Papers by Viktoriia Zhukovska (Вікторія Жуковська)
Zhytomyr Ivan Franko State University Journal. Philological Sciences. Vol. 1 (99)
With the rapid proliferation of computerized language corpora, modern linguistics is becoming
mor... more With the rapid proliferation of computerized language corpora, modern linguistics is becoming
more data-driven and corpus-based, and quantitative linguistic research is gaining popularity. The
methodology for linguistic analysis is being improved, and statistically reliable tools are being
actively employed to test scientific hypotheses and theories. Cognitive-quantitative construction
grammar is a new interdisciplinary study field that results from the integration of qualitative and
quantitative linguistic approaches. Drawing on research from various linguistic fields, this
framework comprehensively studies general and idiosyncratic features of language constructions –
‘form-meaning’ pairings. This article provides an overview of a number of quantitative corpus-based
methods that can be used in cognitive-quantitative construction grammar research to establish
distinctive linguistic parameters (factors) of form and meaning of complex clause-level constructions.
Clause-level constructions are distinguished by a set of linguistic parameters and factors that
determine the specificity of their form (morphosyntactic, relational, referential, positional, syntacticfunctional, distributive, etc.) and meaning/ function (collostructional, semantic, communicative, etc.).
To determine distinctive parameters of the form of a construction, specialized quantitative corpus
methods can be employed: 1) one-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA), 2) multifactor analysis of
variance (MANOVA) and 3) post-hoc test by Tukey's multiple comparison method. To identify
distinctive parameters of construction's semantics, the method of collostructional analysis can be
utilized. By integrating corpus linguistics and quantitative studies, a new level of comprehension
can be attained, which makes it possible to analyze linguistic data more accurately. Quantitative
corpus-based methods should be considered an effective tool for construction grammar research,
allowing linguists to move beyond intuition and gain a deeper understanding of the complexity of
language phenomena.
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Актуальні проблеми сучасної лінгвістики та методики викладання мови і літератури: Збірник матеріа... more Актуальні проблеми сучасної лінгвістики та методики викладання мови і літератури: Збірник матеріалів науково-практичної Інтернет-конференції / За заг. ред. Папіжук В. О., Григор’євої Т. Ю., Прокопчук Н. Р., Савчук І. І. – Житомир: Видавництво Житомирського державного університету імені Івана Франка, 2023. С. 29-35.
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Journal of Linguistics/Jazykovedný casopis, 2021
This article reports on the quantitative corpus-based investigation into the form-function interp... more This article reports on the quantitative corpus-based investigation into the form-function interplay of the English detached adjectival construction with an explicit subject. Taking Usage-based Construction Grammar as its theoretical framework, this paper investigates the patterns of attraction of lexical items that appear in the main slots of the grammatical construction. The data obtained substantiate the constructional status of the construction and determine its semantic and functional specification in present-day English.
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СУЧАСНА ФІЛОЛОГІЧНА НАУКА: АКТУАЛЬНІ ПИТАННЯ ТА ВЕКТОРИ РОЗВИТКУ, 2021
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Scientific Journal of Polonia University
This article presents the results of quantitative-corpus parameterization of reference properties... more This article presents the results of quantitative-corpus parameterization of reference properties of English detached nonfinite constructions with an explicit subject, carried out from the perspective of the cognitive-quantitative approach to language study. Through the prism of cognitive-constructive grammar, the syntactic patterns under scrutiny are recognized as grammatical constructions, i.e. complex semiotic units, non-compositional cognitively motivated pairings of form and conceptual meaning/ function, stored as holistic, conceptually connected, and interacting structures. Corpus-quantitative parameterization of referential properties of the given constructions presupposes the analysis of the linguistic means of expressing coreference between five micro-constructions and a corresponding matrix clause, reflected by the factors “Coreference” (COREF) and “Absence of coreference” (ØCOREF) of the parameter “Reference relations” (REFREL). Quantitative verification of the data invol...
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Information Technologies and Learning Tools, 2021, Vol. 86, №6. P.1-18. , 2021
The rapid development of computer software and network technologies has facilitated the intensive... more The rapid development of computer software and network technologies has facilitated the intensive application of specialized statistical software not only in the traditional information technology spheres (i.e., statistics, engineering, artificial intelligence) but also in linguistics. The statistical software R is one of the most popular analytical tools for statistical processing a huge array of digitalized language data, especially in quantitative corpus linguistic studies of Western Europe and North America. This article discusses the functionality of the software package R, focusing on its advantages in performing complex statistical analyses of linguistic data in corpusdriven studies and creating linguistic classifiers in machine learning. With this in mind, a threestage strategy of computer-statistical analysis of linguistic corpus data is elaborated: 1) data processing and preparing to be subjected to a statistical procedure, 2) utilizing statistical hypothesis testing methods (MANOVA, ANOVA) and the Tukey post-hoc test, and 3) developing a model of a linguistic classifier and analyzing its effectiveness. The strategy is implemented on 11 000 tokens of English detached nonfinite constructions with an explicit subject extracted from the BNC-BYU corpus. The statistical analysis indicates significant differences in the realization of the factors of the parameter "Part of speech of the subject". The analyzed linguistic data are employed to build a machine model for the classification of the given constructions. Particular attention is devoted to the methodological perspectives of interdisciplinary research in the fields of linguistics and computer studies. The potential application of the elaborated case study in training undergraduate, master, and postgraduate students of Applied Linguistics is indicated. The article provides all the statistical data and codes written in the R script with comprehensive descriptions and explanations. The concluding part of the article summarizes the obtained results and highlights the issues for further research connected with the popularization of the statistical software complex R and raising the awareness of specialists in this statistical analysis system.
