Volume 36, Issue 4

Language comprehension involves simulating event representations. However, previous research has primarily focused on discrete linguistic cues, paying little attention to how syntactic constructions influence experiential simulations. This study examines Mandarin Chinese ditransitive sentences that imply either of two transfer directions of entities: “giving” (transfer from the subject to the indirect object) and “receiving” (transfer from the indirect object to the subject). We engaged native Chinese participants in saccadic tasks in which they read ditransitive or static existential prime sentences (the preceding sentence), and then performed a target word (the following word) identification task. Experiments 1 and 2 investigated whether entity transfers in different directions are simulated. Results showed that participants responded faster when the transfer direction of the ditransitive prime sentences matched the location of the target object nouns, whereas no such difference was observed after static existential prime sentences. Experiment 3 replicated this pattern using pseudo-verb ditransitive constructions, indicating that simulation effects operate beyond specific verb semantics. These findings suggest that ditransitive constructions systematically trigger mental simulations with spatial specificity, activating implicit directional processing that facilitates identification processes for spatially congruent targets. Our study sheds light on how constructional meanings learned through usage activate embodied cognition in language comprehension.

This study analyzes the English comparative alternation (morphological prouder and periphrastic more proud ) with regard to adjective-specific variability. Substantial empirical evidence indicates that speakers redundantly represent both abstract schemas (e.g., ADJ +  -er ) and their specific instantiations (e.g., prouder ) as symbolic units, which together constitute a network of constructions at different levels of schematicity. Against this background, we offer a re-analysis of data from (Hilpert, Martin. 2008. The English comparative - Language structure and use. English Language & Linguistics 12(3). 395–417), which yields new results on the basis of a mixed-effects (multi-level) model that incorporates individual adjectives as random effects. The results demonstrate robust lexical idiosyncrasies in this alternation. First, many adjectives exhibit tendencies that deviate from the general conditioning factors incorporated as fixed effects. Furthermore, frequency of adjectives in comparative forms positively correlates with the degree of skewness. In other words, the more an adjective is used in comparative forms, the stronger its preference becomes, regardless of the direction of the preference. These findings support the idea that competition between linguistic forms occurs across different levels of schematicity: at the schematic level, the competition between variants is governed by probabilistic factors, while at the lexically specific level, the conventionalization of concrete forms can override these factors.

Repeated comparatives joined by the conjunction and (for instance more and more , bigger and bigger , etc.) are used to express a gradually increasing/decreasing degree of quality or quantity. The repetition in these phrases reveals an even higher/lower degree of the quality or quantity than with a single comparative form. The aim of this study is to determine whether this gradation is associated with specific gesture sequences, whether the progressive aspect inherent in the construction’s semantics is also expressed in the verb of the clause or in gesture, and finally whether the semantic prominence expressed in the phrase finds a correlation with prosodic emphasis or emphasis marked with the use of bodily behaviour like head and eyebrow movements. In the perspective of CxG, the study aims at exploring whether these forms are entrenched in usage as multimodal constructions and how speakers express gradation in space. Results show that although gestures and prosodic emphasis are not frequent enough to consider [ COMP 1 and COMP 1] as a multimodal construction, some gesture patterns are certainly more frequent than others, especially the use of iconic gestures in sequences that match the verbal repetition of the comparative.

Synonymy avoidance has been a recent topic of theoretical contention in Construction Grammar. This paper defines, unpacks, and models the ‘principle of no equivalence’ previously sketched by Leclercq, Benoît & Cameron Morin. 2023. No equivalence: A new principle of no synonymy. Constructions 15. 1–16 to better account for this phenomenon of linguistic knowledge and use. First, we detail three domains of constructional function covered by the principle, namely semantic, pragmatic, and social meaning. We then delineate the scope of the principle as onomasiological usage competitions between syntagmatically interchangeable constructions. Following this, we computationally demonstrate the validity and accuracy of the principle in an agent-based simulation. In particular, we show that only two linguistic maxims, optimal expressivity and usage affecting grammar, are sufficient minimal conditions for the consistent emergence of no equivalence in a community of agents. We conclude on the generalisability of our results and the desirability of sophisticated computational methods for the sharpening of core tenets in theories of language such as Construction Grammar.

This study investigates metaphorical motion in modern Arabic fiction (1970–2022) to understand how motion verbs are selected and realized in abstract conceptual domains. While Arabic is traditionally classified as a verb-framed language, typically encoding path over manner, the research explores whether this typological tendency holds true for figurative language. Drawing on a 1.6-million-word corpus and integrating Talmy’s typology with a structurally enriched Conceptual Metaphor Theory, the study analyzes the distribution of manner and non-manner verbs across conceptual domains, metaphorical mappings, and underlying structural features like image schemas and experiential grounding. Findings reveal that while abstract domains (e.g., Time, Death) favor schematic, path-only expressions, sensorimotor domains (e.g., Physical Sensation, Emotion) frequently employ vivid, manner-rich verbs, especially for agentive or affectively salient metaphorical figures. Crucially, metaphorical mappings and their internal conceptual architecture – including image schema, figure–ground alignment, and experiential grounding – prove to be stronger predictors of verb choice than grammatical typology alone. This suggests that typological constraints can be overridden by the metaphor’s conceptual structure, particularly in metaphor-rich literary discourse. The study advocates for a shift from typological essentialism towards a cognitively informed model where metaphor structure primarily shapes motion rendering.