This paper presents a psycholinguistic analysis of constructions and their acquisition. It investigates effects upon naturalistic second language acquisition of type/token distributions in the islands comprising the linguistic form of English verb-argument constructions (VACs: VL verb locative, VOL verb object locative, VOO ditransitive) in the ESF corpus (Perdue, 1993). Goldberg (2006) argued that Zipfian type/token frequency distribution of verbs in natural language might optimize construction learning by providing one very high frequency exemplar that is also prototypical in meaning. Ellis & Ferreira-Junior (2009) confirmed that in the naturalistic L2A of English, VAC verb type/token distribution in the input is Zipfian and learners first acquire the most frequent, prototypical and generic exemplar (e.g. put in VOL, give in VOO, etc.). This paper further illustrates how acquisition is affected by the frequency and frequency distribution of exemplars within each island of the construction (e.g. [Subj V Obj Oblpath/loc]), by their prototypicality, and, using a variety of psychological and corpus linguistic association metrics, by their contingency of form-function mapping.
2025. Complexity and Difficulty in Second Language Acquisition: A Theoretical and Methodological Overview. Language Learning 75:2 ► pp. 533 ff.
Casal, J. Elliott, Christopher M. Stewart, Alistair J. Windsor & Andreas Trotzke
2025. “It is important to consult” a linguist: Verb-Argument Constructions in ChatGPT and human experts’ medical and financial advice. PLOS One 20:5 ► pp. e0324611 ff.
2025. Verb semantic cohesion in L2 production: a semantic network analysis of written and spoken modalities by Korean EFL learners. Applied Linguistics
Kim, Hyunwoo, Woonhyung Chung & Heechung Nam
2025. NLP-based analysis of verb semantic cohesion in L2 writing: Interaction of genre and proficiency on verb networks. System 131 ► pp. 103657 ff.
Li, Yuanke & Junlin Wang
2025. EFL Learners’ Development of Multiword Sequences and Constructions in Longitudinal Integrated Narrative Writings and Their Relationships to Essay Scores. International Journal of Applied Linguistics
Lu, Yuan
2025. L2 competence in Chinese correlative connectives: A case of discontinuous discursive formulaic sequences. Language Teaching Research 29:1 ► pp. 288 ff.
Lu, Yuan
2025. L2 development of Chinese correlative connectives: Cluster and error analyses. System 131 ► pp. 103668 ff.
Patrizzi, Laura
2025. The development of flexibility and abstraction in the acquisition of the German ditransitive construction. Yearbook of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association
Rubin, Rachel, Bram Bulté, Magali Paquot & Alex Housen
2025. Exploring complexity at the lexis-grammar interface: Diversity and sophistication of verb-argument structures in L2 Dutch writing. Journal of Second Language Writing 67 ► pp. 101183 ff.
Shin, Gyu-Ho, Boo Kyung Jung & Minseok Yang
2025. Learning Environment and Learning Outcome: Evidence from Korean Subject–Predicate Honorific Agreement. Languages 10:8 ► pp. 180 ff.
吕, 岩
2025. A Review of Research on the Acquisition of Verb-Argument Constructions in Second Language (English). Modern Linguistics 13:09 ► pp. 322 ff.
DeVore, Susanne & Marjolijn Verspoor
2024. Network science in a dynamic usage-based approach. Research Methods in Applied Linguistics 3:3 ► pp. 100150 ff.
Goschler, Juliana & Anatol Stefanowitsch
2024. Constructional Transfer in L2 Learning: The Role of Entrenchment. Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik 72:3 ► pp. 283 ff.
2024. Verb argument constructions in argumentative essays by college-level Asian learners of English: Exploring the effects of English proficiency, acquisition context, and topic. Journal of Second Language Writing 65 ► pp. 101127 ff.
2024. Usage events and constructional knowledge: A study of two variants of the introductory-it construction. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 46:2 ► pp. 355 ff.
Casal, J. Elliott & Jungwan Yoon
2023. Frame-based formulaic features in L2 writing pedagogy: Variants, functions, and student writer perceptions in academic writing. English for Specific Purposes 71 ► pp. 102 ff.
DeVore, Susanne & Kristopher Kyle
2023. Assessing syntactic and lexicogrammatical use in second language Mandarin writing samples. Journal of Second Language Writing 60 ► pp. 101014 ff.
Edmonds, Amanda & Aarnes Gudmestad
2023. Phraseological Use and Development During a Stay Abroad: Exploring Sensitivity to Frequency and Cue Contingency. Language Learning 73:2 ► pp. 475 ff.
