Entrenchment in Usage-based Theories: What Corpus Data Do and Do Not Reveal About the Mind (Topics in English Linguistics)

This book explores the usage-based claim that high usage frequency leads to the entrenchment of complex words in the minds of language users. To probe the correlation between corpus-extracted usage data and mental entrenchment, the author operationalises entrenchment in Gestalt psychological terms and conducts a series of behavioural and neuroimaging experiments. Alice Blumenthal-Dramé, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany Content: Entrenchment in usage-based theories. Entrenchment in usage-based constructionist approaches ; Entrenchment and usage-based assumptions about language representation and processing ; Entrenchment in usage-based theories of language acquisition ; Entrenchment in emergentist theories of language phylogeny ; Entrenchment in usage-based theories of language change ; Entrenchment in related frameworks ; Summary and outlook : the epistemological status of entrenchment in usage-based frameworks -- The cognitive realism of usage-based generalizations, with a special focus on the relationship between token frequencies and entrenchment. The assumed link between collective usage and individual representation ; Against the psychological realism of corpus-derived claims ; In support of the potential psychological realism of corpus-derived claims; Neuroplasticity; Experimental research on token frequency effects in multi-word sequences; Psycholinguistic research on the entrenchment of multi- word sequences; Patholinguistic data showing selective dissociations between holistic versus novel sequences of morphemes; Neuroimaging studies supporting the idea of a neurocognitive split between holistic and compositional modules ; Conclusion : can we reasonably expect corpora to predict entrenchment in the mind? -- Operationalizing entrenchment. Defining entrenchment ; Assessing the psychological realism of a statement in experimental terms ; Sources of inspiration; Gestalt psychology: Why seek inspiration from non-linguistic lines of research?: What makes a chunk in Gestalt psychology?; The masked priming paradigm; Frequency effects in English derivatives; Parametric studies on word frequency effects ; Operationalizing Entrenchment -- Experimental design. Stimuli; Stimuli for the masked priming fMRI study: Stimuli for the main conditions: Stimuli for the 'no'-conditions: Stimuli for the control conditions; Stimuli for the memory experiment ; Experimental procedures; Experimental procedure for the masked priming fMRI studies; Experimental procedure for the memory task -- Behavioural data analysis. Main conditions; General method; Simple linear mixed-effects regression analyses; Multiple mixed-effects regression analyses: Introductory remarks on methodology: Multiple regression results for part-to-whole priming: Multiple regression results for whole-to-part priming ; Behavioural analyses for the supplementary experiments; Mixed-effects regression analyses for jumbled target priming; Behavioural analyses for the comparison with monomorphemic controls; Behavioural analyses for the memory task ; Conclusions -- Neuroimaging Data Analysis. Introductory remarks ; Statistical Parametric Imaging analysis; Imaging parameters; fMRI data analysis; Preprocessing; First-level analysis ; Results; Second-level analyses; Results for the part-to-whole priming task; Results for the whole-to-part priming task; Results for the jumbled target priming task; Conjunction analysis for the main conditions ; Conclusion -- Summary and conclusion. Summary : entrenchment in usage-based theories; Research rationale and questions; Operationalizing entrenchment; Behavioural results; fMRI Results ; Some further theoretical implications ; The corpus-to-cognition principle : towards more fine-grained correlations between corpus and cognitive data ; Outlook -- References -- Appendix -- Index.

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This work deals with the relationship between frequency in natural language use and the entrenchment of complex linguistic strings in the minds of language users. This broad issue can be broken down into two more specific guiding First, is it possible to gain cognitively realistic insights into speakers linguistic knowledge from quantitative generalisations over corpus data? Second, and maybe more importantly, what exactly should be understood by entrenchment? In the present work, these two questions, which are crucial for assessing the status and scope of usage-based theories, will be subject to detailed critical evaluation and empirical investigation using a multi-method research design. This book explores the usage-based claim that high usage frequency leads to the entrenchment of complex words in the minds of language users. To probe the correlation between corpus-extracted usage data and mental entrenchment, the author operationalises entrenchment in Gestalt psychological terms and conducts a series of behavioural and neuroimaging experiments. Alice Blumenthal-Dramé, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany