Exploring the pedagogical potential of vertical and horizontal relations in the constructicon:The case of the family of subjective-transitive constructions with decir in Spanish
-
Francisco Gonzálvez-García
Abstract
This paper explores the pedagogical implications and implementations of a Cognitive Construction Grammar (Goldberg, Adele E. 2006. Constructions at work: The nature of generalization in language. New York: Oxford University Press) approach for the teaching of construal in the L2 class of Spanish at an advanced level. To this end, this paper focuses on instances of secondary predication (involving a direct object and an object-related XPCOMP) with decir “say” and other verbs of saying and calling in present-day Spanish, under the rubric of the denominative subjective-transitive construction. This construction comprises a number of lower-level configurations involving a reflexive direct object (the reflexive subjective-transitive construction), and an imperative verb (the imperative subjective-transitive construction). The verb decir is also frequently attested in the reflex passive construction (the impersonal subjective-transitive construction), under which two different, though closely connected, lexically-filled lo que se dice XPCOMP configurations can be posited, which may function as a focusing/emphasizer subjunct or as a summative conjunct in present-day Spanish. A default inheritance system of the type invoked in Cognitive Construction Grammar is shown to capture broad and specific generalizations at a horizontal level (among the verbs attested in the (sub-)construction(s)) and a vertical level (among constructions of varying degrees of specificity) and can thus be informally used to optimize the pedagogical efficiency of the input for the explicit instruction of grammar in the advanced Spanish L2 class.
Acknowledgements
Financial support from research project FFI2017-82730-P funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness is gratefully acknowledged. I would like to thank Francisco José Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, Christopher Butler, as well as the editors of the volume for their constructive criticism on a previous draft. Any remaining weakness is, of course, my sole responsibility.
References
Achard, Michel. 2004. Grammatical instruction in the natural approach. In Michel Achard & Susanne Niemeier (eds.), Cognitive linguistics, second language acquisition and foreign language teaching (Studies on Language Acquisition 18), 165–194. Berlin & New York: Mouton De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110199857.165Suche in Google Scholar
Achard, Michel. 2008. Teaching construal: Cognitive pedagogical grammar. In Peter Robinson & Nick C. Ellis (eds.), Handbook of cognitive linguistics and second language acquisition, 432–455. New York: Routledge.Suche in Google Scholar
Bencini, Giulia & Adele Goldberg. 2000. The contribution of argument structure constructions to sentence meaning. Journal of Memory Language 43. 640–651.10.1006/jmla.2000.2757Suche in Google Scholar
Boers, Frank, Antoon De Rycker & Sabine De Knop. 2010. Fostering language teaching efficiency through cognitive linguistics. In Sabine De Knop, Frank Boers & Antoon De Rycker (eds.), Fostering language efficiency through cognitive linguistics, 1–26. Berlin & New York: Mouton De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110245837Suche in Google Scholar
Butler, Christopher S. & Francisco Gonzálvez-García. 2014. Exploring functional-cognitive space. (Studies in Language Companion Series 157). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/slcs.157Suche in Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan & Rena Torres Cacoullos. 2009. The role of prefabs in grammaticization. In Roberta Corrigan, Edith A. Moravcsik, Hamid Ouali & Kathleen Wheatley (eds.), Formulaic language: Distribution and historical change, 187–218. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/tsl.82.09theSuche in Google Scholar
Cadierno, Teresa & Alberto Hijazo-Gascón. 2013. Cognitive Linguistics approaches to second language Spanish. In Kimberly L. Geeslin (ed.), The handbook of Spanish second language acquisition, 96–110. West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell.10.1002/9781118584347.ch6Suche in Google Scholar
Cappelle, Bert & Natalia Grabar. 2016. Towards an n-grammar of English. In Sabine De Knop & Gaetanelle Gilquin (eds.), Applied construction grammar, 271–302. Berlin & New York: Mouton De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110458268-011Suche in Google Scholar
