Usage-Based Construction Selection

7 Pages Posted: 20 May 2011

See all articles by Ryan Dewey

Ryan Dewey

Case Western Reserve University - Department of Cognitive Science

Date Written: March 23, 2011

Abstract

Broadly, the cognitive linguistic enterprise seeks to identify an emergentist approach to language that investigates the motivation of language use, considers the effects of distributed cognition in situated communication, views complex systems of form-meaning pairings as primitives, and views online processing as dynamic. Within this tradition, this essay takes the position that language use is a manifestation of construal operations in the selection process of utilizing appropriate constructions which encode speaker perspective in a situated common ground. What follows is a usage-based treatment of the situated nature of construction selection in adult language informed by research in child language acquisition, discourse studies of communication, and construction grammar.

Keywords: Usage-Based Grammar, Construal, Construction Grammar, Cultural Meaning Systems, Common Ground

Suggested Citation

Dewey, Ryan, Usage-Based Construction Selection (March 23, 2011). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1846512 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1846512

Ryan Dewey (Contact Author)

Case Western Reserve University - Department of Cognitive Science ( email )

10900 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44106-7068
United States

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