Volume 10, Issue s1 - Special Issue: What are alternations and how should we study them?; Guest Editors: Dirk Pijpops, Karlien Franco, Dirk Speelman, Freek Van de Velde

The research paradigm of alternation studies is forming an increasingly large share of the empirical foundations of usage-based linguistics. As the paradigm is essentially an amalgamation of research traditions from various subfields of linguistics, including sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, cognitive linguistics, and construction grammar, it sports various definitions of the concept of “alternation” and various ways of conducting an alternation study, which are not always compatible. The present special issue is therefore intended to bring researchers from various backgrounds in usage-based linguistics together to see how we can deal with these issues. This introduction first presents the various ways of defining an alternation and discusses the differences between them and how these definitions determine the methodological set-up of an alternation study. Next, the contributions to the special issue are each in turn summarized and related to one another.

Depending on the theory of language employed, the paradigmatic and lexical variation associated with a given composite form-meaning pair is treated in different ways. First, variation can be treated as independent of the constructional semantics, an approach typical of modular theories. Second, paradigmatic variation can be considered indicative of constructional semantics; its variation constituting networks of closely related families of constructions. This is a common approach in construction grammar. Third, there exists a trend in cognitive linguistics and construction grammar to treat grammatical constructions as non-discrete emergent clusters of many-to-many form-meaning mappings. This study explores the possibility of extending current methods for quantitatively modelling construction grammar to an approach that does not assume discrete grammatical constructions. The speaker choice examined consists of the English future constructions will and BE going to and their use in contemporary informal British English. The constructions are examined with the behavioural profile approach. Three different regression modelling methods are applied to the grammatical alternations, each operationalizing one of the theoretical assumptions. While the results show that all three approaches are feasible and comparable in predictive accuracy, model interpretation becomes increasingly difficult with added complexity.

The present paper investigates variation between nominal and prepositional adjuncts of time as in, for example, [ on ] that day, they left . The main goals are (i) to assess potential changes in the distribution of these variants in the history of English, specifically from Middle English to Late Modern English (1150–1914), and (ii) to test which factors most strongly impact the choice between the two variants, with a focus on the impact of different complexity measures. To address these questions, the paper makes use of data from the Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpora of Historical English (PPCME2; PPCEME; PPCMBE), explored by means of logistic regression modelling. The results suggest that there is no dramatic, sweeping change in this abstract alternation over time, but that this variation may mainly plays out on lower, noun-specific levels.

This study considers an approach to alternations in which constructions are understood as non-binary choices between non-discrete usage patterns. To these ends, it seeks to develop usage-based methods for the identification and description of constructions without presupposing their level of formal granularity. Instead of deciding a priori what level of granularity is best for making generalizations about grammatical structure, the study aims to integrate the dimension of taxonomic variation into the analysis by treating constructions as combinatory emergent patterns, rather than predetermined discrete objects. Using the behavioural profile approach, we examine a 12-way lexico-constructional choice in Polish arising from the combinatory possibilities of three paradigmatic relations: grammatical aspect (perfective vs. imperfective); grammatical prefix ( wy- , za- , na- ); and predicate choice from the semantic frame of “stuff-fill” (- pchać /- pychać ‘push’, - pełnić /- pełniać ‘fill’). We analyse the combinations in a sample of 765 examples extracted from the National Corpus of Polish. The results reveal patterns in the use of the prefix-aspect-verb composites, interpretable as speaker choice, and show how those combinatory patterns can be accounted for without the need for positing discrete alternations. Furthermore, although only exploratory, such results call into question the descriptive validity of the traditional grammatical alternation.

This paper investigates three morphosyntactic alternations in Estonian – those between the exterior locative cases allative, adessive, and ablative and the corresponding postpositions peale ‘onto’, peal ‘on’, and pealt ‘off’. It is assumed that the influence of different predictors on speakers’ choices will be relatively stable in terms of the direction of those predictors, but the strength of these will vary. For each alternation, a random sample of the two outcomes (case vs. postposition) from the Estonian National Corpus is used, resulting in a total of 3,000 data points. Using properties of the landmark phrase as independent variables in mixed-effects logistic regression models, the choice of postpositions over case-marked realizations is predicted. The models fitted to the data confirm that the direction of the eight predictors investigated is the same across the alternations, with freqRatio, lemma, and mobility making the most significant contribution to the fit of all three models. The study further shows that the two alternating pairs that have a higher global frequency in Estonian (allative ∼  peale and adessive ∼  peal ) behave in a similar way with respect to the predictors under study; the third, less frequent alternation (ablative ∼  pealt ), differs from the other two in terms of the number and type of predictors that make a significant contribution to the model fit.