De Bot, Kees, Wander Lowie & Marjolijn Verspoor. 2005. Second language acquisition. An advanced resource book. London: Routledge.10.4324/9780203446416Suche in Google Scholar
De Knop, Sabine & Teun De Rycker. (eds.). 2008. Cognitive approaches to pedagogical grammar: A volume in honour of René Dirven. Berlin & New York: Mouton De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110205381Suche in Google Scholar
De Knop, Sabine & Gaetanelle Gilquin. (eds.). 2016. Applied construction grammar. Berlin & New York: Mouton De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110458268Suche in Google Scholar
Delbecque, Nicole. 2010. La alternancia “phi”/como en complementos predicativos con verbos de proceso mental: Una cuestión de ajuste focal. Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana 16. 49–77.Suche in Google Scholar
Doughty, Catherine J. 2003. Instructed SLA: Constraints, compensation and enhancement. In Chatherine J. Doughty & Michael Long (eds.), The handbook of second language acquisition, 256–330. Malde, MA: Blackwell.10.1002/9780470756492.ch10Suche in Google Scholar
Eddington, David & Francisco J. Ruiz de Mendoza. 2010. Argument constructions and language processing: Evidence from a priming experiment and pedagogical implications. In Sabine De Knop, Frank Boers & Antoon De Rycker (eds.), Fostering language teaching efficiency through cognitive linguistics, 213–238. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110245837.213Suche in Google Scholar
Fuentes, Catalina. 1991. Adverbios de modalidad. Verba 18. 275–321.Suche in Google Scholar
Goldberg, Adele E. 1995. Constructions. A construction grammar approach to argument structure. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Goldberg, Adele E. 2006. Constructions at work: The nature of generalization in language. New York: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199268511.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar
Gonzálvez-García, Francisco. 2006. Passives without actives: Evidence from verbless complement constructions in Spanish. Constructions SV1-5/2006 1–60. https://journals.linguisticsociety.org/elanguage/constructions/article/view/2895.html (accessed 20 October 2017).Suche in Google Scholar
Gonzálvez-García, Francisco. 2008. The interaction between coercion and constructional polysemy: The case of verba dicendi et declarandi in secondary predication in English and Spanish. In María de los Ángeles Gómez González, J. Lachlan Mackenzie & Elsa M. González Álvarez (eds.), Current trends in contrastive linguistics: Functional and cognitive perspectives, 281–321. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/sfsl.60.16gonSuche in Google Scholar
Gonzálvez-García, Francisco. 2009. The family of object-related depictives in English and Spanish: Towards a usage-based, constructionist analysis. Language Sciences 31(5). 663–723.10.1016/j.langsci.2008.01.003Suche in Google Scholar
Gonzálvez-García, Francisco. 2010. Contrasting constructions in English and Spanish: The influence of semantic, pragmatic, and discourse factors. In Hans C. Boas (ed.), Studies in contrastive construction grammar (Constructional Approaches to Language 10), 43–86. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/cal.10.04gonSuche in Google Scholar
Gonzálvez-García, Francisco. 2015. Items and generalizations: Evidence from decir within the family of subjective-transitive constructions in Spanish. Journal of Social Sciences 11(3). 194–226.10.3844/jssp.2015.194.226Suche in Google Scholar
Herbst, Thomas. 2016. Foreign language learning is construction learning – What else? Moving towards Pedagogical Construction Grammar. In Sabine De Knop & Gaetanelle Gilquin (eds.), Applied construction grammar, 21–51. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110458268-003Suche in Google Scholar
Holme, Randal. 2010a. Construction grammars: Towards a pedagogical model. AILA Review 23. 115–133.10.1075/aila.23.07holSuche in Google Scholar
Holme, Randal. 2010b. A construction grammar for the classroom. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 48. 355–377.10.1515/iral.2010.015Suche in Google Scholar
Holme, Randal. 2012. Cognitive Linguistics and the second language classroom. Tesol Quarterly 46(1). 6–29.10.1002/tesq.5Suche in Google Scholar
Holme, Randal. 2015. ‘Someone to open each and every door’: Construction grammar as a learner grammar: The case of English indefinite pronouns. Journal of Social Sciences 11(3). 352–362.10.3844/jssp.2015.352.362Suche in Google Scholar
Lakoff, George. 1987. Women, fire, and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226471013.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar
Lakoff, George & Mark. Johnson. 1999. Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to western thought. New York: Basic Books.Suche in Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W. 1991. Foundations of cognitive grammar. vol. 2: Descriptive application. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W. 2000. A dynamic usage-based model. In Michael Barlow & Suzanne Kemmer (eds.), Usage-based models of language, 1–63. Stanford, California: CSLI Publications.Suche in Google Scholar
Littlemore, Jeanette. 2009. Applying cognitive linguistics to second language learning and teaching. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9780230245259Suche in Google Scholar
Llopis-García, Reyes. 2015. Las preposiciones y la metáfora del espacio: Aportaciones y potencial de la lingüística cognitiva para su enseñanza. Journal of Spanish Language Teaching 2(1). 51–68.10.1080/23247797.2015.1042214Suche in Google Scholar
Melguizo Moreno, Elizabeth. 2006. El Sr se y su extraña familia. Una aproximación cognitiva a la presentación de los usos de se en clase de E/LE. https://www.mecd.gob.es/educacion/mc/redele/biblioteca-virtual/numerosanteriores/2007/memoriamaster/1-trimestre/melguizo-m.html (accessed 10 November 2017).Suche in Google Scholar
Michaelis, Laura A. 2011. Stative by construction. Linguistics 49. 1359–1400.10.1515/ling.2011.038Suche in Google Scholar
Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech & Jan Svartvik. 1985. A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London: Longman.Suche in Google Scholar
Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, Francisco J. & María del Pilar Agustín Llach. 2016. Cognitive pedagogical grammar and meaning construction in L2. In Gaetanelle Gilquin & Sabine De Knop (eds.), Applied construction grammar, 149–184. Berlin & New York: Mouton De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110458268-007Suche in Google Scholar
Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, Francisco J. & Alicia Galera Masegosa. 2012. Lexical class and perspectivization constraints on subsumption in the lexical constructional model: The case of say verbs in English. Language Sciences 34(1). 54–64.10.1016/j.langsci.2011.06.017Suche in Google Scholar
Schiffrin, Deborah. 1987. Discourse markers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511611841Suche in Google Scholar
Sung, Minchang & Hyun-Kwon Yang. 2016. Effects of construction-centered instruction on Korean students’ learning of English transitive resultative constructions. In Gaetanelle Gilquin & Sabine De Knop (eds.), Applied construction grammar, 89–114. Berlin & New York: Mouton De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110458268-005Suche in Google Scholar
Valenzuela Manzanares, Javier & Ana M. Rojo López. 2008. What can language learners tell us about constructions? In Sabine De Knop & Teun De Rycker (eds.), Cognitive approaches to pedagogical grammar: A volume in honour of René Dirven, 197–230. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110205381.2.197Suche in Google Scholar
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Applied cognitive linguistics and foreign language learning. Introduction to the special issue
- Articles
- Description, acquisition and teaching of polysemous verbs: The case of quedar
- Mr Bean exits the garage driving or does he drive out of the garage? Bidirectional transfer in the expression of Path
- A cognitive approach to teaching deictic motion verbs to German and Italian students of Spanish
- “How to become a woman without turninginto a Barbie”: Change-of-state verbconstructions and their role in Spanish as a Foreign Language
- Exploring the pedagogical potential of vertical and horizontal relations in the constructicon:The case of the family of subjective-transitive constructions with decir in Spanish
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Applied cognitive linguistics and foreign language learning. Introduction to the special issue
- Articles
- Description, acquisition and teaching of polysemous verbs: The case of quedar
- Mr Bean exits the garage driving or does he drive out of the garage? Bidirectional transfer in the expression of Path
- A cognitive approach to teaching deictic motion verbs to German and Italian students of Spanish
- “How to become a woman without turninginto a Barbie”: Change-of-state verbconstructions and their role in Spanish as a Foreign Language
- Exploring the pedagogical potential of vertical and horizontal relations in the constructicon:The case of the family of subjective-transitive constructions with decir in Spanish