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Journal of Linguistics (Jazykovedný časopis), ROČNÍK 72 (2), 2021. 465-477., 2021
This article reports on the quantitative corpus-based investigation into the form-function interp... more This article reports on the quantitative corpus-based investigation into the form-function interplay of the English detached adjectival construction with the explicit subject. Taking Usage-based Construction Grammar as its theoretical framework, this paper investigates the patterns of attraction of lexical items that appear in the main slots of the grammatical constriction. The data obtained substantiate the constructional status of the construction and determine its semantic and functional specification in present-day English.
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Мова та мовлення: фундаментальні парадигми розвитку. Кам’янець-Подільський: ТОВ «Друкарня Рута». 2021. 66 – 81., 2021
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Сучасна філологічна наука: актуальні питання та вектори розвитку : колективна монографія / відп. За випуск М.В. Мамич. – Львів-Торунь : Ліга-Прес, 2021. 61–86., 2021
This study presents the overview of theoretical and methodological assumptions of construction gr... more This study presents the overview of theoretical and methodological assumptions of construction grammar in the interpretation of the framework’s current schools. The paper surveys formalists (Berkley Construction Grammar, Sign-Based Construction Grammar), usage-oriented (Cognitive Construction Grammar, Radical Construction Grammar, Usage-Based Construction Grammar) and computational language modelling (Fluid Construction Grammar, Embodied Construction Grammar) construction grammar schools. The review presents the most prominent issues of convergence and divergence within each model, focusing, inter alia, on a universal status of linguistic constructions, their quantity and types, issues of constructional compositionality and semantics, reliance on language use data, and specificity of notation systems.
The presented study has demonstrated that construction grammar is a thriving field of grammatical theorizing. Over the past two decades, the framework has become part of the mainstream linguistics, a sophisticated linguistic theory based on a solid cognitive and functional basis, with well-developed theoretical and methodological principles. By filling in the gaps in both traditional and formalist descriptions of language, construction grammar blurs the boundaries between vocabulary and grammar, semantics and pragmatics, meaning and use and represents language as a holistic organism. The holistic approach to language units aptly reflects the reality of mental activity, based on uniform cognitive mechanisms and carried out on a single language substrate.
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https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/englishhistorycreativewriting/files/2021/06/LxGr2021.A.Zhukovska.pdf
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Нова філологія, Вип.80, 2020
This article discusses the usage-based foundations of construction grammar as a new theory of lan... more This article discusses the usage-based foundations of construction grammar as a new theory of language. In recent years, construction grammar has become the linguistic mainstream represented by a growing quantity and variety of studies in the field. The theoretical overview of the basic principles of the usage-based theory and their incorporation by construction grammar presents a systematized and comprehensive account of the theoretical and methodological premises of the constructionist approach; determines grammatical construction as a complex linguistic sign, a conventional pairing of form and meaning; defines the integrative approach to the study of constructions; substantiates the understanding of the language as a network of constructions of different degree of complexity and schematicity. The paper enlists the main schools of contemporary construction grammar, considers their common fundamental tenets and basic dissimilarities and discloses the usage-based orientation of construction grammar by outlining the key concepts of the usage-based theory of language.
The paper introduces the principal assumptions of the usage-based approach: the language system is shaped by usage; usage data are important for the language theory; linguistic representations are emergent, but not fixed entities; the interrelation between the language system and nonlinguistic cognitive systems; the decisive role of the context in the language system functioning.
The conclusions of the conducted study highlight the potential of construction grammar as an innovative theoretical approach of contemporary linguistics, that applies integrative approach to linguistic units and presents the language system as a whole. In our future research we will apply the procedural apparatus of usage-based construction grammar to examine the English detached constructions with explicit subject on the basis of extensive corpus data with the use of quantitative methods (collostruction analysis) to obtain new objective findings on their linguistic nature and usage.
Key words: construction grammar, construction, usage-based theory of language, theoretical and methodological foundations
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Науковий журнал «Міжнародний філологічний часопис» № 11(3), 2020
Abstract. The term ‘construction’ is actively employed by linguists of various schools and trends... more Abstract. The term ‘construction’ is actively employed by linguists of various schools and trends. Currently, this grammatical term has gained such exceeding popularity that its meaning has become vague and unclear. This state of affairs in modern linguistics may be explained by the simultaneous functioning of the established understanding of construction as a combination of words (units of language) formed by grammatical rules and a recent interpretation of CONSTRUCTION as a conventional combination of form with (semantic/disсourse) function.
This paper overviews interpretations of the term ‘construction’ from medieval to present-day linguistics. Recently, grammarians have become increasingly interested in the synchronic and diachronic study of language, taking into account the achievements of the innovative theories of language. The main focus of this study is the grammatical construction from the perspective of Construction grammar.
Roman grammarian Priscian of Caesarea was the first to employ the word ‘construction’ as a grammatical term. Medieval grammarians investigated the nature of construction and outlined its distinctive features as an ordered sequence of two words that grammatically agree and has sense. In the linguistics of the XX – XXI centuries, the definition of the term depends on the theoretical and methodological principles of a particular linguistic theory: from considering various linguistic phenomena as constructions, then complete exclusion of constructions from linguistic analysis and finally recognition of constructions as basic units of language.
Linguistic ‘renaissance’ of ‘constructions’ begins in the 80s of the XX century in Construction grammar. This integrative theory of language revisits the long-established term ‘construction’, claiming it the central unit of language and representation. CONSTRUCTIONS are viewed as two-sided symbolic units, conventional pairs ‘form – semantic/discourse function’. The form of CONSTRUCTION embraces syntactic, morphological and prosodic features, and the meaning covers semantic, pragmatic and discourse characteristics. Information about linguistic properties of CONSTRUCTIONS is formalized in a system of notations. CONSTRUCTIONS are characterized by such parameters as schematicity, complexity and productivity. CONSTRUCTIONS are organized into taxonomic networks based on inheritance relations.
Construction grammar rejects the strict boundary between vocabulary and syntax and between semantics and pragmatics and states that all CONSTRUCTIONS are part of the lexicon-syntax continuum (CONSTRUCTICON). Regardless of their structural complexity, all language units are considered CONSTRUCTIONS: morphemes, words, idioms, collocations, argument structures, as well as texts and genres. The comprehensive list of CONSTRUCTIONS that make up the mental grammar of the speaker is stored in the CONSTRUCTICON, a structured inventory of taxonomic structural networks. CONSTRUCTIONS as conventional patterns, units of grammar are opposed by CONSTRUCTS. CONSTRUCTIONS are seen as more abstract blueprints licensing grammatically correct linguistic units, while CONSTRUCTS are concrete realizations of constructions, i.e. actually used linguistic units, like sentences or phrases. Linguistic CONSTRUCTIONS are characterized by such parameters as syntagmatic complexity, schematicity, and productivity.
To conclude, the definition of structural, semantic, and functional properties of constructions as linguistic units depends on the principles and tenets of the specific linguistic approach. In the constructionist approaches CONSTRUCTIONS are understood as unpredictable; (completely) productive; cognitively entrenched (automated) and complex combinations, ‘form – meaning’ pairings. All symbolic units of language, from words and morphemes to texts and genres, including non-idiomatic and compositional structures are CONSTRUCTIONS.
Given the advantages and undeniable potential of Construction grammar, the next stage of our research will utilize the procedural apparatus of this theory of language to shed new light on the English Detached-Subject-PredicateVERBAL/NONVERBAL constructions in the entirety of their linguistic properties within a unified formalism.
Keywords: construction, Construction grammar, construct, constructicon
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Вчені записки ТНУ імені В. І. Вернадського. Серія: Філологія. Соціальні комунікації. Том 31 (70). № 3 Том 1, 2020. С. 113-119.
ZHUKOVSKA V.V. LINGUISTIC CORPUS AS A STATE-OF-THE-ART INFORMATION AND RESEARCH TOOL IN CONTEMPOR... more ZHUKOVSKA V.V. LINGUISTIC CORPUS AS A STATE-OF-THE-ART INFORMATION AND RESEARCH TOOL IN CONTEMPORARY LANGUAGE STUDY
This study presents an overview of corpus linguistics as an innovative information-semiotic approach in empirical linguistics. The paper substantiates the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of the field, identifies its connection with cognitive and computational linguistics, discusses modern areas of corpus research and demonstrates the feasibility of utilising text corpus data in modern linguistic research. Particular attention is devoted to the characteristics of the linguistic corpus as a powerful multifunctional language information system used to address a broad range of research issues. The article defines prototypic features of the modern corpus, specifies types of quantitative data provided by the corpus, justifies the need for utilizing appropriate statistical methods and specialized computer data processing programs to verify the results of corpus analysis. Two dominant approaches in corpus research (corpus-based vs corpus-driven) are distinguished, the specifics of these approaches to a corpus analysis are outlined. In this paper, the author introduces the integrated methodology of conducting a quantitative-corpus research, incorporating the principles of corpus-based and corpus-driven approaches. It is stated that the active penetration of corpus technologies in all fields of linguistics and related sciences will strengthen the research position of corpus linguistics in the future and contribute to cross-paradigmatic and cross-disciplinary research of such a multifaceted phenomenon as human language. Given the high information and technical specifications of contemporary corpora, courses on corpus technologies should be included into the university training of Masters and Doctors of Philosophy in Linguistics.
