Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T14:07:19.136Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Efficient Use of Function Words in English Alternations

from Part III - Case Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2022

Natalia Levshina
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Psycholinguistik, The Netherlands
Get access

Summary

This chapter presents three case studies that demonstrate that accessibility based on predictability relationships between constructions and their lexical fillers plays a role in alternations with longer and shorter alternative forms. The alternations are help + (to) Infinitive, Verb (at) home and go (and) Verb. I formulate the Hypothesis of Construction–Lexeme and Formal Length, which predicts the longer variants to be used when the associations are weaker, and shorter forms when the associations are stronger. This study demonstrates that the probabilistic relationships between constructions and collexemes can explain the choice between the shorter and longer constructional variants, which needs to be integrated in Constructionist theory. Moreover, we also see many other manifestations of high and low accessibility that determine the use of longer and shorter variants. This shows that language users adjust their output to the individual situation in many very subtle ways, depending on semantic features, inflectional forms, distances between constructional components, and many other factors.

Type
Chapter
Information
Communicative Efficiency
Language Structure and Use
, pp. 230 - 244
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×