Volume 5, Issue 1

In German talk-in-interaction it can be observed that so-called loose appositions are frequently used as a grammatical resource for performing selfinitiated self-repairs in the domain of reference. In the current paper, it is argued that this kind of appositional pattern can be described as a grammatical construction which indicates that the incorporated grammatical elements give alternative ‘reference instructions’ for building up compatible conceptualizations of one and the same entity with respect to different epistemic domains. Thereby it offers the possibility to incrementally adjust the design of reference instructions to divergent knowledge states of the interlocutors. The use of appositional constructions is thus frequently linked to aspects of epistemic stance regarding a lack of common ground. Hence, it is argued that aspects of the local management of epistemic asymmetries can be considered part of the pragmatic specifications of the construction. These specifications are sometimes made explicit through the use of lexical markers like also ‘that is’ so that the extended pattern which contains such markers might be called a metapragmatic construction.

Topicalization refers to the sentence-initial placement of constituents other than the subject (see, e.g., Lambrecht 1994; Birner & Ward 2009) and has recently gained more attention in particular with regard to its frequency, forms, and functions in L2 and learner varieties of English (cf. Lange 2012; Winkle 2015; Leuckert 2017). Specific interactional needs, such as the intention of establishing topic continuity in the discourse, may motivate speakers to deviate from the canonical SVX pattern of English sentences. Furthermore, speakers may choose to emphasize or contrast information which has not previously been mentioned in the discourse. Therefore, this paper argues that cognitive, pragmatic, emotiveaffective, and social factors (cf. Schmid 2016) all play an important role for topicalization, but certain communicative goals may lead to speakers ignoring the cognitive status of information by topicalizing brand-new or unused information. Furthermore, it is shown in this paper that topicalized constituents which serve to create topic continuity (and are, therefore, highly salient in the discourse) tend to persist longer in the subsequent discourse than topicalized constituents which serve other discourse functions.

Based on large annotated corpora of German live commentary reports on football games and cycling races, this paper analyses the varying linguistic means of encoding motion from the perspective of cognitive semantics. We start from the observation that in football adpositional constructions in the accusative case with directional meaning prevail, e.g. in den Strafraum (‘into the box’). As opposed to football, in cycling text commentaries motion tends to be encoded by adpositional constructions in the dative case with locative meaning, e.g. an der Spitze des Hauptfeldes (‘at the top of the peloton’). We argue that in cycle racing motion is usually profiled as position. These findings can be explained with regard to the different perspectives taken by the camera that allow the spectators to take vectorial, hodological or birds-eye-perspectives on the actual event. Hence, the conveyed images induce different viewing arrangements as is known from cognitive semantics’ stage analogy. These arrangements are reflected linguistically in specific construals presenting the ways of conceiving the various frames of moving actors in football games and cycling races.

This contribution focuses on the close link between perception and language. The analysis will extend beyond morphological evidence to include the role of submorphological relics. It will also raise the question of whether sensorimotor and submorphemic knowledge might have an impact on political discussion. In short, this paper seeks to tackle the question: How aware are we that words and sounds in general and in political discourse in particular are never ‘innocent’?

Downtoning meanings in German are not only expressed by means of verbal elements such as modal particles, but also at the gestural level. This paper presents the results of a first study showing that these downtoning gestures in German show interesting correspondences with the downtoning patterns in German Sign Language, both from a formal perspective (which forms are used with which functions) and at the topological level (at which point in the sentence the markers are realized and which words/signs they accompany).

In the German-speaking part of Switzerland, people use Swiss German and High German side by side in their daily life. This situation gives rise to various attitudes towards both of these two varieties. Interestingly, some of these attitudes seem to be partly in conflict. The aim of this paper is to show that these attitudes are not necessarily conflicted but rather that such attitudes normally have a multidimensional character. Multidimensional attitudes can be traced back to multidimensional mental models on which people naturally draw. In applying Berthele’s (2010) cluster model, which combines Geeraerts’s (2003) rationalist and romantic models for standardization, the paper illustrates, based on a recent study, which mental models have to be operative to conceptualize the complex frames of the two varieties in use. Additionally, recent shifts in the attitudinal climate in Switzerland indicate that these cognitive cultural models are not static but are subject to dynamic processes.

This paper discusses changes of lexicographic traditions with respect to approaches to meaning descriptions towards more cognitive perspectives. I will uncover how cognitive aspects can be incorporated into meaning descriptions based on corpus-driven analysis. The new German Online dictionary “Paronyme − Dynamisch im Kontrast” (Storjohann 2014; 2016) is concerned with easily confused words such as effektiv/effizient, sensibel/sensitiv. It is currently in the process of being developed and it aims at adopting a more conceptual and encyclopaedic approach to meaning by incorporating cognitive features. As a corpus-guided reference work it strives to adequately reflect ideas such as conceptual structure, categorisation and knowledge. Contrastive entries emphasise aspects of usage, comparing conceptual categories and indicate the (metonymic) mapping of knowledge. Adaptable access to lexicographic details and variable search options offer different foci and perspectives on linguistic information, and authentic examples reflect prototypical structures. Some of the cognitive features are demonstrated with the help of examples. Firstly, I will outline how patterns of usage imply conceptual categories as central ideas instead of sufficiently logical criteria of semantic distinction. In this way, linguistic findings correlate better with how users conceptualise language. Secondly, it is pointed out how collocates are treated as family members and fillers in contexts. Thirdly, I will demonstrate how contextual structure and functions are included summarising referential information. Details are drawn from corpus data, they are usage-based linguistic patterns illustrating conversational interaction and semantic negotiations in contemporary public discourse. Finally, I will outline consultation routines which activate different facets of structural knowledge, e.g. through changes of the ordering of information or through the visualisation of semantic networks.