Key words: corpus linguistics, linguistic corpus, types of corpus data, corpus-based research, corpus-driven research
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Жуковська, В. (2020). СЕМАНТИКА ГРАМАТИЧНОЇ КОНСТРУКЦІЇ: КОРПУСНО-КВАНТИТАТИВНИЙ ВИМІР. Studia Philologica, (2), 28-35. https://doi.org/10.28925/2311-2425.2019.13.4, 2019
Recently, much research in linguistics has become increasingly interested in the use of new metho... more Recently, much research in linguistics has become increasingly interested in the use of new methods and tools to analyze authentic linguistic data provided by text corpora. One of the most reliable corpus-based methods is the collostruction analysis, developed by A. Stefanowitsch and S. Th. Gries. Through statistical corpus analysis, this method examines semantics of grammatical construction by measuring the degree of mutual association/ repulsion between a construction and lexical items filling its main slot. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of applying the collostructional analysis to study semantics of one type of the English unaugmented detached construction with explicit subject, a non-finite construction of a binary structure consisting of a (pro)nominal subject and Participle I as a predicate, as in [ВКЕС [Subj cheeks] [Pred burning suddenly]].
Using R statistical software and the script for the collostructional analysis on empirical data drawn from the BNC-BYU corpus, we identify verbs, which reveal significant attraction to the predicate slot. The semantic analysis of the most strongly attracted verbs allows determining the semantic verb classes most closely associated with the given construction. It appears that the construction particularly attracts verbs involving the body, verbs of emission, verbs of motion, verbs of existence, touch verbs, and verbs of perception. These verbs belong to the aspectual classes of state and process. The analysis proves that the semantics of the construction [ВКЕС with-less[Subj general noun][Verb Participle І]] sets restrictions on filling its predicate slot with only those verbs whose arguments are compatible with the semantic roles defined by the construction. In its prototypical meaning the analyzed detached construction verbalizes a scenario in which Agent (the subject of the matrix clause) has a Partitive (the subject of the construction) in State/ Process (expressed by the predicate of the construction – Participle I).
The evidence from the study suggests that the collostructional analysis substantially advances our understanding of grammatical constructions and their meaning. Clearly, these are only preliminary findings and further studies regarding collostructional semantics of other types of English detached constructions with explicit subject would be worthwhile.
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Computational Linguistics and Intelligent Systems. Proc. 4 th Int. Conf. COLINS 2020. Volume I: Workshop. Lviv, Ukraine, April 23-24, 2020, CEUR-WS.org, online , 2020
Adopting usage-based construction grammar and quantitative corpus linguistic research approaches,... more Adopting usage-based construction grammar and quantitative corpus linguistic research approaches, this study attempts to empirically analyze the dis-tributional properties of the two English synonymous grammatical constructions, i.e. detached augmented and unaugmented Participle I clauses with the explicit subject. Despite the extensive research on the morphological and functional features of the syntactic patterns under study, semantic and pragmatic dissimilarities between the two alternative syntactic structures thus far have not been studied, at least in a way of the quantitative examination of the subject slot of these constructions. Applying the methods of simple collexeme analysis and distinctive collexeme analysis to the linguistic data retrieved from the BNC-BYU corpus, the study explores the semantics of the investigated pair of constructions by identifying semantic frames instantiated by their significantly attracted noun col-lexemes. The distributional data obtained prove that the analyzed synonymous constructions are pragmatically distinct and semantically determined.
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Англо-український словник наукового мовлення/ укладач: Жуковська В.В. – Житомир: Вид-во O.O. Евенок, 2019. – 88 с., 2019
Словник покликаний надати фахівцям лінгвістичну допомогу у написанні наукової праці англійською м... more Словник покликаний надати фахівцям лінгвістичну допомогу у написанні наукової праці англійською мовою. Видання містить англійські клішовані вирази, фрази, мовленнєві формули та їх українські відповідники. Матеріал словника відібраний з автентичних англомовних наукових публікацій та структурований відповідно до основних композиційних частин сучасної англомовної наукової статті.
Призначений для аспірантів, магістрантів, науковців.
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Collostructional analysis: definition and application, 2019
While many linguists employ corpus data for their research, few studies use quantitative methods ... more While many linguists employ corpus data for their research, few studies use quantitative methods to validate the findings. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of using the collostructional analysis to study semantics of grammatical construction. Adopting a collexeme analysis, the paper defines seven semantic classes of verbs which show statistically significant attraction to the predicative slot of the unaugmented English absolute construction with Participle I. The findings prove that collostructional analysis can be readily used to investigate the interaction of lexis and grammar.
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Doctrina multiplex, veritas una. Учень багато, істина одна : збір- ник праць до ювілею Ізабелли Рафаїлівни Буніятової / Київський ун-т ім. Б. Грінченка. — К. : Київ, ун-т ім. Б. Грінченка, 2018. - С. 330-343.
Zhukovska V.V. Collostructional analysis of the English Absolute Construction
While much researc... more Zhukovska V.V. Collostructional analysis of the English Absolute Construction
While much research in usage-based construction grammar involves processing big amounts of naturalistic usage data provided by computerized corpora, the analysis of corpus data does not always utilize methods of linguistic statistics to validate the research findings. In this paper, we investigate the constructional semantics of the English Absolute Participial Construction, a non-finite construction that has a binary structure and consists of a (pro)nominal subject and a non-finite or verbless predicate ([AC [SubjNoun] [PredParticiple I]]). The methodological framework of the study is that of the collexeme analysis, which, through statistical corpus analysis, measures the degree of mutual association between particular grammatical constructions and lexical items (Stefanowitsch & Gries 2003, 2005). Using the collexeme analysis on empirical data drawn from the BNC-BYU corpus, we identify the noun lexemes, which reveal significant attraction to the subject slot of the analyzed construction. The semantic analysis of the strongly attracted lexical items allows to determine the semantic classes of nouns that are most closely associated with the English Absolute Participial Construction. It appears that the construction particularly attracts nouns denoting parts of body (somatisms). We show that the collexeme analysis facilitates the study of interaction between lexemes and grammatical constructions and substantially advances our understanding of grammatical constructions and their meaning.
Key words: the collostructional analysis, the collexeme analysis, the English Absolute Participial Construction, collostructional semantics.
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Papers by Viktoriia Zhukovska (Вікторія Жуковська)
more data-driven and corpus-based, and quantitative linguistic research is gaining popularity. The
methodology for linguistic analysis is being improved, and statistically reliable tools are being
actively employed to test scientific hypotheses and theories. Cognitive-quantitative construction
grammar is a new interdisciplinary study field that results from the integration of qualitative and
quantitative linguistic approaches. Drawing on research from various linguistic fields, this
framework comprehensively studies general and idiosyncratic features of language constructions –
‘form-meaning’ pairings. This article provides an overview of a number of quantitative corpus-based
methods that can be used in cognitive-quantitative construction grammar research to establish
distinctive linguistic parameters (factors) of form and meaning of complex clause-level constructions.
Clause-level constructions are distinguished by a set of linguistic parameters and factors that
determine the specificity of their form (morphosyntactic, relational, referential, positional, syntacticfunctional, distributive, etc.) and meaning/ function (collostructional, semantic, communicative, etc.).
To determine distinctive parameters of the form of a construction, specialized quantitative corpus
methods can be employed: 1) one-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA), 2) multifactor analysis of
variance (MANOVA) and 3) post-hoc test by Tukey's multiple comparison method. To identify
distinctive parameters of construction's semantics, the method of collostructional analysis can be
utilized. By integrating corpus linguistics and quantitative studies, a new level of comprehension
can be attained, which makes it possible to analyze linguistic data more accurately. Quantitative
corpus-based methods should be considered an effective tool for construction grammar research,
allowing linguists to move beyond intuition and gain a deeper understanding of the complexity of
language phenomena.
The presented study has demonstrated that construction grammar is a thriving field of grammatical theorizing. Over the past two decades, the framework has become part of the mainstream linguistics, a sophisticated linguistic theory based on a solid cognitive and functional basis, with well-developed theoretical and methodological principles. By filling in the gaps in both traditional and formalist descriptions of language, construction grammar blurs the boundaries between vocabulary and grammar, semantics and pragmatics, meaning and use and represents language as a holistic organism. The holistic approach to language units aptly reflects the reality of mental activity, based on uniform cognitive mechanisms and carried out on a single language substrate.
The paper introduces the principal assumptions of the usage-based approach: the language system is shaped by usage; usage data are important for the language theory; linguistic representations are emergent, but not fixed entities; the interrelation between the language system and nonlinguistic cognitive systems; the decisive role of the context in the language system functioning.
The conclusions of the conducted study highlight the potential of construction grammar as an innovative theoretical approach of contemporary linguistics, that applies integrative approach to linguistic units and presents the language system as a whole. In our future research we will apply the procedural apparatus of usage-based construction grammar to examine the English detached constructions with explicit subject on the basis of extensive corpus data with the use of quantitative methods (collostruction analysis) to obtain new objective findings on their linguistic nature and usage.
Key words: construction grammar, construction, usage-based theory of language, theoretical and methodological foundations
This paper overviews interpretations of the term ‘construction’ from medieval to present-day linguistics. Recently, grammarians have become increasingly interested in the synchronic and diachronic study of language, taking into account the achievements of the innovative theories of language. The main focus of this study is the grammatical construction from the perspective of Construction grammar.
Roman grammarian Priscian of Caesarea was the first to employ the word ‘construction’ as a grammatical term. Medieval grammarians investigated the nature of construction and outlined its distinctive features as an ordered sequence of two words that grammatically agree and has sense. In the linguistics of the XX – XXI centuries, the definition of the term depends on the theoretical and methodological principles of a particular linguistic theory: from considering various linguistic phenomena as constructions, then complete exclusion of constructions from linguistic analysis and finally recognition of constructions as basic units of language.
Linguistic ‘renaissance’ of ‘constructions’ begins in the 80s of the XX century in Construction grammar. This integrative theory of language revisits the long-established term ‘construction’, claiming it the central unit of language and representation. CONSTRUCTIONS are viewed as two-sided symbolic units, conventional pairs ‘form – semantic/discourse function’. The form of CONSTRUCTION embraces syntactic, morphological and prosodic features, and the meaning covers semantic, pragmatic and discourse characteristics. Information about linguistic properties of CONSTRUCTIONS is formalized in a system of notations. CONSTRUCTIONS are characterized by such parameters as schematicity, complexity and productivity. CONSTRUCTIONS are organized into taxonomic networks based on inheritance relations.
