The Grammar Network: How Linguistic Structure Is Shaped by Language Use
Cambridge University Press, 8/15/2019
EAN 9781108498814, ISBN10: 1108498817
Hardcover, 306 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm
Language: English
Cognitive linguists and psychologists have often argued that language is best understood as an association network; however while the network view of language has had a significant impact on the study of morphology and lexical semantics, it is only recently that researchers have taken an explicit network approach to the study of syntax. This innovative study presents a dynamic network model of grammar in which all aspects of linguistic structure, including core concepts of syntax (e.g. phrase structure, word classes, grammatical relations), are analyzed in terms of associative connections between different types of linguistic elements. These associations are shaped by domain-general learning processes that are operative in language use and sensitive to frequency of occurrence. Drawing on research from usage-based linguistics and cognitive psychology, the book provides an overview of frequency effects in grammar and analyzes these effects within the framework of a dynamic network model.
1. Introduction
Part I. Foundations
2. Grammar as a network
3. Cognitive processes and language use
Part II. Signs as Networks
4. The taxonomic network
5. Sequential relations
6. Symbolic relations
Part III. Filler-Slot Relations
7. Argument structure and linguistic productivity
8. A dynamic network model of parts of speech
9. Phrase structure
Part IV. Constructional Relations
10. Construction families
11. Encoding asymmetries of grammatical categories
12. Conclusion.