Frequency and the Emergence of Linguistic Structure

Frequency and the Emergence of Linguistic Structure
Author: Joan L. Bybee
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 508
Release: 2001-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9789027229489

A mainstay of functional linguistics has been the claim that linguistic elements and patterns that are frequently used in discourse become conventionalized as grammar. This book addresses the two issues that are basic to this claim: first, the question of what types of elements are frequently used in discourse and second, the question of how frequency of use affects cognitive representations. Reporting on evidence from natural conversation, diachronic change, variability, child language acquisition and psycholinguistic experimentation the original articles in this book support two major principles. First, the content of people s interactions consists of a preponderance of subjective, evaluative statements, dominated by the use of pronouns, copulas and intransitive clauses. Second, the frequency with which certain items and strings of items are used has a profound influence on the way language is broken up into chunks in memory storage, the way such chunks are related to other stored material and the ease with which they are accessed to produce new utterances.

Frequency in Language

Frequency in Language
Author: Dagmar Divjak
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2019-10-10
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1107085756

Re-examines frequency, entrenchment and salience, three foundational concepts in usage-based linguistics, through the prism of learning, memory, and attention.

Point of View and Grammar

Point of View and Grammar
Author: Joanne Scheibman
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2002-01-01
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 9789027226211

This book proposes that subjective expression shapes grammatical and lexical patterning in American English conversation. Analyses of structural and functional properties of English conversational utterances indicate that the most frequent combinations of subject, tense, and verb type are those that are used by speakers to personalize their contributions, not to present unmediated descriptions of the world. These findings are informed by current research and practices in linguistics which argue that the emergence, or conventionalization, of linguistic structure is related to the frequency with which speakers use expressions in discourse. The use of conversational data in grammatical analysis illustrates the local and contingent nature of grammar in use and also raises theoretical questions concerning the coherence of linguistic categories, the viability of maintaining a distinction between semantic and pragmatic meaning in analytical practice, and the structural and social interplay of speaker point of view and participant interaction in discourse.

The Grammar Network

The Grammar Network
Author: Holger Diessel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2019-08-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1108498817

Provides a dynamic network model of grammar that explains how linguistic structure is shaped by language use.

Word Frequency Studies

Word Frequency Studies
Author: Ioan-Ioviț Popescu
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2009
Genre: Electronic books
ISBN: 3110218526

The present book finds and collects absolutely new aspects of word frequency. First, eminent characteristics (such as the h-point, first used in scientometrics, the k-, m-, and n-points) are introduced - it can be shown that the geometry of word frequency is fundamentally based on them. Furthermore, various indicators of text properties are proposed for the first time, such as thematic concentration, autosemantic text compactness, autosemantic density, etc. In detail, the autosemantic structure of a given text is evaluated by means of a graph representation and its properties (according to a problem from network research). Special emphasis is given to the part-of-speech differentiation, which plays a significant role in stylistics. On the basis of a general theory, which has been developed especially for linguistic research, problems of the frequency structure of texts with respect to word occurrence are investigated and discussed in detail. Methodologically, specific reference is made to synergetic linguistics, including some exemplary analyses, showing that there are points of contact with this field. A separate chapter is dedicated to within-sentence word position; this issue considers grammar as well as language genesis; another chapter is dedicated to the type-token ratio, discussing all established methods and their relevance for word frequency analysis. All methods presented in the book are statistically tested; to this end, some new tests have been developed. All procedures and calculations are conducted for 20 languages, ranging from Polynesia, Indonesia, India, and Europe to a North American Indian language. The broad distribution of the data and texts from all genres allows generalizations with respect to language typology.

Simulating the Evolution of Language

Simulating the Evolution of Language
Author: Angelo Cangelosi
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1447106636

This book is the first to provide a comprehensive survey of the computational models and methodologies used for studying the evolution and origin of language and communication. Comprising contributions from the most influential figures in the field, it presents and summarises the state-of-the-art in computational approaches to language evolution, and highlights new lines of development. Essential reading for researchers and students in the fields of evolutionary and adaptive systems, language evolution modelling and linguistics, it will also be of interest to researchers working on applications of neural networks to language problems. Furthermore, due to the fact that language evolution models use multi-agent methodologies, it will also be of great interest to computer scientists working on multi-agent systems, robotics and internet agents.

Frequency of Use and the Organization of Language

Frequency of Use and the Organization of Language
Author: Joan Bybee
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 374
Release: 2006-12-07
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0198041292

This volume collects three decades of articles by the distinguished linguist Joan Bybee. Her articles essentially argue for the importance off frequency of use as a factor in the analysis and explanation of language structure. Her work has been very influential for a broad range of researchers in linguistics, particularly in discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, phonology, phonetics, and historical linguistics.

Semantic Structure in English

Semantic Structure in English
Author: Jim Feist
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 470
Release: 2016-09-07
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027266522

Syntax puts our meaning (“semantics”) into sentences, and phonology puts the sentences into the sounds that we hear and there must, surely, be a structure in the meaning that is expressed in the syntax and phonology. Some writers use the phrase “semantic structure”, but are referring to conceptual structure; since we can express our conceptual thought in many different linguistic ways, we cannot equate conceptual and semantic structures. The research reported in this book shows semantic structure to be in part hierarchic, fitting the syntax in which it is expressed, and partly a network, fitting the nature of the mind, from which it springs. It is complex enough to provide for the emotive and imaginative dimensions of language, and for shifts of standard meanings in context, and the “rules” that control them. Showing the full structure of English semantics requires attention to many currently topical issues, and since the underlying theory is fresh, there are fresh implications for them. The most important of those issues is information structure, which is given full treatment, showing its overall structure, and its relation to semantics and the whole grammar of English. As of October 2024, this e-book is Open Access under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.

Language Change

Language Change
Author: Joan Bybee
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2015-05-28
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1107020166

This new introduction explores all aspects of language change, with an emphasis on the role of cognition and language use.

Language, Usage and Cognition

Language, Usage and Cognition
Author: Joan Bybee
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2010-04-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1139487027

Language demonstrates structure while also showing considerable variation at all levels: languages differ from one another while still being shaped by the same principles; utterances within a language differ from one another while exhibiting the same structural patterns; languages change over time, but in fairly regular ways. This book focuses on the dynamic processes that create languages and give them their structure and variance. It outlines a theory of language that addresses the nature of grammar, taking into account its variance and gradience, and seeks explanation in terms of the recurrent processes that operate in language use. The evidence is based on the study of large corpora of spoken and written language, what we know about how languages change, as well as the results of experiments with language users. The result is an integrated theory of language use and language change which has implications for cognitive processing and language evolution.