Volume 50, Issue 2 - Special Issue: From methodology back to theory – How does corpus-based research feed back into functional linguistic theories?, Guest editors: Małgorzata Fabiszak, Martin Hilpert and Karolina Krawczak

Usage-based linguistics abounds with studies that use statistical classification models to analyze either textual corpus data or behavioral experimental data. Yet, before we can draw conclusions from statistical models of empirical data that we can feed back into cognitive linguistic theory, we need to assess whether the text-based models are cognitively plausible and whether the behavior-based models are linguistically accurate. In this paper, we review four case studies that evaluate statistical classification models of richly annotated linguistic data by explicitly comparing the performance of a corpus-based model to the behavior of native speakers. The data come from four different languages (Arabic, English, Estonian, and Russian) and pertain to both lexical as well as syntactic near-synonymy. We show that behavioral evidence is needed in order to fine tune and improve statistical models built on data from a corpus. We argue that methodological pluralism is the key for a cognitively realistic linguistic theory.

Sentence-internal capitalization of nouns is a characteristic of written Standard German. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have been identified as the crucial period for the development of this graphemic convention. Previous studies have shown that animacy played a major role in the spread of sentence-internal capitalization. On the basis of the transregional SiGS-corpus consisting of 18 protocols of witch trials (hand-)written between 1588 and 1630, we propose word frequency as an additional factor and test for its interaction with animacy. Our data reveal that the proportion of capitalized words denoting humans and animate concepts increases rapidly, while the capitalization of lexemes referring to concrete and abstract concepts remains stable at a lower level. A binomial mixed-effects model shows a highly significant effect of frequency and a significant interaction between frequency and animacy. In sum, our data show how cognitive, pragmatic, and usage factors conspire in the gradual emergence of a graphemic convention. We therefore argue that the previously neglected graphemic dimension can add important insights to an empirically based theory of the language-cognition interface.

This study addresses the methodological problem of result falsification in Cognitive Semantics, specifically in the descriptive analysis of semasiological variation, or “polysemy”. It argues that manually analysed corpus data can be used to describe models of semantic structure. The method proposed is quantified, permitting repeat analysis. The operationalisation of a semasiological structure employed in the study takes the principle of semantic features and applies them to a contextual analysis of usage-events, associated with the lexeme under scrutiny. The feature analysis, repeated on a large collection of occurrences, results in a set of metadata that constitutes the usage-profile of the lexeme. Multivariate statistics are then employed to identify patterns in those metadata. The case study examines 500 occurrences of the English lexeme annoy . Three basic senses are identified as well as a more complex array of semantic variations linked to morpho-syntactic context of usage.

The present study approaches the Spanish postposed constructions creo Ø and creo yo ‘[p], [I] think’ from a cognitive-constructionist perspective. It is argued that both constructions are to be distinguished from one another because creo Ø has a subjective function, while in creo yo , it is the intersubjective dimension that is particularly prominent. The present investigation takes both a qualitative and a quantitative perspective. With regard to the latter, the problem of quantitative representativity is addressed. The discussion posed the question of how empirical research can feed back into theory, more precisely, into the framework of Cognitive Construction Grammar. The data to be analyzed here are retrieved from the corpora Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual and Corpus del Español .

This corpus-based study investigates the complementation patterns of mental predicates in a cross-linguistic context. More precisely, it examines five equivalent mental verbs from English, German, and Polish and analyzes whether their complements are cognitively construed in different ways in first-person uses of those verbs as opposed to third-person uses. Two types of complementation are considered: we contrast nominal complements with clausal complements. Based on the results of prior studies into Polish myśleć ‘think’ and wierzyć ‘believe’, we hypothesize that first-person singular occurrences of mental predicates will be more readily associated with clausal complements designating non-bounded and non-picturable objects. Conversely, third-person uses of the verbs are expected to be linked to nominal complements that denote bounded and picturable objects. The hypotheses are tested with bivariate and multivariate quantitative techniques. Our results have both descriptive and theoretical implications. Descriptively, we aim to identify the differences in construing the complement of mental predicates, depending on the grammatical person of the syntactic subject. Theoretically, we provide empirical evidence that is relevant for the long-recognized distinction between performativity and descriptivity of mental verbs.

