Construction Grammar (CxG) is a major theoretical framework in linguistics whose impact is only growing, as much in terms of domains of application (e.g. morpho-syntax, lexicography, phraseology, diachrony, language acquisition, psycholinguistics, etc) as in the number of empirical and experimental methods used to test each of the hypotheses put forward (cf. Hoffmann and
Trousdale 2013). One of the key tenets of Construction Grammar is that linguistic knowledge is usage-based (Goldberg 2013: 16), which promotes a contextualized approach to language. This approach encourages us to analyze each construction not in isolation but by taking into account its immediate environment, be it the linguistic context (called cotext) or the extra-linguistic context. The analysis of the cotext makes it possible in particular to account for the lexical and/or grammatical preferences of a construction and, thus, to identify crucial differences within the same paradigm (e.g. Bergs and Diewald 2009, Yoon and Gries 2016). The analysis of the extra-linguistic context permits to pin down certain use conditions (e.g. textual genre, politeness strategies), to determine the exact contribution that constructions make during the interpretation process, and to identify fine meaning effects (Cappelle 2017, Finkbeiner 2019, Leclercq 2020). The term "context" must be taken here in its broadest definition, i.e. any linguistic or extralinguistic environment that may directly or indirectly impact the use or the meaning of a construction. Therefore, this also means accounting for the multimodal nature of verbal interaction (e.g. Zima and Bergs 2017).
This workshop offers a platform for all CxG-based research that aims to explain how the co(n)text in which a construction appears influences its interpretation and/or its use. For its second edition (the first, organized by Romain Delhem, Vincent Hugou and Caroline Marty, took place in 2021 at Sorbonne University), this workshop will focus on projects that address the issue in connection with educational and/or lexicographical resources (e.g. Perek 2021). Any proposal that also addresses the following topics will of course be accepted (non-exhaustive list):
- Meaning construction in context
To what extent can co(n)textual factors influence the interpretation of a construction? Can a construction withstand context? How?
- Semantics and pragmatics
What kind of functions, semantic and pragmatic, can a construction have? Is it desirable to make a distinction? If so, why and according to what definition? If not, why?
Can a construction be used primarily for its pragmatic functions, in spite of its semantic functions? What implications does this have for the development of this construction?
- Constructions and paradigms
Can context influence the choice of a construction within a paradigm?
Does the choice of a construction within a paradigm (always) entail a variation in meaning?
- Context and productivity
Apart from formal and cognitive constraints (e.g. frequency), what contextual constraints can impact the productivity of a construction?
- Constructions and diachrony
What models permit to establish that a morpho-syntactic schema is going through a process of constructionalization? How does the constructional network unfold over time?
Presentations can relate to one or more specific constructions, in one or more languages.
Communications will be in French or English. Each presentation will last 20 minutes and will be followed by 10 minutes for questions.
Abstracts (400 words maximum, references excluded) are to be submitted before May 31, 2022 (1st call) June 15, 2022 (2nd call) on SciencesConf (contextes2022.sciencesconf.org). They should present clearly the research question, the method, the data and the (expected) results.
References:
Bergs, Alexander and Gabriele Diewald. (2009). Contexts and constructions. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Cappelle, Bert. (2017). What's pragmatics doing outside constructions? In Ilse Depraetere and Raphael Salkie (Eds.), Semantics and pragmatics: Drawing a line, 115-151. Berlin: Springer International Publishing.
Finkbeiner, Rita. (2019). Reflections on the role of pragmatics in Construction Grammar. In Constructions and Frames 11(2): 171-192.
Goldberg, Adele. (2013). Constructionist approaches. In Thomas Hoffmann and Graeme Trousdale (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Construction Grammar, 15-31. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hoffmann, Thomas and Graeme Trousdale. (2013). The Oxford handbook of Construction Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Leclercq, Benoît. (2020). Semantics and pragmatics in Construction Grammar. In Belgian Journal of Linguistics 34: 225-234.
Perek, Florent. (2021). Construction Grammar in action: the English Constructicon project. In CogniTextes 21.
Yoon, Jiyoung and Stefan Gries. (2016). Corpus-based approaches to Construction Grammar. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Zima, Elizabeth and Alexander Bergs. (2017). Toward a multimodal Construction Grammar. In Linguistics Vanguard 3:s1.
