interpreting language expressions, the path lies in the field of cognitive semantics, revealing the relevant parameters for conceptualizing and categorizing referent scenes in grammatical constructions, i.e. in the area of identifying knowledge represented in the constructions.
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03 August 2020
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Cite this article as:
Kolesov, I. Y. (2020). Cognitive Perspective In Construction Grammar Analysis Of English Constructions. In N. L. Amiryanovna (Ed.), Word, Utterance, Text: Cognitive, Pragmatic and Cultural Aspects, vol 86. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 693-699). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2020.08.82