Modal verbs in English communicate delicate shades of meaning, there being a large range of verbs both on the necessity side (must, have to, should, ought to, need, need to) and the possibility side (can, may, could, might, be able to). They therefore constitute excellent test ground to apply and compare different methodologies that can lay bare the factors that drive the speaker’s choice of modal verb. This book is not merely concerned with a purely grammatical description of the use of modal verbs, but aims at advancing our understanding of lexical and grammatical units in general and of linguistic methodologies to explore these. It thus involves a genuine effort to compare, assess and combine a variety of approaches. It complements the leading descriptive qualitative work on modal verbs by testing a diverse range of quantitative methods, while not ignoring qualitative issues pertaining to the semantics-pragmatics interface. Starting from a critical assessment of what constitutes the meaning of modal verbs, different types of empirical studies (usage-based, data-driven and experimental), drawing considerably on the same data sets, shows how method triangulation can contribute to an enhanced understanding. Due attention is also given to individual variation as well as the degree to which modals can predict L2 proficiency level.

Martin Hilpert combines construction grammar and advanced corpus-based methodology into a new way of studying language change. Constructions are generalizations over remembered exemplars of language use. These exemplars are stored with all their formal and functional properties, yielding constructional generalizations that contain many parameters of variation. Over time, as patterns of language use are changing, the generalizations are changing with them. This book illustrates the workings of constructional change with three corpus-based studies that reveal patterns of change at several levels of linguistic structure, ranging from allomorphy to word formation and to syntax. Taken together, the results strongly motivate the use of construction grammar in research on diachronic language change. This new perspective has wide-ranging consequences for the way historical linguists think about language change. It will be of particular interest to linguists working on morpho-syntax, sociolinguistics and corpus linguistics.

Martin Hilpert combines construction grammar and advanced corpus-based methodology into a new way of studying language change. Constructions are generalizations over remembered exemplars of language use. These exemplars are stored with all their formal and functional properties, yielding constructional generalizations that contain many parameters of variation. Over time, as patterns of language use are changing, the generalizations are changing with them. This book illustrates the workings of constructional change with three corpus-based studies that reveal patterns of change at several levels of linguistic structure, ranging from allomorphy to word formation and to syntax. Taken together, the results strongly motivate the use of construction grammar in research on diachronic language change. This new perspective has wide-ranging consequences for the way historical linguists think about language change. It will be of particular interest to linguists working on morpho-syntax, sociolinguistics and corpus linguistics.

Construction Grammar explains how knowledge of language is organized in speakers' minds. The central and radical claim of Construction Grammar is that linguistic knowledge can be fully described as knowledge of constructions, which are defined as symbolic units that connect a linguistic form with meaning.

What do speakers of English know in order to produce utterances that other speakers will understand? Construction Grammar explains how knowledge of language is organized in speakers' minds. The central and radical claim of Construction Grammar is that linguistic knowledge can be fully described as knowledge of constructions, which are defined as symbolic units that connect a linguistic form with meaning. The implications of this claim are far-reaching: in Construction Grammar, not only lexical items, but also syntactic patterns are seen as symbolic, meaningful units. Instead of being meaningless structural templates, syntactic patterns actively contribute to the overall meaning of an utterance. Knowledge of language is thought of as a vast repository of interrelated symbolic units, and nothing else in addition. This book expands on this idea and familiarizes readers with the central concepts of Construction Grammar, as applied to English constructions. In the process, it explains how the theory of Construction Grammar relates to issues of language processing, language acquisition, and language variation and change.

In this book, Martin Hilpert lays out how Construction Grammar can be applied to the study of language change. In a series of ten lectures on Diachronic Construction Grammar, the book presents the theoretical foundations, open questions, and methodological approaches that inform the constructional analysis of diachronic processes in language. The lectures address issues such as constructional networks, competition between constructions, shifts in collocational preferences, and differentiation and attraction in constructional change. The book features analyses that utilize modern corpus-linguistic methodologies and that draw on current theoretical discussions in usage-based linguistics. It is relevant for researchers and students in cognitive linguistics, corpus linguistics, and historical linguistics.

This volume explores how Diachronic Construction Grammar can shed new light on changes in a central and well-researched domain of grammar, namely modality. Its main goal is to show how constructional analyses can help us address some of the long-standing questions that have informed discussions of modal expressions and their development, and to illustrate the processes that are involved in these developments on the basis of data from languages such as English, Finnish, French, Galician, German, and Japanese. The studies in this volume are organized around three interrelated topics. The first of these concerns the organization of modal constructions in a network. A second focus area of the studies in this volume concerns the developmental pathways that modal constructions follow diachronically. The third topic that ties the contributions of this volume together is the contrast between constructionalization and constructional change.

Vordiplomarbeit aus dem Jahr 2007 im Fachbereich Politik - Internationale Politik - Thema: Globalisierung, pol. Okonomie, Note: 2, Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenberg (Philosophische Fakultat III - Erziehungswissenschaften), 23 Quellen im Literaturverzeichnis, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Als Anfang Juni 2007 tausende Menschen nach Heiligendamm fuhren, um an den Protesten gegen den G8-Gipfel teilzunehmen, reaktivierte sich die sonst marginal erscheinende deutsche Linke, trieb die Mobilisierung in zahlreichen Kampagnen tatkraftig voran und verband damit grosse Erwartungen, so war auf einem Plakat, Gute Nacht, G8 - we are winning" zu lesen. Bei vielfaltigen Aktionen bot sich die Moglichkeit, eigene linke Inhalte in die Offentlichkeit zu rucken und einer breiten Masse zuganglich zu machen. Die so oft betonte Heterogenitat der, Bewegung der Bewegungen zeigte sich im breiten Spektrum der mobilisierenden Gruppen und Initiativen. Gewerkschaften, Umweltgruppen, Frauengruppen, Dritte-Welt-Initiativen, Menschenrechts- und Burgerrechtsgruppen, kirchliche Kreise selbst Neonazis und allen voran ATTAC waren auf den Protesten gegen die, Machtigen der Welt" vertreten um routiniert ihre jeweils spezifischen Themen mit dem Globalisierungsprozess zu verbinden. Das Gipfeltreffen in Heiligendamm bot einen willkommenen Anlass, um den Protest moglichst vielfaltig und spektakular in Szene zu setzen. Einer grossen medialen Offentlichkeit konnten sich die No-Globals dabei jedenfalls gewiss sein. Medien und Politik fokussierten vordergrundig die Gewaltexzesse des Protests was in Wechselwirkung zur Militanzdebatte innerhalb der Bewegung stand - das Gipfeltreffen erschien nicht selten als ordnungspolitisches Problem. Was aber sind die Inhalte der Globalisierungsgegner; welche Forderungen verbunden sich mit dem Protest; weshalb liessen sich 80.000 Menschen zu einer Bundnisdemonstration nach Rostock mobilisieren; und was verbindet die No-Globals in ihrem Protest? Um diese Fragen s