A corpus-based investigation of cognate object constructions
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Silke Höche
Abstract
This paper takes up a corpus-based discussion of so-called Cognate Object Constructions (COC) (as exemplified in He slept a deep and dreamless sleep), carried out within the framework of Cognitive Linguistics (CL). This paradigm has recently become criticized for promoting a usage-based approach to language but falling short of wide-ranging applications of empirical methods such as corpus investigations and the thorough analysis of retrieved data using elaborate statistical methods. Our study, in which we introduce COCs as a family of related constructions, presents and discusses the results of an investigation of the pattern as recorded in the British National Corpus (BNC). More than 3,100 instances of COCs could be extracted, which were carefully examined and interpreted by means of a collostructional analysis, a statistical procedure developed by Stefanowitsch and Gries (2003). Different types of the construction will be described, with an attempt to arrange these in a usage-based network of constructions, incorporating the data obtained from our statistical analysis. The network comprises information of different levels of abstraction, ranging from abstract, high-level schemas to low-level, lexically filled patterns (idioms, set phrases).
Abstract
This paper takes up a corpus-based discussion of so-called Cognate Object Constructions (COC) (as exemplified in He slept a deep and dreamless sleep), carried out within the framework of Cognitive Linguistics (CL). This paradigm has recently become criticized for promoting a usage-based approach to language but falling short of wide-ranging applications of empirical methods such as corpus investigations and the thorough analysis of retrieved data using elaborate statistical methods. Our study, in which we introduce COCs as a family of related constructions, presents and discusses the results of an investigation of the pattern as recorded in the British National Corpus (BNC). More than 3,100 instances of COCs could be extracted, which were carefully examined and interpreted by means of a collostructional analysis, a statistical procedure developed by Stefanowitsch and Gries (2003). Different types of the construction will be described, with an attempt to arrange these in a usage-based network of constructions, incorporating the data obtained from our statistical analysis. The network comprises information of different levels of abstraction, ranging from abstract, high-level schemas to low-level, lexically filled patterns (idioms, set phrases).
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
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Part I. Setting the scene
- Technology and phraseology 15
- Corpus-driven approaches to grammar 33
- Valency – item-specificity and idiom principle 49
- Fowler’s Modern English Usage at the interface of lexis and grammar 69
- The psycholinguistic reality of collocation and semantic prosody (1) 89
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Part II. Considering the particulars
- The lexicogrammar of present-day Indian English 117
- The semantic and grammatical overlap of as and that 137
- The historical development of the verb doubt and its various patterns of complementation 153
- The grammatical properties of recurrent phrases with body-part nouns 171
- A corpus-based investigation of cognate object constructions 189
- Revisiting the evidence for objects in English 211
- Lexico-functional categories and complex collocations 229
- Polysemy and lexical priming 247
- Local textual functions of move in newspaper story patterns 265
- Loud signatures 289
- Index 317
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Setting the scene
- Technology and phraseology 15
- Corpus-driven approaches to grammar 33
- Valency – item-specificity and idiom principle 49
- Fowler’s Modern English Usage at the interface of lexis and grammar 69
- The psycholinguistic reality of collocation and semantic prosody (1) 89
-
Part II. Considering the particulars
- The lexicogrammar of present-day Indian English 117
- The semantic and grammatical overlap of as and that 137
- The historical development of the verb doubt and its various patterns of complementation 153
- The grammatical properties of recurrent phrases with body-part nouns 171
- A corpus-based investigation of cognate object constructions 189
- Revisiting the evidence for objects in English 211
- Lexico-functional categories and complex collocations 229
- Polysemy and lexical priming 247
- Local textual functions of move in newspaper story patterns 265
- Loud signatures 289
- Index 317
