Usage-Based Construction Selection
I just posted a seminar essay that I wrote a few months ago to the Cognitive Science Network. You can download the paper here (click the button that says “One-Click Download”) and read the abstract… Read More
Category Archive: Pragmatics
Different Uses of “If”
If we don’t pay that ticket, then I will have to go to court. [causal] It would be great if everyone just got along. [idealistic] I wonder if she knows she has jelly… Read More
Primitive Modals in Child Language (Hafta, Wanna, Gonna) As Functionally Equivalent to Auxiliary Modals
Modals represent a perspective of force in relation to the participatory elements of a construction. In fact, they represent an encoding of force in the relation between subject, verb, and object. Children acquire… Read More
How Children’s Overgeneralizations in Construction Use Informs Second Language Acquisition and the Negotiation of Meaning
The acquisition of abstract grammatical constructions represents the maturation of a child’s linguistic productivity. This productivity means that a child can take constructions that have already been learned and extend the application of… Read More
How Novel Constructions Emerge Over Time
Reading Michael Israel’s The Way Constructions Grow taught me some things about how novel constructions actually emerge in a language. I encourage you to check out this classic article. The -Way construction in… Read More
Bybee’s notion of “exemplar representation”
In exemplar representation situation-specific tokens are decoded and classified as being instance-overlaps with existing exemplars and thereby reinforcing that exemplar instance, or else they are classified as having slight divergence from the existing… Read More
What does Soulwax’s website, DJing, & Construction Grammar have in common?
Soulwax’s website extends an invitation for viewers to participate in DJing as they explore the website. From my first exposure this has been an amazing experience. The intuitive guided navigation doubles as a… Read More
Slips of the Tongue…
So I am not sure why this happened, but it did: Last week I was introducing myself to the class I am TA-ing this semester and after I listed my academic qualifications I… Read More
Your Language Constrains How You Can Think & Speak
When a specialist tries to talk about their specialist view of the world with a non-specialist it rarely ever goes smoothly. In fact, usually, the specialist either talks at too specific a level… Read More
Overcoming Self-Consciousness Around Linguists
[NB: I have told this story before, but this time I have a better understanding that I think is worth sharing.] I had an experience a few years ago, a woman stood in… Read More
Una chiste para ti….
Una dia el pollito va a la casa blanca y toca la puerta hay una persona abre la puerta y dice: “¿que queirres?” y el pollito respondon, “necesito hablar con el presidente por… Read More
New Blog in my Links Section
I wanted to let you know about a new blog that I have listed: “Chasing Linguistics” and deals with Cognitive Pragmatics among other things. Take a visit: http://chasinglinguistics.wordpress.com/
SWEET! My paper made a Top Ten Download List!
I checked my email this morning and received a message telling me that my recently distributed paper “Figure-Ground Organization in Attention and Construal” made it on a top ten list for downloads yesterday… Read More
Figure-Ground Reference and Indexicals in “The Life Aquatic”
First of all, this is not a critical interpretation of this film, it is not a hermeneutical analysis of the form of this script, I am merely using a snippet of discourse in… Read More
Ground Before Figure Orientation and Divergent Activation in Bruno Mars & B.O.B.’s “Nothin’ On You” Lyrics
Driving home tonight I heard a song on the radio, on the local hip-hop and R&B station, and while the song kind of annoys me, I kind of like it too. Anyway, this… Read More
Why Linguists Can Always Have an Intelligent Comment on EVERYTHING.
If you are a linguist you already know this. What is “this”? I’ve not said yet. Here it is: “Linguists have the ability to make an informed comment about anything.“ Disagree? Care to… Read More
Lexical Ambiguity Couched in a Formulaic Reference to either Sunglasses or Blindness
Today on the train I overheard one man say to another man: “I got my Stevie Wonders on…I didn’t even see you.” Either he was trying to convey that his inability to see… Read More
Cognitive Mindfulness #9(b)
This is part two of Cognitive Mindfulness #9, and continues the Evans & Green passage. “The difference between the domains of TIME and SPACE is that while TIME has the property of progression,… Read More
Overcome Writer’s Block With Semiotics [Free Download]
I just posted a free download of an excerpt of my semiotics project which will be available as a paperback in September. I encourage you to check it out and let me know… Read More
Cognitive Mindfulness #7
Take this advice from Jack London: “When a man journeys into a far country, he must be prepared to forget many of the things he has learned, and to acquire such customs as… Read More