Construction grammar rejects the strict boundary between vocabulary and syntax and between semantics and pragmatics and states that all CONSTRUCTIONS are part of the lexicon-syntax continuum (CONSTRUCTICON). Regardless of their structural complexity, all language units are considered CONSTRUCTIONS: morphemes, words, idioms, collocations, argument structures, as well as texts and genres. The comprehensive list of CONSTRUCTIONS that make up the mental grammar of the speaker is stored in the CONSTRUCTICON, a structured inventory of taxonomic structural networks. CONSTRUCTIONS as conventional patterns, units of grammar are opposed by CONSTRUCTS. CONSTRUCTIONS are seen as more abstract blueprints licensing grammatically correct linguistic units, while CONSTRUCTS are concrete realizations of constructions, i.e. actually used linguistic units, like sentences or phrases. Linguistic CONSTRUCTIONS are characterized by such parameters as syntagmatic complexity, schematicity, and productivity.
To conclude, the definition of structural, semantic, and functional properties of constructions as linguistic units depends on the principles and tenets of the specific linguistic approach. In the constructionist approaches CONSTRUCTIONS are understood as unpredictable; (completely) productive; cognitively entrenched (automated) and complex combinations, ‘form – meaning’ pairings. All symbolic units of language, from words and morphemes to texts and genres, including non-idiomatic and compositional structures are CONSTRUCTIONS.
Given the advantages and undeniable potential of Construction grammar, the next stage of our research will utilize the procedural apparatus of this theory of language to shed new light on the English Detached-Subject-PredicateVERBAL/NONVERBAL constructions in the entirety of their linguistic properties within a unified formalism.
Keywords: construction, Construction grammar, construct, constructicon
This study presents an overview of corpus linguistics as an innovative information-semiotic approach in empirical linguistics. The paper substantiates the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of the field, identifies its connection with cognitive and computational linguistics, discusses modern areas of corpus research and demonstrates the feasibility of utilising text corpus data in modern linguistic research. Particular attention is devoted to the characteristics of the linguistic corpus as a powerful multifunctional language information system used to address a broad range of research issues. The article defines prototypic features of the modern corpus, specifies types of quantitative data provided by the corpus, justifies the need for utilizing appropriate statistical methods and specialized computer data processing programs to verify the results of corpus analysis. Two dominant approaches in corpus research (corpus-based vs corpus-driven) are distinguished, the specifics of these approaches to a corpus analysis are outlined. In this paper, the author introduces the integrated methodology of conducting a quantitative-corpus research, incorporating the principles of corpus-based and corpus-driven approaches. It is stated that the active penetration of corpus technologies in all fields of linguistics and related sciences will strengthen the research position of corpus linguistics in the future and contribute to cross-paradigmatic and cross-disciplinary research of such a multifaceted phenomenon as human language. Given the high information and technical specifications of contemporary corpora, courses on corpus technologies should be included into the university training of Masters and Doctors of Philosophy in Linguistics.
Key words: corpus linguistics, linguistic corpus, types of corpus data, corpus-based research, corpus-driven research
Using R statistical software and the script for the collostructional analysis on empirical data drawn from the BNC-BYU corpus, we identify verbs, which reveal significant attraction to the predicate slot. The semantic analysis of the most strongly attracted verbs allows determining the semantic verb classes most closely associated with the given construction. It appears that the construction particularly attracts verbs involving the body, verbs of emission, verbs of motion, verbs of existence, touch verbs, and verbs of perception. These verbs belong to the aspectual classes of state and process. The analysis proves that the semantics of the construction [ВКЕС with-less[Subj general noun][Verb Participle І]] sets restrictions on filling its predicate slot with only those verbs whose arguments are compatible with the semantic roles defined by the construction. In its prototypical meaning the analyzed detached construction verbalizes a scenario in which Agent (the subject of the matrix clause) has a Partitive (the subject of the construction) in State/ Process (expressed by the predicate of the construction – Participle I).
The evidence from the study suggests that the collostructional analysis substantially advances our understanding of grammatical constructions and their meaning. Clearly, these are only preliminary findings and further studies regarding collostructional semantics of other types of English detached constructions with explicit subject would be worthwhile.
Призначений для аспірантів, магістрантів, науковців.
While much research in usage-based construction grammar involves processing big amounts of naturalistic usage data provided by computerized corpora, the analysis of corpus data does not always utilize methods of linguistic statistics to validate the research findings. In this paper, we investigate the constructional semantics of the English Absolute Participial Construction, a non-finite construction that has a binary structure and consists of a (pro)nominal subject and a non-finite or verbless predicate ([AC [SubjNoun] [PredParticiple I]]). The methodological framework of the study is that of the collexeme analysis, which, through statistical corpus analysis, measures the degree of mutual association between particular grammatical constructions and lexical items (Stefanowitsch & Gries 2003, 2005). Using the collexeme analysis on empirical data drawn from the BNC-BYU corpus, we identify the noun lexemes, which reveal significant attraction to the subject slot of the analyzed construction. The semantic analysis of the strongly attracted lexical items allows to determine the semantic classes of nouns that are most closely associated with the English Absolute Participial Construction. It appears that the construction particularly attracts nouns denoting parts of body (somatisms). We show that the collexeme analysis facilitates the study of interaction between lexemes and grammatical constructions and substantially advances our understanding of grammatical constructions and their meaning.
