Florent Perek invited speaker at the University of Pisa

Dr Florent Perek will be giving an invited talk at the University of Pisa on 11 May 2016. The title of the talk will be: "Modelling constructional change with distributional semantics".

In the nascent field of diachronic construction grammar (DCxG, Traugott & Trousdale 2013), language change is analysed with reference to the idea that grammar is best described as a structured inventory of form-meaning pairs, aka constructions (Goldberg 1995, 2006). For instance, the English way-construction (e.g., They hacked their way through the jungle) pairs the form [NP V one’s way PP] with the notion that the subject referent moves along some path. In DCxG, language change consists either in the creation of new form-meaning pairs (constructionalisation), or in changes in aspects of the form or meaning of existing constructions (constructional change). Read more...