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3 - Usage-Based Approaches to Spanish Linguistics

from Part I - Theories and Approaches to Spanish Linguistics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2018

By
Esther L. Brown
Edited by
Kimberly L. Geeslin
Kimberly L. Geeslin
Affiliation:
Indiana University
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Summary

This chapter presents an overview of usage-based approaches to Spanish Linguistics, principally with regards to phonology. After a brief discussion of precursors to usage-based approaches, the data and methods commonly employed within this framework are reviewed. Key constructs, central to usage-based approaches, are exemplified by means of a survey of usage-based research into variable /s/ realizations in multiple varieties of Spanish. Importantly, the role of usage patterns in shaping form and meaning in language is illustrated with evidence of effects of token frequency (word frequency), type frequency, and discourse context frequency on patterns of phonological variation. The research summarized supports the view of a lexicon able to track and store vast amounts of information regarding words’ instances of use. The nature and size of units of storage in memory, as well as the relationships between stored words and strings of words (schematic ties), in an exemplar model of lexical representation are considered.
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Chapter
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The Cambridge Handbook of Spanish Linguistics , pp. 52 - 71
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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