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Meaning change in a petri dish: constructions, semantic vector spaces, and motion charts

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Published/Copyright: October 16, 2015
Linguistics Vanguard
From the journal Linguistics Vanguard Volume 1 Issue 1

Abstract

This paper explores how the visualization tool of motion charts can be used for the analysis of meaning change in linguistic constructions. In previous work, linguistic motion charts have been used to represent diachronic frequency trends and changes in the morphosyntactic behavior of linguistic units. The present paper builds on that work, but it shifts the focus to the study of semantic change. How can motion charts be used to visualize semantic change over time? In order to answer this question, we draw on semantic vector space modeling to visualize aspects of linguistic meaning. As an analogy to this approach, the title of this paper alludes to a petri dish in which the growth and development of biological microorganisms can be observed. On the basis of diachronic corpus data, we monitor developments in the semantic ecology of a construction. This allows us to observe processes such as semantic broadening, semantic narrowing, or semantic shift. We illustrate our approach on the basis of a case study that investigates the diachrony of an English construction that we call the ‘many a NOUN’ construction.

Keywords: corpus linguistics; semantic change; construction grammar; motion charts; semantic vector spaces

Funding statement: Funding: Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (SNF) (Grant/Award Number: 100015_149176/1).

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Received: 2015-6-15
Accepted: 2015-9-21
Published Online: 2015-10-16
Published in Print: 2015-12-1

©2015 by De Gruyter Mouton

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorials/From the Editors
  3. From the Drawing Board
  4. Phonetics & Phonology
  5. Can we use rendaku for phonological argumentation?
  6. Toward completely automated vowel extraction: Introducing DARLA
  7. Induced speech errors as a tool for language description: a case study from Xong “prenasalized consonants”
  8. Real-time articulatory biofeedback with electromagnetic articulography
  9. Allomorphs of French de in coordination: a reproducible study
  10. Morphology & Syntax
  11. Interactional Construction Grammar
  12. Evidence Based on a dynamic source: Database support for a theory of transitive reciprocals
  13. Three open questions in experimental syntax
  14. The complexity of inflectional systems
  15. Investigating “periphery” from a functionalist perspective
  16. Semantics & Pragmatics
  17. Language structure and social agency: Confirming polar questions in conversation
  18. What can historical linguistics and experimental pragmatics offer each other?
  19. Language Documentation & Typology
  20. Directionals, episodic structure, and geographic information systems: Area/punctual distinctions in Ahtna travel narration
  21. Hidden complexity – The neglected side of complexity and its implications
  22. Semantic typology: New approaches to crosslinguistic variation in language and cognition
  23. Psycholinguistics & Neurolinguistics
  24. Discovering prominence and its role in language processing: An individual (differences) approach
  25. The Influence of Word Retrieval and Planning on Phonetic Variation: Implications for Exemplar Models
  26. Language Acquisition & Language Learning
  27. Second language acquisition and linguistics: A bidirectional perspective
  28. Sociolinguistics & Anthropological Linguistics
  29. An end of egalitarianism? Social evaluations of language difference in New Zealand
  30. Sounding the depths at the confluence of numerosity and language
  31. Connecting linguistic variation and non-linguistic behaviour
  32. Extending ELAN into variationist sociolinguistics
  33. I think your going to like me: Exploring the role of errors in email messages on assessments of potential housemates
  34. Computational & Corpus Linguistics
  35. Data “big” and “small” – Examples from the Australian lexical database
  36. The importance of robust corpora in providing more realistic descriptions of variation in English grammar
  37. Historical Linguistics
  38. A minimalist approach to the emergence of ergativity in Austronesian languages
  39. Cognitive Linguistics
  40. What makes a metaphor an embodied metaphor?
  41. Meaning change in a petri dish: constructions, semantic vector spaces, and motion charts
https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2015-0013
Keywords for this article
corpus linguistics; semantic change; construction grammar; motion charts; semantic vector spaces

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorials/From the Editors
  3. From the Drawing Board
  4. Phonetics & Phonology
  5. Can we use rendaku for phonological argumentation?
  6. Toward completely automated vowel extraction: Introducing DARLA
  7. Induced speech errors as a tool for language description: a case study from Xong “prenasalized consonants”
  8. Real-time articulatory biofeedback with electromagnetic articulography
  9. Allomorphs of French de in coordination: a reproducible study
  10. Morphology & Syntax
  11. Interactional Construction Grammar
  12. Evidence Based on a dynamic source: Database support for a theory of transitive reciprocals
  13. Three open questions in experimental syntax
  14. The complexity of inflectional systems
  15. Investigating “periphery” from a functionalist perspective
  16. Semantics & Pragmatics
  17. Language structure and social agency: Confirming polar questions in conversation
  18. What can historical linguistics and experimental pragmatics offer each other?
  19. Language Documentation & Typology
  20. Directionals, episodic structure, and geographic information systems: Area/punctual distinctions in Ahtna travel narration
  21. Hidden complexity – The neglected side of complexity and its implications
  22. Semantic typology: New approaches to crosslinguistic variation in language and cognition
  23. Psycholinguistics & Neurolinguistics
  24. Discovering prominence and its role in language processing: An individual (differences) approach
  25. The Influence of Word Retrieval and Planning on Phonetic Variation: Implications for Exemplar Models
  26. Language Acquisition & Language Learning
  27. Second language acquisition and linguistics: A bidirectional perspective
  28. Sociolinguistics & Anthropological Linguistics
  29. An end of egalitarianism? Social evaluations of language difference in New Zealand
  30. Sounding the depths at the confluence of numerosity and language
  31. Connecting linguistic variation and non-linguistic behaviour
  32. Extending ELAN into variationist sociolinguistics
  33. I think your going to like me: Exploring the role of errors in email messages on assessments of potential housemates
  34. Computational & Corpus Linguistics
  35. Data “big” and “small” – Examples from the Australian lexical database
  36. The importance of robust corpora in providing more realistic descriptions of variation in English grammar
  37. Historical Linguistics
  38. A minimalist approach to the emergence of ergativity in Austronesian languages
  39. Cognitive Linguistics
  40. What makes a metaphor an embodied metaphor?
  41. Meaning change in a petri dish: constructions, semantic vector spaces, and motion charts
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