The Meaning Side of Word Formation Constructions
Date: 04-Sep-2024 – 06-Sep-2024
Location: Osnabrück, Germany
Contact Person: Sascha Michel
Meeting Email: s.michel@isk.rwth-aachen.de
Call Deadline: 21-Apr-2024
Meeting Description:
In recent years, word formation has increasingly become the focus of construction grammar studies (cf. Booij 2018; Hein/Michel 2023). Like constructions on other linguistic levels, word formation constructions can be reconstructed as schemata comprising a form side and a meaning side (Booij 2010). However, it is unclear what exactly has to be counted among the meaning side of word formation constructions and how it can be appropriately reconstructed and modelled within the framework of a usage-based cognitive linguistic theory. While Croft (2001), for example, explicitly assigns not only semantic but also pragmatic and discourse re-lated features or specifications to the meaning side of constructions (cf. also Östman 2005), many approaches in construction grammar-oriented word formation research have long focussed primarily on the semantic level. Pragmatic, discourse-related and interactional dimensions of the meaning of word formation constructions, on the other hand, have only recently become the focus of research (cf. Wolfer/Hein 2022; Finkbeiner 2023; Michel 2023; Stumpf 2023; Stumpf/Merten 2023). Another current problem area in the study of the meaning of word-formation constructions concerns the question of how to deal methodologically and theoretically with the distinction and interplay between lexical meaning (meaning of the mor-phemes involved) on the one hand and constructional meaning on the other (cf. Willich 2022).
Call for Papers:
Against this background, the section would like to deal with the meaning side of word-for-mation constructions, focussing on the following thematic blocks and questions:
1. Scope and complexity of the meaning side of word-formation constructions
• Can the meaning side of word-formation constructions be limited to context-independent abstract aspects of meaning, or is the meaning of word-formation constructions so closely linked to context-dependent discourse related dimensions of their use that these dimensions must be represented in the meaning side? What role do pragmatic processes such as implicatures or inferences (cf. Finkbeiner 2019) and cognitive-functional phenomena such as metaphors (Lakoff/Johnson 1980) play?
• What interactional and discourse related practices can word-formation constructions contribute to, and what discourse morphological properties can be attributed to them against this background?
• How can the contribution of interactional and discourse related practices to the diachronic semantic development of word-formation constructions be conceived within the framework of a construction-grammatical approach to word formation (cf. Bücker, submitted; see also Hartmann 2016 on a diachronic construction grammar approach to word formation)?
• Can the content side of word-formation constructions be differentiated diasystematically (cf. Höder 2019; Stumpf 2023)?
2. Recording and modelling the meaning side of word formation constructions
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of different semantic approaches to the meaning side of word formation constructions (e.g. semantic feature analysis, frame semantics, prototype semantics, event semantics)? (How) Can the different approaches be combined with each other?
• How can compositional and holistic aspects of meaning be identified empirically and how can they be modelled appropriately in theory building?
• Are semantic, pragmatic and discourse related features that play a role for the meaning of word-formation constructions linguistically separated from each other and related to each other by interfaces (for example in the sense of a “parallel architecture”, cf. Jackendoff 2002; Jackendoff/Audring 2019), or is their separation on the meaning side of word-formation constructions not necessary from a usage-based cognitive-linguistic perspective?
3. Content-based networks of word formation constructions
• Can word formation constructions be reconstructed semantically as parts of usage-based linguistic networks (cf. Bücker 2012; Diessel 2019; Hein 2023)?
• What empirical and theoretical requirements are associated with a constructographic perspective on the meaning side of word formation constructions (cf. Lyngfelt et al. 2018; Ziem/Flick 2019)?
We are looking forward to 30 minutes presentations (20+10) in German or English. If you would like to give a presentation, please send an abstract (500 words) to the organisers by 21.04.2024: