Usage-based models of language: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:38, 12 June 2021

Revision as of 09:40, 22 June 2021

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Firstly, a crucial point in WCCF was [[Eleanor Rosch]]’s paper on semantic categories in human cognition,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Boyes-Braem |first1=P |last2=Johnson |first2=D |last3=Gray |first3=W. |last4=Mervis |first4=C.B.|last5=Rosch |first5=E. |title=Basic objects in natural categories |journal=Cognitive Psychology |date=1976}}</ref> which studied fuzzy semantic categories with central and peripheral concepts. Subsequently, [[Robin Lakoff]] (1987) applied these concepts to linguistic studies. For usage-based models of language, these discoveries legitimized interest in the peripheral phenomena and inspired the examination of the ontological status of the rules themselves.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Iverson, G.K. |last2=Corrigan, R.L. |first1=Lima, S.D. |title=The reality of linguistic rules |___location=Amsterdam |publisher=John Benjamins |date=1994}}</ref>

Secondly, WCCF focuses on the effects of social/ textual context and cognitive processes on human thought, instead of established systems and representations, which motivated the study of external sources in usage-based language research. For example, in analyzing the differences between the grammatical notions of subject vs. topic, Li and Thompson (1976), found that the repetition of certain topics by a [[speech community]] resulted in the surfacing and crystallization of formal properties into syntactic entities, namely the subject.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Givon |first1=T |chapter=From discourse to syntax: Grammar as a processing strategy |editor=T. Givón |title=Discourse and Syntax |volume=12 |pages=81–109 |___location=New York |publisher=Academic Press |date=1979b}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Givon |first=T. |title=On understanding grammar |___location=New York |publisher=Academic Press|date=1979c}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Givon |first1=T |chapter=Modes of knowledge and modes of processing. The routinization of behavior and information|title=Mind, Code, and Context: Essays in Pragmatics |pages=237–268 |___location=Hillsdale, NJ |publisher=Erlbaum|date=1989}}</ref> This notion of syntax and morphology being an outcome of pragmatic and cognitive factors<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hopper |first1=P. J. |chapter=When 'Grammar' and Discourse Clash: The Problem of Source Conflicts |editor1=J. Bybee |editor2=J. Haiman |editor3=S. A. Thompson |title=Essays on Language Function and Language Type |pages=231–247 |___location=Amsterdam |publisher=John Benjamins|date=1997}}</ref> was influential in the development of usage-based models.

Thirdly, the WCCF methodology of [[linguistic typology]] <ref>{{cite journal |last1=Greenberg |first1=J.H. |title=A quantitative approach to the morphological typology of language |journal= International Journal of American Linguistics |volume=26 |pages=178–194|date=1960|issue=3 |doi=10.1086/464575 |s2cid=144261944 }}</ref> is similarly practised in usage-based models, in collecting data from real communicative contexts and analyzing them for typological regularities. This highlights an important aspect of usage-based research, the study of methods for the integration of synchrony and diachrony.

'''Langacker’s Cognitive Grammar'''

The term ‘usage-based’ was coined by [[Ronald Langacker]] in 1987, while doing research on [[Cognitive Grammar]]. Langacker identified commonly recurring linguistic patterns (patterns such as those associated with Wh- fronting, subject-verb agreement, the use of present participles, etc.) and represented these supposed rule-governed behaviours on a hierarchical structure. The Cognitive Grammar model represented grammar, semantics and lexicon as associated processes that were laid on a continuum, which provided a theoretical framework that was significant in studying the usage-based conception of language.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Murkherjee |first1=J.|chapter=Corpus Data in a Usage-Based Cognitive Grammar |editor1=K. Aijmer |editor2=B. Altenberg |title=Advances in Corpus Linguistics: Papers from the 23rd International Conference on English Language Research on Computerized Corpora (ICAME 23) Göteborg 22-26 May 2002 |series=Language and Computers: Studies in Practical Linguistics |volume=49 |pages=85–100 |___location=Amsterdam |publisher=Rodopi|date=2004}}</ref> Consequently, a usage-based model accounts for these rule-governed language behaviours by providing a representational scheme that is entirely instance-based, and able to recognize and uniquely represent each familiar pattern, which occurs with varying strengths at different instances. His usage-based model draws on the cognitive psychology of schemata,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Schank |first1=R.C.|last2= Abelson |first2=R.P.|title=Scripts, plans, goals, and understanding: an inquiry into human knowledge structures|___location=Hillsdale, NJ |publisher=Erlbaum|date=1977}}</ref> which are flexible hierarchical structures that are able to accommodate the complexity of mental stimuli. Similarly, as humans perceive linguistic abstractions as multilayered, ranging from patterns that occur across whole utterances to those that occur in phonetic material, the usage-based model acknowledges the differing levels of granularity in speakers’ knowledge of their language. Langacker’s work emphasizes that both abstract structure and instance-based detail are contained in language, differing in granularity but not in basic principles.

'''Bybee’s Dynamic Usage-based framework'''

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=== Schmid's Entrenchment-and-Conventionalization model ===

Hans-Jörg Schmid's "Entrenchment-and-Conventionalization" Model offers a comprehensive recent summary approach to usage-based thinking.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Schmid|first=Hans-Jörg|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1139239358|title=The dynamics of the linguistic system : usage, conventionalization, and entrenchment|date=2020|isbn=0-19-254637-6|edition=First|___location=Oxford|oclc=1139239358}}</ref> In great detail and with reference to many sub-disciplines and concepts in linguistics he shows how usage mediates between entrenchment, the establishment of linguistic habits in individuals via repetition and associations, and conventionalization, a continuous feedback cycle which builds shared collective linguistic knowledge. All three components connect linguistic utterance types with their respective situative settings and extralinguistic associations.

== Constructions: Form-meaning pairings<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bybee |first1=Joan L. |title=Usage-based Theory and Exemplar Representations of Constructions |url=https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199544004.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199544004-e-032 |website=Oxford Handbooks Online}}</ref>==

{{Main|Construction grammar}}

Constructions have direct pairing of form to meaning without intermediate structures, making them appropriate for usage-based models. The usage-based model adopts constructions as the basic unit of form-meaning correspondence.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Filmore |first1=Charles J. |chapter=The mechanisms of Construction Grammar |title=Proceedings of the 14th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society |journal=Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society |date=1988 |volume=14 |pagepages=35-5535–55|doi=10.3765/bls.v14i0.1794 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Croft |first1=William |title=Radical Construction Grammar: Syntactic Theory in Typological Perspective |___location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2001}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Goldberg |first1=Adele E. |title=Constructions at Work: The Nature of Generalizations in Language |___location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Goldberg |first1=Adele E. |title=Constructions: A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure |___location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press. |date=1995}}</ref> A construction is commonly regarded to be a conventionalized string of words. A key feature of a grammar based on constructions is that it can reflect the deeply intertwined lexical items and grammar structure.

From a [[Grammar|grammariangrammar]]ian perspective, constructions are groupings of words with idiosyncratic behaviour to a certain extent. They mostly take on an unpredictable meaning or pragmatic effect, or are formally special. From a broader perspective, construction can also be seen as processing units or chunks, such as sequences of words (or [[morphemes]]) which have been used often enough to be accessed together. This implicates that common words sequences are sometimes constructions even if they do not have [[idiosyncrasies]] or form.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Goldberg |first1=Adele E. |last2=Casenhiser |first2=Devin |chapter=English Constructions |editor1=Bas Aarts |editor2=April McMahon |title=The Handbook of English Linguistics |date=2006 |___location=Malden, MA |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |pagepages=343-55343–55|doi=10.1002/9780470753002.ch15 |isbn=9780470753002 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bybee |first1=Joan L. |last2=Eddington |first2=David |title=A usage-based approach to Spanish verbs of becoming |journal=Language |date=2006 |volume=82 |issue=2 |pagepages=323-55323–55|doi=10.1353/lan.2006.0081 |s2cid=145635167 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bybee |first1=Joan L. |last2=Hopper |first2=Paul J. |title=Frequency and the Emergence of Linguistic Structure |___location=Amsterdam |publisher=John Benjamins |date=2001}}</ref> Additionally, chunks or conventionalized sequences can tend to develop special pragmatic implications that can lead to special meaning over time. They can also develop idiosyncrasies of form in a variety of ways.

*It drives me crazy.

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Memory storage requires links to connect idiomatic phrases together. In chunking, repeated sequences are represented together as units which can be accessed directly.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1017/S0272263100014698 |title=Sequencing in SLA |year=1996 |last1=Ellis |first1=Nick C. |journal=Studies in Second Language Acquisition |volume=18 |pages=91–126 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Newell |first1=Allen |title=Unified Theories of Cognition |___location=Cambridge |publisher=MIT Press |date=1990 |isbn=9780674921016}}</ref> Through this, repeated sequences are more frequent. Sequential links are assessed in strength based on the frequency of the chunk or transitions between elements within a chunk. Additionally, the individual elements of a chunk can link to elements in other contexts. The example of ‘drive someone crazy’ forms a chunk, however items that compose it are not analyzable individually as words that occur elsewhere in cognitive representation. As chunks are used more frequently, words can lose their associations with exemplars of the same word. This is known as [[de-categorialization]].

== See also ==

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[[Category:Linguistic theories and hypotheses]]

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