This paper reports the results of a quantitative contrastive study of English and German in the area of syntactic vs. semantic concord - the agreement of number of subject and verb if the subject is semantically plural but syntactically singular. Based on English and German newspaper corpora, I look at constructions with quantifying nouns of the form [a number/bunch/heap of N PL ] and their German equivalents [ein(e) Reihe/Menge/Haufen von N PL ]. I show that there is variation in both languages, and the influencing factors are the same in both languages. Semantic motivation could explain the variation in German, however, it does not hold for English. Based on these results, I argue for more careful propositions on semantic motivations even if cognitively plausible, and instead more contrastive work that can bring to light language specific differences in the construal of semantic categories such as number.

This article addresses the morphological constraint on the ‘formulaic frame’ be-sure-and-v (Be sure and wear flowers in your hair!), whose idiomatic reading disappears in inflected uses (*She was sure and wore flower in her hair). This constraint also applies to certain verbal patterns (go/come-v, try-and-v) and is at least probabilistic for others (wait and see, go-and-v). A recent usagebased approach suggests that the so-called Bare Stem Condition follows from the semantics of the affected patterns, which are schematically non-assertive and thus functionally inappropriate for use in inflected, assertive environments. The same can be shown to apply to hortative be-sure-and-v, suggesting that the morphological behaviour of both verbal and adjectival pseudo-coordination have the same underlying functional-semantic constraint motivation. Supporting evidence comes from the status of be-sure-and-v relative to instantiations of the pattern: rather than being an idiosyncratic, isolated idiom, be-sure-and-v is a subtype of a moderately productive be-adj-and-v construction (be honest and admit, be patient and wait). Be-adj-and-v shows many of the characteristics of other pseudo-coordinated constructions, including the combination of semantically coherent slots fillers (flexible-adapt, glad-rejoice) and the asymmetric framing of single events. Methodologically, the article showcases how Collostructional Analyses can be used as diagnostic tools to identify (sub)types and slot-filler consistency in a bottom-up fashion, separating schema instantiations from syntagmatic ‘noise’ (i.e., the compositional adjectival predicate, My raspberries are ripe and taste delicious). Thus, the method identifies (and confirms) be-sure-and-v as the morphological, semantic, and statistical prototype of the more general schema.

This paper contributes to the development of collostructional analysis by taking up one of the long-standing issues in collostructional analysis, viz. the assessment and interpretation of the collexeme lists created. It uses the DWDS corpus documenting 20th century written German to study two modalverb constructions which contain either vermögen or bekommen as the first verb plus an infinitive. When expressing ‘possibility’/‘capability’, these constructions compete with the ubiquitous and strongly grammaticalized könnenconstruction. To compare their constructional semantics, the paper combines collostructional analyses with a close investigation of the verbal meanings characterizing their V inf slots. To classify the collexemes occurring in these slots comprehensively, the semantic information provided about each V inf collexeme by “GermaNet” is utilized in three different ways: A manual, context-sensitive classification of the top collexemes into the 15 generic verb classes provided by GermaNet is followed by cluster analyses over the semantic-relatedness values given out by the SemRel tool of GermaNet for the pairwise comparison of all possible collexeme combinations. This is complemented by a network analysis identifying collexemes that are salient or “central”, i.e. located on the largest number of “shortest paths” connecting any two collexemes. The implications of the results for the functional differential between the two constructions as well as the methodology itself are discussed.

Most decompositional approaches are confined to representing event structural properties whereas the idiosyncratic lexical content is often reduced to an unanalyzed atomic root. While approaches of this type are successfully applied to argument linking and some additional grammatical phenomena, we argue that other grammatically relevant aspects of verb behavior cannot be accounted for in this way. In order to illustrate the limits of ‘traditional’ decompositional accounts, we focus on the class of verbs of emission. Verbs of this class exhibit some grammatical asymmetries whose analysis requires lexical decomposition beyond traditional event structure templates. We argue that frames are a suitable format for extending event structure templates and provide an analysis of the phenomena at issue.

The present article explores the Lithuanian aspectual prefix be- from a cognitive perspective while building on the generative syntactic approach to be- as a superlexical prefix. The prefix be- is peculiar in that, while being able to stack on lower, the so-called lexical, prefixes, it is used to form a number of constructions, most notably those with continuative, prospective, or modality readings. In addition, it forms two separable compound prefixes, the continuative tebe- and discontinuative nebe-. Building on previous cognitive examinations of the English progressive and Slavic prefixation and incorporating the Ontological Semantic inventory of modalities, the prefix is approached in light of the Figure/ Ground distinction as well as the notion of epistemicity. The article focuses on the relationship holding between the prefix and modality-shaded meanings.