Ideal and real paradigms: language users, reference works and corpora

This article approaches defective and overabundant paradigm cells as an opportunity and pitfall for usage-based linguistics. Through reference to two production tasks involving native speakers of Czech, we show how definitions of these two categories are problematized when multiple forms per context...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bermel Neil, Knittl Luděk, Alldrick Martin, Nikolaev Alexandre
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: De Gruyter 2024-05-01
Series:Cognitive Linguistics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2023-0032
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849225132238700544
author Bermel Neil
Knittl Luděk
Alldrick Martin
Nikolaev Alexandre
author_facet Bermel Neil
Knittl Luděk
Alldrick Martin
Nikolaev Alexandre
author_sort Bermel Neil
collection DOAJ
description This article approaches defective and overabundant paradigm cells as an opportunity and pitfall for usage-based linguistics. Through reference to two production tasks involving native speakers of Czech, we show how definitions of these two categories are problematized when multiple forms per context are entrenched, or when pre-emption seems to occur in the absence of entrenchment: in other words, pre-emption occurs via entrenchment of uncertainty. We explain the results by adopting a broader, usage-based perspective. We examine the relationship between frequency (as proxy for exposure) and reference-work information (as proxy for a priori structure) to assess their connection with our experimental results. We assign a role to frequency as helping to form perceptions of “suitable” and “unsuitable” forms, but also note places where non-frequency factors predominate. “Structure” as represented by reference-work recommendations appears to have no significant connection to our experimental results; we discuss reasons for this.
format Article
id doaj-art-cd83c6cc38234c57a19bf6c3563ab2a0
institution Kabale University
issn 0936-5907
1613-3641
language English
publishDate 2024-05-01
publisher De Gruyter
record_format Article
series Cognitive Linguistics
spelling doaj-art-cd83c6cc38234c57a19bf6c3563ab2a02025-08-25T06:10:17ZengDe GruyterCognitive Linguistics0936-59071613-36412024-05-0135217721910.1515/cog-2023-0032Ideal and real paradigms: language users, reference works and corporaBermel Neil0Knittl Luděk1Alldrick Martin2Nikolaev Alexandre3University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UKUniversity of Sheffield, Sheffield, UKUniversity of Surrey, Guildford, UKUniversity of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, FinlandThis article approaches defective and overabundant paradigm cells as an opportunity and pitfall for usage-based linguistics. Through reference to two production tasks involving native speakers of Czech, we show how definitions of these two categories are problematized when multiple forms per context are entrenched, or when pre-emption seems to occur in the absence of entrenchment: in other words, pre-emption occurs via entrenchment of uncertainty. We explain the results by adopting a broader, usage-based perspective. We examine the relationship between frequency (as proxy for exposure) and reference-work information (as proxy for a priori structure) to assess their connection with our experimental results. We assign a role to frequency as helping to form perceptions of “suitable” and “unsuitable” forms, but also note places where non-frequency factors predominate. “Structure” as represented by reference-work recommendations appears to have no significant connection to our experimental results; we discuss reasons for this.https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2023-0032morphologyinflectionczechprescriptivismfrequencyentrenchment
spellingShingle Bermel Neil
Knittl Luděk
Alldrick Martin
Nikolaev Alexandre
Ideal and real paradigms: language users, reference works and corpora
Cognitive Linguistics
morphology
inflection
czech
prescriptivism
frequency
entrenchment
title Ideal and real paradigms: language users, reference works and corpora
title_full Ideal and real paradigms: language users, reference works and corpora
title_fullStr Ideal and real paradigms: language users, reference works and corpora
title_full_unstemmed Ideal and real paradigms: language users, reference works and corpora
title_short Ideal and real paradigms: language users, reference works and corpora
title_sort ideal and real paradigms language users reference works and corpora
topic morphology
inflection
czech
prescriptivism
frequency
entrenchment
url https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2023-0032
work_keys_str_mv AT bermelneil idealandrealparadigmslanguageusersreferenceworksandcorpora
AT knittlludek idealandrealparadigmslanguageusersreferenceworksandcorpora
AT alldrickmartin idealandrealparadigmslanguageusersreferenceworksandcorpora
AT nikolaevalexandre idealandrealparadigmslanguageusersreferenceworksandcorpora