CSLI COGLUNCH
            on Thursday, 12 February 2004, 12:15pm-1:30pm
                        Cordura Hall, Room 100
            http://www-csli.stanford.edu/events/Coglunch/

                   "The Language of Constructions"
                            Adele Goldberg
         Linguistics, University of Illinois and CASBS fellow

Observations about particular grammatical constructions have long
shaped our understanding of both particular languages and the nature
of Language itself.  But only recently has a new theoretical approach
emerged that allows observations about constructions to be stated
directly, providing long-standing traditions with a framework that
allows both broad generalizations and more limited patterns to be
analyzed and accounted for fully. Many linguists with varying
backgrounds have converged on several key insights that have given
rise to a family of constructionist approaches.

Constructionist approaches share certain foundational ideas with the
mainstream generative approach that has held sway for the past several
decades (Chomsky 1957; 1965; 1981). Both approaches agree that it is
essential to consider language as a cognitive (mental) system; both
approaches acknowledge that there must be a way to combine structures
to create novel utterances, and both approaches recognize that a
non-trivial theory of language learning is needed.

In other ways, constructionist approaches contrast sharply with the
mainstream generative approach. Constructional approaches hold that
the nature of language can best be revealed by studying formal
structures as they relate to semantic or discourse functions.
Functional differences between formal patterns are emphasized.
Semi-regular patterns and cross-linguistically unusual patterns are
accounted for.  Language is argued to be learned inductively by
general cognitive mechanisms and therefore learners need not be
hard-wired with knowledge that is specific to language (`universal
grammar').

A set of recent experimental studies on language acquisition,
production and comprehension will be reported that illustrate and lend
support to a constructional approach.

About the Speaker: Adele E. Goldberg is Associate Professor in the
Department of Linguistics at the University of Illinois, and is
visiting Stanford this year as a fellow at the Center for Advanced
Studies in the Behavioral Sciences.