Collostructions: Investigating the interaction of words and constructions

Abstract

This paper introduces an extension of collocational analysis that takes into account grammatical structure and is specifically geared to investigating the interaction of lexemes and the grammatical constructions associated with them. The method is framed in a construction-based approach to language, i.e. it assumes that grammar consists of signs (form-meaning pairs) and is thus not fundamentally different from the lexicon. The method is applied to linguistic expressions at various levels of abstraction (words, semi-fixed phrases, argument structures, tense, aspect and mood). The method has two main applications: first, to increase the adequacy of grammatical description by providing an objective way of identifying the meaning of a grammatical construction and determining the degree to which particular slots in it prefer or are restricted to a particular set of lexemes; second, to provide data for linguistic theory-building.

Light verb semantics in theInternational Corpus of English: onomasiological variation, identity evidence and degrees of lightness

“…It is possible that future work such as collostruction analyses (cf. Stefanowitsch and Gries 2003) could pinpoint the influence here of take's broader preferences for or against coordinated DOs, if such preferences exist.…”

Oraciones completivas de sustantivo: un análisis contrastivo entre portugués y español

“…Un procedimiento que ha sido utilizado en una serie de estudios con objetivos semejantes a los que tiene este trabajo es el llamado análi-sis colostruccional (collostructional analysis, cfr. Stefanowitsch-Gries 2003, GriesStefanowitsch 2004. En términos de sus autores, este tipo de análisis tiene dos ventajas principales: al basarse en la llamada Gramática de construcciones (Construction Grammar, o CxG, cfr.…”

“…Lo interesante de este valor es que es interpretable directamente, al contrario del valor p del análisis de Stefanowitsch-Gries (2003). Así pues, la cifra de 149,6 significa que una construcción que incluye el sustantivo convencimiento tiene una probabilidad de 150:1 de incluir también de que completiva comparado con una construcción que no incluye este sustantivo (cfr.…”

Finnish case alternating adpositions: a corpus study

“…Apparently, the costly operation of having an online construction alternation is only feasible if the collocation of that adposition with some object, the collostruction in terms of Stefanowitsch and Gries (2003), is frequent enough. If not, the collostruction will shift to a default choice.…”