A Complementary Study of Lexicalist Approaches and Constructionist Approaches (China Perspectives)

This book presents a complementary study of lexicalist approaches and constructionist approaches in linguistics. Specific topics discussed include different versions of semantic roles, predicate decomposition, event structures, argument realizations, and cognitive construction grammars.

For decades, the relationship between certain concepts and constructions along with related issues of verb-construction associations have been perennially taxing for both lexicalist and constructionist approaches alike. Indeed, in Chinese, unmatched verb-construction associations and the much richer alternate realizations pose very difficult problems. Based on a comparative study, the authors make an attempt to account for the possible correspondence between the delicacy of argument setting and the principles of their realization. They also account for the integration of construction with verbs in terms of their coherent conceptual content. The resultant newly developed model throws new light on these thorny Chinese problems.

The book will appeal to scholars and students studying cognitive linguistics, cognitive semantics, computational linguistics, and also natural language processing. The book also brings up some new analysis of Chinese data for both researchers and learners of Modern Chinese.

Qilong Cheng, Professor of Linguistics at Shanghai University, China. Professor Cheng is developing a formal model to account for the realization relations between richer conceptual contents and various constructions. He has been cultivating a hyper-disciplinary view with a formal model which is not incompatible with neurological evidence and is operational in both comprehension and production processes.

Qianwen Cheng, Lecturer of English at Shanghai University, China. In her recent published articles, Dr. Cheng is developing a new version of Cognitive Event Frame to adequately account for both the verb-construction associations and the alternate realizations.