This paper investigates variation of lexical and analytic causatives in 15 European languages from the Germanic, Romance, and Slavic genera based on a multilingual parallel corpus of film subtitles. Using typological parameters of variation of causatives from the literature, this study tests which parameters are relevant for the choice between analytic and lexical causatives in the sample of languages. The main research question is whether the variation is constrained by one semantic dimension, namely, the conceptual integration of the causing and caused events, as suggested by previous research on iconicity in language, or whether several different semantic and syntactic factors are at play. To answer this question, I use an exploratory multivariate technique for categorical data (Multiple Correspondence Analysis with supplementary points) and conditional random forests, a nonparametric regression and classification method. The study demonstrates the importance of corpus data in testing typological hypotheses.

In this article, we introduce the effect of “constructional contamination”. In constructional contamination, a subset of the instances of a target construction deviate in their realization, due to a superficial resemblance they share with instances of a contaminating construction. We claim that this contaminating effect bears testimony to the hypothesis that language users do not always execute a full parse while interpreting and producing sentences. Instead, they may rely on what has been called “shallow parsing”, i. e., chunking the utterances into large, unanalyzed exemplars that may extend across constituent borders. We propose several measures to quantify constructional contamination in corpus data. To evaluate these measures, the Dutch partitive genitive is taken under scrutiny as a target construction of constructional contamination. In this case study, it is shown that neighboring constructions play a crucial role in determining the presence or absence of the -s suffix among instances of the partitive genitive. The different measures themselves, however, are not construction-specific, and can readily be used to track constructional contamination in other case studies as well.

This paper presents the results of a project designed to functionally test the mutual intelligibility of spoken Maltese, Tunisian Arabic, and Benghazi Libyan Arabic. We compiled an audio-based intelligibility test consisting of three components: a word test where the respondents were asked to perform a semantic classification task with 11 semantic categories, a sentence test where the task was to provide a translation of a sentence into the respondent’s native language, and a text test where a short text was listened to twice and the respondents were asked to answer 8 multiple-choice questions. Data were collected from 24 respondents in Malta, Tunis, and Benghazi. It was found that there exists asymmetric mutual intelligibility between the two mainstream varieties of Maġribī Arabic and Maltese, with speakers of Tunisian and Libyan Arabic able to understand about 40 % of what is being said to them in Maltese, against about 30 % for speakers of Maltese exposed to either variety of Arabic. Additionally, it was found that Tunisian Arabic has the highest level of mutual intelligibility with either of the other two varieties. Combining the intelligibility scores with comparative linguistic data, we were able to sketch out the phonological variables involved in enabling and inhibiting mutual intelligibility for all three varieties of Arabic and set the stage for further research into the subject.

This paper shows that non-nominal constituents can have intermediate information status (i. e., be neither given nor new ). The main idea is that the state denoted by an adjectival secondary predicate can already be evoked by an event denoted by a verb from the preceding context – similar to bridging cases in the nominal domain. For example, the event cry can evoke the state sad just as the event drive can evoke the referent driver . It will be shown that the intermediate information status of secondary predicates can have a perceivable linguistic reflex, namely in the felicitous and infelicitous use of (Spanish) secondary predicates in adversatives. In addition, two ways will be discussed in which the intermediate information status can come about ( activation and construal ), and it will be shown that both ways apply to nominal and non-nominal constituents alike.

This paper presents data from a quantitative survey based on 746 written questionnaires and 23 semi-structured interviews. The main purpose of the study was to measure Southern Min and Mandarin lower domain language use among a cross-section of Taiwan’s multilingual population. As organizing elements for our discussion of Taiwan’s current language situation, we made use of Sridhar’s notion of societal multilingualism as well as Ó Riagáin’s idea that the home is possibly the first domain to exhibit language shift. This study followed Ó Riagáin by focusing our research on lower domain language use as well as relevant political determinants. We investigated whether Southern Min speakers tend to prefer a Taiwanese rather than Chinese identity, and whether the Taiwanese link their language choice to age, gender, and region of origin. Political improvements in Taiwan for the past two decades did enable the Taiwanese to compete with the Mainlanders who moved to Taiwan and they now have a stronger case to promote the status of Southern Min and maintain it. Evidence of language shift was discovered: proficiency in Mandarin by the Taiwanese is increasing, while that in Southern Min is decreasing. It is predicted that this language shift will continue, but that the attitudes held by Taiwanese toward their ethnic identity might slow down such a process considerably.