Key words: the collostructional analysis, the collexeme analysis, the English Absolute Participial Construction, collostructional semantics.
more data-driven and corpus-based, and quantitative linguistic research is gaining popularity. The
methodology for linguistic analysis is being improved, and statistically reliable tools are being
actively employed to test scientific hypotheses and theories. Cognitive-quantitative construction
grammar is a new interdisciplinary study field that results from the integration of qualitative and
quantitative linguistic approaches. Drawing on research from various linguistic fields, this
framework comprehensively studies general and idiosyncratic features of language constructions –
‘form-meaning’ pairings. This article provides an overview of a number of quantitative corpus-based
methods that can be used in cognitive-quantitative construction grammar research to establish
distinctive linguistic parameters (factors) of form and meaning of complex clause-level constructions.
Clause-level constructions are distinguished by a set of linguistic parameters and factors that
determine the specificity of their form (morphosyntactic, relational, referential, positional, syntacticfunctional, distributive, etc.) and meaning/ function (collostructional, semantic, communicative, etc.).
To determine distinctive parameters of the form of a construction, specialized quantitative corpus
methods can be employed: 1) one-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA), 2) multifactor analysis of
variance (MANOVA) and 3) post-hoc test by Tukey's multiple comparison method. To identify
distinctive parameters of construction's semantics, the method of collostructional analysis can be
utilized. By integrating corpus linguistics and quantitative studies, a new level of comprehension
can be attained, which makes it possible to analyze linguistic data more accurately. Quantitative
corpus-based methods should be considered an effective tool for construction grammar research,
allowing linguists to move beyond intuition and gain a deeper understanding of the complexity of
language phenomena.
The presented study has demonstrated that construction grammar is a thriving field of grammatical theorizing. Over the past two decades, the framework has become part of the mainstream linguistics, a sophisticated linguistic theory based on a solid cognitive and functional basis, with well-developed theoretical and methodological principles. By filling in the gaps in both traditional and formalist descriptions of language, construction grammar blurs the boundaries between vocabulary and grammar, semantics and pragmatics, meaning and use and represents language as a holistic organism. The holistic approach to language units aptly reflects the reality of mental activity, based on uniform cognitive mechanisms and carried out on a single language substrate.
The paper introduces the principal assumptions of the usage-based approach: the language system is shaped by usage; usage data are important for the language theory; linguistic representations are emergent, but not fixed entities; the interrelation between the language system and nonlinguistic cognitive systems; the decisive role of the context in the language system functioning.
The conclusions of the conducted study highlight the potential of construction grammar as an innovative theoretical approach of contemporary linguistics, that applies integrative approach to linguistic units and presents the language system as a whole. In our future research we will apply the procedural apparatus of usage-based construction grammar to examine the English detached constructions with explicit subject on the basis of extensive corpus data with the use of quantitative methods (collostruction analysis) to obtain new objective findings on their linguistic nature and usage.
Key words: construction grammar, construction, usage-based theory of language, theoretical and methodological foundations
This paper overviews interpretations of the term ‘construction’ from medieval to present-day linguistics. Recently, grammarians have become increasingly interested in the synchronic and diachronic study of language, taking into account the achievements of the innovative theories of language. The main focus of this study is the grammatical construction from the perspective of Construction grammar.
Roman grammarian Priscian of Caesarea was the first to employ the word ‘construction’ as a grammatical term. Medieval grammarians investigated the nature of construction and outlined its distinctive features as an ordered sequence of two words that grammatically agree and has sense. In the linguistics of the XX – XXI centuries, the definition of the term depends on the theoretical and methodological principles of a particular linguistic theory: from considering various linguistic phenomena as constructions, then complete exclusion of constructions from linguistic analysis and finally recognition of constructions as basic units of language.
Linguistic ‘renaissance’ of ‘constructions’ begins in the 80s of the XX century in Construction grammar. This integrative theory of language revisits the long-established term ‘construction’, claiming it the central unit of language and representation. CONSTRUCTIONS are viewed as two-sided symbolic units, conventional pairs ‘form – semantic/discourse function’. The form of CONSTRUCTION embraces syntactic, morphological and prosodic features, and the meaning covers semantic, pragmatic and discourse characteristics. Information about linguistic properties of CONSTRUCTIONS is formalized in a system of notations. CONSTRUCTIONS are characterized by such parameters as schematicity, complexity and productivity. CONSTRUCTIONS are organized into taxonomic networks based on inheritance relations.
Construction grammar rejects the strict boundary between vocabulary and syntax and between semantics and pragmatics and states that all CONSTRUCTIONS are part of the lexicon-syntax continuum (CONSTRUCTICON). Regardless of their structural complexity, all language units are considered CONSTRUCTIONS: morphemes, words, idioms, collocations, argument structures, as well as texts and genres. The comprehensive list of CONSTRUCTIONS that make up the mental grammar of the speaker is stored in the CONSTRUCTICON, a structured inventory of taxonomic structural networks. CONSTRUCTIONS as conventional patterns, units of grammar are opposed by CONSTRUCTS. CONSTRUCTIONS are seen as more abstract blueprints licensing grammatically correct linguistic units, while CONSTRUCTS are concrete realizations of constructions, i.e. actually used linguistic units, like sentences or phrases. Linguistic CONSTRUCTIONS are characterized by such parameters as syntagmatic complexity, schematicity, and productivity.
To conclude, the definition of structural, semantic, and functional properties of constructions as linguistic units depends on the principles and tenets of the specific linguistic approach. In the constructionist approaches CONSTRUCTIONS are understood as unpredictable; (completely) productive; cognitively entrenched (automated) and complex combinations, ‘form – meaning’ pairings. All symbolic units of language, from words and morphemes to texts and genres, including non-idiomatic and compositional structures are CONSTRUCTIONS.
Given the advantages and undeniable potential of Construction grammar, the next stage of our research will utilize the procedural apparatus of this theory of language to shed new light on the English Detached-Subject-PredicateVERBAL/NONVERBAL constructions in the entirety of their linguistic properties within a unified formalism.
Keywords: construction, Construction grammar, construct, constructicon
This study presents an overview of corpus linguistics as an innovative information-semiotic approach in empirical linguistics. The paper substantiates the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of the field, identifies its connection with cognitive and computational linguistics, discusses modern areas of corpus research and demonstrates the feasibility of utilising text corpus data in modern linguistic research. Particular attention is devoted to the characteristics of the linguistic corpus as a powerful multifunctional language information system used to address a broad range of research issues. The article defines prototypic features of the modern corpus, specifies types of quantitative data provided by the corpus, justifies the need for utilizing appropriate statistical methods and specialized computer data processing programs to verify the results of corpus analysis. Two dominant approaches in corpus research (corpus-based vs corpus-driven) are distinguished, the specifics of these approaches to a corpus analysis are outlined. In this paper, the author introduces the integrated methodology of conducting a quantitative-corpus research, incorporating the principles of corpus-based and corpus-driven approaches. It is stated that the active penetration of corpus technologies in all fields of linguistics and related sciences will strengthen the research position of corpus linguistics in the future and contribute to cross-paradigmatic and cross-disciplinary research of such a multifaceted phenomenon as human language. Given the high information and technical specifications of contemporary corpora, courses on corpus technologies should be included into the university training of Masters and Doctors of Philosophy in Linguistics.
Key words: corpus linguistics, linguistic corpus, types of corpus data, corpus-based research, corpus-driven research
Using R statistical software and the script for the collostructional analysis on empirical data drawn from the BNC-BYU corpus, we identify verbs, which reveal significant attraction to the predicate slot. The semantic analysis of the most strongly attracted verbs allows determining the semantic verb classes most closely associated with the given construction. It appears that the construction particularly attracts verbs involving the body, verbs of emission, verbs of motion, verbs of existence, touch verbs, and verbs of perception. These verbs belong to the aspectual classes of state and process. The analysis proves that the semantics of the construction [ВКЕС with-less[Subj general noun][Verb Participle І]] sets restrictions on filling its predicate slot with only those verbs whose arguments are compatible with the semantic roles defined by the construction. In its prototypical meaning the analyzed detached construction verbalizes a scenario in which Agent (the subject of the matrix clause) has a Partitive (the subject of the construction) in State/ Process (expressed by the predicate of the construction – Participle I).
The evidence from the study suggests that the collostructional analysis substantially advances our understanding of grammatical constructions and their meaning. Clearly, these are only preliminary findings and further studies regarding collostructional semantics of other types of English detached constructions with explicit subject would be worthwhile.
Призначений для аспірантів, магістрантів, науковців.
While much research in usage-based construction grammar involves processing big amounts of naturalistic usage data provided by computerized corpora, the analysis of corpus data does not always utilize methods of linguistic statistics to validate the research findings. In this paper, we investigate the constructional semantics of the English Absolute Participial Construction, a non-finite construction that has a binary structure and consists of a (pro)nominal subject and a non-finite or verbless predicate ([AC [SubjNoun] [PredParticiple I]]). The methodological framework of the study is that of the collexeme analysis, which, through statistical corpus analysis, measures the degree of mutual association between particular grammatical constructions and lexical items (Stefanowitsch & Gries 2003, 2005). Using the collexeme analysis on empirical data drawn from the BNC-BYU corpus, we identify the noun lexemes, which reveal significant attraction to the subject slot of the analyzed construction. The semantic analysis of the strongly attracted lexical items allows to determine the semantic classes of nouns that are most closely associated with the English Absolute Participial Construction. It appears that the construction particularly attracts nouns denoting parts of body (somatisms). We show that the collexeme analysis facilitates the study of interaction between lexemes and grammatical constructions and substantially advances our understanding of grammatical constructions and their meaning.
Key words: the collostructional analysis, the collexeme analysis, the English Absolute Participial Construction, collostructional semantics.
Figures of inequality: climax, anticlimax; pun, zeugma.
Figures of contrast: antithesis, oxymoron.
figures of quality: metonymy, metaphor;
epithet and its stylistic properties;
stylistic functions of irony