Conceptualising Transitivity Networks through Pattern-based Constructions
The project builds on corpus-driven lexicography carried out in the Cobuild project in the 1990s, specifically the codification of the grammatical behaviour of words known as Pattern Grammar.
Fifty verb complementation patterns have been reanalysed as constructions, leading to the identification of over 800 verb argument constructions in English. Then, a sample of nine semantic fields have been selected as examples. All the constructions that express those fields have been identified, and the constructions are arranged as systemic networks.
The project illustrates how large-scale corpus work can inform other approaches to the description of English, and how Systemic-Functional Linguistics might benefit from incorporating the notion of constructions into its conceptualisation of lexicogrammar.
Project objectives: (1) to re-interpret grammar patterns as verb argument constructions; (2) to populate systemic networks with constructions; (3) to demonstrate the synergy between models of language description that have very different starting points.
Funding: The project is funded by Leverhulme to the value of £25,000.
Activity: Papers on the project have been given at these conferences: Corpus Linguistics 2023; Corpus Approaches to Lexicogrammar 20023; ICAME45 2024; ICCG13 2024.
Project website: transitivity-net.bham.ac.uk