Functional explanations of alternations often invoke semantic contrast between alternates. In some cases, however, new alternations may arise not to code contrast but simply because the grammar supports multiple roughly equivalent solutions to the same coding problem. Our study illustrates this by exploring the history of English prepositional phrase complements (PPCs) to mental predicates, with a special focus on about and at (as in everyone was enthusiastic about the project ). It is shown that about saw a dramatic extension in its use as a PPC marker, resulting in various new alternation contexts. These developments are concomitant to changes in the general semantic structure of about that resulted in stronger grammatical sanction to its use as a PPC marker. Compared to about , at has a far more stable semantic profile overall, contributing to greater stability in its use as a PPC marker as well. In other words, distributional changes in the system of PPCs, and the new alternations that arise as a result, are a side effect of changes in the overall semantic profiles of the prepositions used to mark PPCs.

Middle voice (MV) comprises a set of marked constructions associated with situation types (Kemmer 1993. The middle voice . Amsterdam: John Benjamins), in which the middle marker functions as an intransitivizer. MV constructions in Portuguese are se constructions in which the clitic se is typically overt, but in Brazilian Portuguese there is variation between constructions with and without the clitic marker. The overt-null variation is observed in all se construction types and it has been argued by Soares da Silva et al. (2021. Null se constructions in Brazilian and European Portuguese: Morphosyntactic deletion or emergence of new constructions? Cognitive Linguistics 32(1). 159–193) that differences in conceptualization of an event as “energetic” or “absolute” primarily drive the variation. This article focuses on the (re)configuration of the network of se constructions in light of the overt-null alternation. Given that the alternation is systematic for all types of se construction, we propose that both the marked and unmarked constructions are plotted onto the conceptual map of MV constructions. As to the introduction of the null variant in the taxonomy of se constructions, we argue that the overt-null variants are allostructions posited at lower levels of abstraction. We also hypothesize that the middle marker at the top node is underspecified for function, instantiated as an intransitivizer, or lexically defined at the immediate subordinate level.

This paper offers a new approach to the alternate use of Spanish hacerse ‘to make (reflexive)’ and volverse ‘to (re)turn (reflexive)’ to express a change of state. Hacerse and volverse belong to the core of the family of change-of-state verbs in Spanish and constitute a prime example of alternating forms. The aim is to evaluate the importance of the notion of construal as an explanation to alternation. We do this by testing one of the major explanations regarding the difference between hacerse and volverse , namely that of Delbecque and van Gorp (Delbecque, Nicole & Lise van Gorp. 2012. Hacerse y volverse como nexos pseudo-copulativos. Bulletin hispanique 114(1). 277–306, Delbecque, Nicole & Lise van Gorp. 2015. The pseudo-copular use of the Spanish verbs hacerse and volverse : Two types of change. Cognitextes 13), who suggest that the distinction is one of construal. A sentence completion task involving priming and non-priming visual stimuli is used to investigate to what extent the distinct conceptual images associated with hacerse and volverse affect the choice of verb in given contexts. The results show little evidence of the importance of construal for the choice of verb. Instead, established V + ADJ combinations seem to have a greater impact on choosing either verb. This calls into question the applicability of construal as an explanation to alternation, especially from the perspective of choice between alternating forms.

In Kamang (Alor-Pantar, Indonesia), some verbs alternate between indexing the S or P argument with a prefix (from several different series) and occurring unprefixed; that is, Kamang has differential argument indexing. Through a qualitative study of a spoken-language corpus, this paper investigates the alternation between one of the prefix series and zero-marking. Previously described as indicating increased patientivity on intransitive motion and posture verbs, the alternation is here analysed in terms of a shift in event view: unprefixed verbs express events holistically, while prefixed verbs shift the viewpoint towards the “elaboration phase”, the temporal and causal middle and end of an event. Elaboration constructions are associated with resultative and completive semantics and, relatedly, greater affectedness of the undergoer argument. Cross-linguistically, such constructions (e.g., resultatives and middles) are frequently subject to lexical restrictions, and the same applies to the Kamang alternation.

This paper describes the Plains Cree phenomenon of Order as a form of alternation not yet described as such in the literature. First, we provide a brief description of relevant Plains Cree grammar and Order as a phenomenon. This is followed by an overview of how the concept of alternation has been used in linguistics as an analytic tool. Finally, we discuss how conceiving of Order as an alternation allows for not only a better understanding of the phenomenon, but also results in a new type of alternation. We name this type of alternation a paradigmatic alternation and define it as any alternation where some lexeme can make use of two or more alternative paradigms of the same size and shape but with different morphological exponents, while representing the same set of grammatical features. We exemplify this with Plains Cree, where subject/object agreement has two distinct paradigms which verbs can take while retaining similar meanings. A brief comparison with of a similar phenomenon, Koiari tense/aspect, is also included.