English Adjectival Inflection: A radical Radical Construction Grammar Approach

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English Adjectival InflectionA radical
Radical Construction Grammar Approach

• John Newman Sally Rice
• University of Alberta
• CSDL 2006
• UC San Diego

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Bertrand Russells Emotive Conjugations
singular

• Im tenacious
• youre stubborn
• hes pigheaded

1 2 3
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• inflection-specific
• adjectival meaning and behavior
• in English

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a radicalRadical Construction Grammar approach
language-specific (typologically
aware) construction-specific (context
sensitive) inflection-specific (lemma
sceptical)
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a radicalRadical Construction Grammar approach
language-specific (typologically
aware) construction-specific (context
sensitive) inflection-specific (lemma
sceptical)
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English Adjectival Inflection
inflectional periphrastic
suppletive positive tall interesting
good comparative taller more interesting
better superlative tallest most interesting
best
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English Adjectival Inflection FACTORS
semantics etymology / derivation syllable
structure (Quirk Greenbaum, Kytö
Romaine 1997, Biber et al. 1999
) phonotactics register / dialect
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English Adjectival Inflection FACTORS
semantics etymology / derivation syllable
structure (Quirk Greenbaum, Kytö
Romaine 1997, Biber et al. 1999
) phonotactics register / dialect inflectional
island effects (Rice Newman 2005)
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Inflectional Islands
Syntactic (constructional), semantic, and
collocational properties tend to inhere in
individual inflections of a lexical item in a
register-specific manner. These properties may
not extend across all the inflections (the
paradigm) to characterize the lemma as a whole.

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THE VERBISLAND HYPOTHESISTomasello 1992, 2004
THE INFLECTIONAL ISLAND HYPOTHESISRice Newman
2005
V lt lt lt inflection
V gt gt gt inflection

• children tend to use uninflected verb roots
  before inflected forms
• verb inflections are mastered on a verb-by-verb
  basis
• generalization is gradual
• initially, particular verbs strand inflections

• adults use particular inflected forms of
  individual verbs on a register-specific basis
• verb inflections adhere to verbs on a
  verb-by-verb basis
• particularization is gradual
• eventually, inflections strand particular verbs

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DISTRIBUTION OF SOME BASIC VERBS IN THE BNC BASED
ON TAM INFLECTION
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IMPLICATIONS OF USAGE-BASED APPROACHES TO GRAMMAR
a new starting point for linguistic analysis put
lemmas aside (as done earlier with syntactic rule
in favor of constructions) substitute
words-in-context or WICs (intersection of genre,
register, inflection) a new (lower) level of
linguistic generalization find the hierarchy of
lower-level structures...that specify the
actual array of subcases and specific instances
that support and give rise to the higher-level
generalization RWL, Concept, Image, Symbol,
1991281-282
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WICs
locus of lexicalization and grammaticalization act
ive in borrowings and morphological
realignment spawn psychological associations,
induce priming effects
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English Inflected Adjectives as WICs
uneven distribution alternate marking newer more
new double marking bestest most
commonest inflectional gaps sheer
-er sheerest inflectional idiosyncracies irregu
lar semantics collocational preferences of
WICs constructional properties of WICs
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English Inflected Adjectives as WICs
uneven distribution alternate marking newer more
new double marking bestest most
commonest inflectional gaps sheer
-er sheerest inflectional idiosyncracies irregu
lar semantics collocational preferences of
WICs constructional properties of WICs
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Our focus here
1. Inflectional idiosyncracies (relative
frequencies) 2. N collocates 3. A
collocates 4. Constructions
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1. Inflectional idiosyncracies of A, Aer, Aest
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1. Inflectional idiosyncracies of A, Aer, Aest
BEST
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1. Inflectional idiosyncracies of A, Aer, Aest
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1. Inflectional idiosyncracies of A, Aer, Aest
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1. Inflectional idiosyncracies of A, Aer, Aest
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1. Inflectional idiosyncracies of A, Aer, Aest
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2. N collocates of A, Aer, Aest
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2. N collocates of A, Aer, Aest
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2. N collocates of A, Aer, Aest
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2. N collocates of A, Aer, Aest
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2. N collocates of A, Aer, Aest
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2. N collocates of A, Aer, Aest
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2. N collocates of A, Aer, Aest
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3. A collocates of A, Aer, Aest
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4. Misc. constructions with A, Aer, Aest
It is _____ to...
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4. Misc. constructions with A, Aer, Aest
It is _____ to...
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4. Misc. constructions with A, Aer, Aest
It is _____ to...
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4. Misc. constructions with A, Aer, Aest
A-er than NORM
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4. Misc. constructions with A, Aer, Aest
A-er than NORM
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a radical RCG approach to English adjectival
inflection
A and A A-er and A-er more A and more
A A-est and A-est most A and most A even
A-er even more A A-er N more A N A-est
N most A N N be A-er N be more A N be
A-est N be most A
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A radical RCG approach to allows us to leave the
paradigm behind.Paradigms (lemmas) have value
for some purposes, but they often end up
straight-jacketing an analysis.The conceit of
the paradigm tends to dull our interest in
looking at the lexical semantics of inflected
forms in their own right (cf. the Russellian
conjugations).Some items do escape the shackles
of the paradigm and actually become lexical items
in their own right.
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• A radical RCG approach to allows us to leave the
  paradigm behind.
• Paradigms (lemmas) have value for some purposes,
  but they often end up straight-jacketing an
  analysis.
• The conceit of the paradigm tends to dull our
  interest in looking at the lexical semantics of
  inflected forms in their own right.
• Some items do escape the shackles of the paradigm
  and actually become lexical items in their own
  right (cf. the Russellian conjugations).

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a radical RCG approach to English adjectival
inflection
rath(e) rather rathest
nigh near next nearest
forme former first foremost
late later last latest
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a radical RCG approach to English adjectival
inflection
rath(e) rather rathest
nigh near next nearest
forme former first foremost
late later last latest
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Thank you.