Garcia Rosa, Rodrigo
2023. Take the plunge. BELT - Brazilian English Language Teaching Journal 14:1
Kapatsinski, Vsevolod
2023. Learning fast while avoiding spurious excitement and overcoming cue competition requires setting unachievable goals: reasons for using the logistic activation function in learning to predict categorical outcomes. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience 38:4 ► pp. 575 ff.
Kim, Hyunwoo & Eunseok Ro
2023. Additive extensive reading and syntactic development in second language writing: Analyses of syntactic complexity and sophistication in young EFL learners’ book reports. Journal of Second Language Writing 61 ► pp. 101040 ff.
Kim, Hyunwoo & Eunseok Ro
2023. Assessment of sentence sophistication in L2 spoken production: Expansion of verbs and argument structure constructions. System 119 ► pp. 103175 ff.
Kim, Hyunwoo & Eunseok Ro
2024. Usage-based approaches to assessing syntactic sophistication in second language writing: Interaction of genre and proficiency. Journal of Second Language Writing 65 ► pp. 101131 ff.
Li, Yuxi & Ruiying Yang
2023. Assessing the writing quality of English research articles based on absolute and relative measures of syntactic complexity. Assessing Writing 55 ► pp. 100692 ff.
Sanchez-Stockhammer, Christina & Peter Uhrig
2023. “I’m gonna get totally and utterly X-ed.” Constructing drunkenness. Yearbook of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association 11:1 ► pp. 121 ff.
Schneider, Gerold
2023. Detecting and Analysing Learner Difficulties Using a Learner Corpus Without Error Tagging. In Demystifying Corpus Linguistics for English Language Teaching, ► pp. 229 ff.
Van Hoey, Thomas
2023. ABB, a salient prototype of collocate–ideophone constructions in Mandarin Chinese. Cognitive Linguistics 0:0
Casal, J. Elliott, Yasuhiro Shirai & Xiaofei Lu
2022. English verb-argument construction profiles in a specialized academic corpus: Variation by genre and discipline. English for Specific Purposes 66 ► pp. 94 ff.
Hwang, Haerim
2022. Syntactico-semantic realizations of pronouns in the English transitive construction: A corpus-based analysis. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory 18:1 ► pp. 115 ff.
Jiang, Canzhong & Xu Wen
2022. Constructional network at work in second language acquisition. Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education 7:1
2022. Bilingual processing of verbal and constructional information in English dative constructions: effects of cross-linguistic influence. Cognitive Linguistics 33:4 ► pp. 701 ff.
Kim, Hyunwoo & Haerim Hwang
2022. Assessing Verb‐Construction Integration in Young Learners of English as a Foreign Language: Analyses of Written and Spoken Production. Language Learning 72:2 ► pp. 497 ff.
Kim, Hyunwoo & Haerim Hwang
2025. Learning contexts and proficiency matter: L2 real-time sensitivity to conventional and unconventional dative pattern. Language and Cognition 17
2025. The interplay of verbs and argument structure constructions in second language processing: roles of verb’s lexical properties and verb–construction association. Cognitive Linguistics 36:1 ► pp. 59 ff.
Li, Lexi Xiaoduo
2022. Improving Modal Verb Treatment in English Textbooks Used by Chinese Learners: A Corpus-Based Approach. Sage Open 12:1
Lyu, Jing, Muhammad Ilyas Chishti & Zhibin Peng
2022. Marked distinctions in syntactic complexity: A case of second language university learners’ and native speakers’ syntactic constructions. Frontiers in Psychology 13
2022. Why are multiword units hard to acquire for late L2 learners? Insights from cognitive science on adult learning, processing, and retrieval. Linguistics Vanguard 8:1 ► pp. 237 ff.
Pulido, Manuel F.
2023. Generalizing Knowledge of Second Language Collocations: The Roles of Within‐ and Cross‐Language Similarity on Acceptability and Event‐Related Potentials. Language Learning 73:2 ► pp. 578 ff.
Pulido, Manuel F.
2023. Processing conventional and non-conventional multiword units: evidence of similarity-based generalisation from judgements and brain potentials. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience 38:5 ► pp. 651 ff.
2022. Revisiting the predictive power of traditional vs. fine-grained syntactic complexity indices for L2 writing quality: The case of two genres. Assessing Writing 51 ► pp. 100597 ff.
2021. Durational Patterns of Recurrent Multiword Combinations in Mandarin Spontaneous Speech Production. Language and Speech 64:3 ► pp. 742 ff.
