Cover not available

Article published In: International Journal of Chinese Linguistics
Vol. 5:2 (2018) ► pp.171–194

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Differentiating a construction into a structure

 | University of Hawaii
Published online: 13 December 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijchl.17009.hsi
Abstract
This paper proposes a reconciliation of two opposite perspectives on a syntactic configuration and its associated semantic interpretation. Of these two, one is the view that a syntactic structure maps onto its semantic structure on a strict compositionality condition, and one is the view that a syntactic construction is not strictly compositional but has an inherent, endowed meaning, not compositionally derived. The proposed resolution attempts to settle the disagreement by differentiating an endowed-meaning construction into a compatible compositional-meaning structure, which in reverse is integrated into the original construction. As a result, structure and construction emerge as two sides of the same coin, and the disagreement is resolved.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Constructions as a rejection of formalism
  • 3.Constructions as derived from structures
  • 4.Segments in an altered construction
  • 5.Omissions characterizing constructions
  • 6.Famous examples of construction
  • 7.Tai’s principle of temporal sequence
  • 8.Universalism, nativism, and cultural choices
  • 9.Conclusion
  • References
References (14)
References
Berwick, Robert C., and Noam Chomsky. (2016). Why only us: language and evolution. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chierchia, Gennaro, and Sally McConnell-Ginet. (2000). Meaning and Grammar, 2nd edition. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldberg, Adele. (1995). Constructions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2006). Constructions at Work. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldberg, Adele, and Ray Jackendoff. (2004). The resultative as a family of constructions. Language 801:532–68. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heim, Irene, and Angelika Kratzer. (1998). Semantics in Generative Grammar. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Her, Onesoon. (1997). Interaction and Variation in the Chinese VO Constructions. Taipei: Crane Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hsieh, Hsin-I. (1991). Interaction: some basic concepts. Unpublished Manuscript.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huang, C-T. James. (2015). On syntactic analyticity and parametric theory. In Chinese Syntax in a Cross-Linguistic Perspective, ed. Audrey Li, Andrew Simpson, and Dylan Tsai, 1–48. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Newmeyer, Frederick J. (1992). Iconicity and generative grammar. Language 68(4).756–96. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tai, James H.-Y. (1985). Temporal sequence and Chinese word order. Iconicity in syntax, ed. by John Haiman, 49–72. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2002). Temporal sequence in Chinese: A rejoinder. Form and Function: Linguistic Studies in Honor of Shuanfan Huang, ed. By Lily I-wen Su, Chinfa Lien, and Kawai Chui, 331–351. Taipei: Crane.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Talmy, Leonard. (2000). Toward a Cognitive Semantics (2 volumes). Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wang, W. S.-Y. (1999). Language and people of China. Chinese Languages and Linguistics V: Interactions in Language, ed. by Yuen-mei Yin, I-li Yang, and Hui-chen Chan, 1–26. Taipei: Academia Sinica.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue