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...