Gedik, Tan Arda
2021. An analysis of lexicogrammatical development in English textbooks in Turkey: A usage-based construction grammar approach. ExELL 9:1 ► pp. 26 ff.
Hoffmann, Thomas
2021. The Cognitive Foundation of Post-colonial Englishes,
HORBOWICZ, PAULINA & MARTE NORDANGER
2021. Epistemic constructions in L2 Norwegian: a usage-based longitudinal study of formulaic and productive patterns. Language and Cognition 13:3 ► pp. 438 ff.
Kyle, Kristopher, Scott Crossley & Marjolijn Verspoor
2021. MEASURING LONGITUDINAL WRITING DEVELOPMENT USING INDICES OF SYNTACTIC COMPLEXITY AND SOPHISTICATION. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 43:4 ► pp. 781 ff.
RAMSCAR, Michael
2021. How children learn to communicate discriminatively. Journal of Child Language 48:5 ► pp. 984 ff.
Thompson, Arthur Lewis, Thomas Van Hoey & Youngah Do
2021. Articulatory features of phonemes pattern to iconic meanings: evidence from cross-linguistic ideophones. Cognitive Linguistics 32:4 ► pp. 563 ff.
2025. Construction-Based Language Learning and Teaching. In The Cambridge Handbook of Construction Grammar, ► pp. 596 ff.
Deshors, Sandra C. & Sandra Götz
2020. Common ground across globalized English varieties: A multivariate exploration of mental predicates in World Englishes. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory 16:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Kim, Hyunwoo, Gyu-Ho Shin & Haerim Hwang
2020. INTEGRATION OF VERBAL AND CONSTRUCTIONAL INFORMATION IN THE SECOND LANGUAGE PROCESSING OF ENGLISH DATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 42:4 ► pp. 825 ff.
Monteiro, Kátia R, Crossley, Scott A & Kyle, Kristopher
2020. In Search of New Benchmarks: Using L2 Lexical Frequency and Contextual Diversity Indices to Assess Second Language Writing. Applied Linguistics 41:2 ► pp. 280 ff.
Mostafa, Tamanna & Scott A. Crossley
2020. Verb argument construction complexity indices and L2 writing quality: Effects of writing tasks and prompts. Journal of Second Language Writing 49 ► pp. 100730 ff.
Pattemore, Anastasia & Carmen Muñoz
2020. Learning L2 constructions from captioned audio-visual exposure: The effect of learner-related factors. System 93 ► pp. 102303 ff.
Chen, Alvin Cheng‐Hsien
2019. Assessing Phraseological Development in Word Sequences of Variable Lengths in Second Language Texts Using Directional Association Measures. Language Learning 69:2 ► pp. 440 ff.
Crossley, Scott A., Stephen Skalicky, Kristopher Kyle & Katia Monteiro
2019. ABSOLUTE FREQUENCY EFFECTS IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEXICAL ACQUISITION. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 41:04 ► pp. 721 ff.
Gustafsson, Hana
2019. Making do. Review of Cognitive Linguistics 17:2 ► pp. 382 ff.
Hijazo-Gascón, Alberto & Reyes Llopis-García
2019. Applied cognitive linguistics and foreign language learning. Introduction to the special issue. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 57:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Ibarretxe-Antuñano, Iraide & Fátima Cheikh-Khamis
2019. “How to become a woman without turninginto a Barbie”: Change-of-state verbconstructions and their role in Spanish as a Foreign Language. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 57:1 ► pp. 97 ff.
Kim, Hyunwoo & Min-Chang Sung
2019. A Usage-based Analysis of L2 Production of English Resultative Constructions. Lanaguage Research 55:1 ► pp. 151 ff.
Rastelli, Stefano
2019. The discontinuity model: Statistical and grammatical learning in adult second-language acquisition. Language Acquisition 26:4 ► pp. 387 ff.
2017. Thinking About Multiword Constructions: Usage‐Based Approaches to Acquisition and Processing. Topics in Cognitive Science 9:3 ► pp. 604 ff.
Kyle, Kristopher & Scott Crossley
2017. Assessing syntactic sophistication in L2 writing: A usage-based approach. Language Testing 34:4 ► pp. 513 ff.
Lester, Nicholas A., John W. Du Bois, Stefan Th. Gries & Fermín Moscoso del Prado Martín
2017. Considering experimental and observational evidence of priming together, syntax doesn't look so autonomous. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 40
Paquot, Magali
2017. L1 frequency in foreign language acquisition: Recurrent word combinations in French and Spanish EFL learner writing. Second Language Research 33:1 ► pp. 13 ff.
Paquot, Magali
2019. The phraseological dimension in interlanguage complexity research. Second Language Research 35:1 ► pp. 121 ff.
CROSSLEY, SCOTT, KRISTOPHER KYLE & THOMAS SALSBURY
2016. A Usage‐Based Investigation of L2 Lexical Acquisition: The Role of Input and Output. The Modern Language Journal 100:3 ► pp. 702 ff.
2017. Zooming in on Verbs in the Progressive: A Collostructional and Correspondence Analysis Approach. Journal of English Linguistics 45:3 ► pp. 260 ff.
GOLDBERG, ADELE E.
2016. Partial productivity of linguistic constructions: Dynamic categorization and statistical preemption. Language and Cognition 8:3 ► pp. 369 ff.
Matusevych, Yevgen, Afra Alishahi & Ad Backus
2016. Modelling verb selection within argument structure constructions. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience 31:10 ► pp. 1215 ff.
Xu, Qi
2016. Item-based foreign language learning of give ditransitive constructions: Evidence from corpus research. System 63 ► pp. 65 ff.
2015. Learning to Think in a Second Language: Effects of Proficiency and Length of Exposure in English Learners of German. The Modern Language Journal 99:S1 ► pp. 138 ff.
Ellis, Nick C., Matthew Brook O'Donnell & Ute Römer
2015. Usage‐Based Language Learning. In The Handbook of Language Emergence, ► pp. 163 ff.
Eskildsen, Søren W.
2015. What Counts as a Developmental Sequence? Exemplar‐Based L2 Learning of English Questions. Language Learning 65:1 ► pp. 33 ff.
Eskildsen, Søren W.
2018. Building a semiotic repertoire for social action: interactional competence as biographical discovery. Classroom Discourse 9:1 ► pp. 68 ff.
2015. More (old and new) misunderstandings of collostructional analysis: On Schmid and Küchenhoff (2013). Cognitive Linguistics 26:3 ► pp. 505 ff.
Th. Gries, Stefan
2025. Corpus Linguistics and the Cognitive/Constructional Endeavor. In The Cambridge Handbook of Construction Grammar, ► pp. 171 ff.
Gries, Stefan Th. & Nick C. Ellis
2015. Statistical Measures for Usage‐Based Linguistics. Language Learning 65:S1 ► pp. 228 ff.
Hampe, Beate
2015. Syntax from and for Discourse: Adverbial Clauses as Item-Specific Constructions in Spontaneous Spoken English. Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik 63:3 ► pp. 295 ff.
Hoffmann, Sebastian, Bettina Fischer-Starcke & Andrea Sand
2014. Tracing an L2 Learner's Motion Constructions Over Time: A Usage‐based Classroom Investigation. The Modern Language Journal 98:2 ► pp. 612 ff.
Li, Peiwen, Søren W. Eskildsen & Teresa Cadierno
2014. Tracing an L2 Learner's Motion Constructions Over Time: A Usage-based Classroom Investigation. The Modern Language Journal 98:2 ► pp. 612 ff.
Römer, Ute, Matthew Brook O'Donnell & Nick C. Ellis
2014. Second Language Learner Knowledge of Verb–Argument Constructions: Effects of Language Transfer and Typology. The Modern Language Journal 98:4 ► pp. 952 ff.
WULFF, STEFANIE, NICHOLAS LESTER & MARIA T. MARTINEZ-GARCIA
2014. That-variation in German and Spanish L2 English. Language and Cognition 6:2 ► pp. 271 ff.
Wulff, Stefanie
2013.
Input matters. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 3:3 ► pp. 362 ff.
Ellis, Nick C.
2012. Corpus Study: Cognitive Implications. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics,
Fkih, Fethi & Mohamed Nazih Omri
2012. Information Retrieval from Unstructured Web Text Document Based on Automatic Learning of the Threshold. International Journal of Information Retrieval Research 2:4 ► pp. 12 ff.
Fkih, Fethi & Mohamed Nazih Omri
2013. Estimation of a Priori Decision Threshold for Collocations Extraction. International Journal of Information Technology and Web Engineering 8:3 ► pp. 34 ff.
Rebuschat, Patrick
2012. Ellis, Nick. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics,
Ellis, Nick C. & Diane Larsen‐Freeman
2009. Constructing a Second Language: Analyses and Computational Simulations of the Emergence of Linguistic Constructions From Usage. Language Learning 59:s1 ► pp. 90 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 14 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.
