The role of prediction in construction-learning
Publication Year
2005
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
It is well-established that (non-linguistic) categorization is driven by a functional demand of prediction. We suggest that prediction likewise may well play a role in motivating the learning of semantic generalizations about argument structure constructions. We report corpora statistics that indicate that the argument frame or construction has roughly equivalent cue validity as a predictor of overall sentence meaning as the morpho- logical form of the verb, and has greater category validity. That is, the construction is at least as reliable and more available than the verb. Moreover, given the fact that many verbs have quite low cue validity in isolation, attention to the contribution of the construction is essential.
Journal
Journal of Child Language
Volume
32
Pages
407–426
URL
Topic
Construction Learning
Constructions have functions