This squib focuses on two main issues. Firstly, it examines the ways in which constructionist approaches to language can bring about an improved theoretical understanding of Double Modals (DMs) in dialects of English. DMs have proved to be a long-lasting, notorious puzzle in formal linguistics, and have not received any general solution today, with much analysis devoted to their constituent structure and their postulated layers of derivation, especially in generative models of language. Usage-based strands of Construction Grammar (CxG) appear to naturally overcome such problems, while conveying a more cognitively and socially realistic picture of such dialect variants. Secondly, and more importantly, we argue that such an improved, constructional understanding of DMs can also contribute to advances in the modeling of dialect syntax in CxG, both theoretically and methodologically. In particular, DMs constitute an interesting case of relatively rare and restricted syntactic constructions in the dialects they appear in, and they are likely to exhibit different rates of entrenchment and network schematicity cross-dialectally. Moreover, the empirical challenges surrounding the measurement of DM usage invite us to refine the methodological concept of triangulation, by sketching a two-step approach with a data-driven study of new types of corpora on the one hand, and a hypothesis-driven experimental account of acceptability in relevant geographical locations on the other.
is a new synthesis of the field published in Helen Aristar-Dry's Expert Briefs in Linguistics Series. The book is deliberately short (around 80 pages) and aims to reach a rather precise, "knowledgeable" readership, typically "fellow linguists and, perhaps, their more advanced graduate students" (p. vii). Two approaches seem to cross-cut each other throughout this monograph: one is chronological, and the other is theoretical, which leads to an account very much reminiscent of studies in the history of philosophy or science. At the same time, the authors aim to provide a state-of-the art overview, including ongoing research topics and relationships between different frameworks of Cognitive Linguistics and competing theories today. The style adopted in this book is casual, although with high standards of informativeness, and regular lists of references at the end of each of its six chapters. Both authors are confirmed specialists of Cognitive Linguistics: one of the implicit aims of their work is to make a case for the theory's value, adequacy, and relevance, yet they take great care to stay away from any kind of proselytism, as they state both in the opening and closing remarks of the book that "[it] does not have as a goal to change minds about linguistic theory" (p. 76). Finally, although the main focus is on the relationship between linguistic structure and general human cognition, the interdisciplinary aspect of the field is brought to the fore, with notable introductions to cognitive sociolinguistics and cognitive poetics. Following a short preface stating some of the objectives above, the authors open their first chapter, "Introduction" (pp. 1-11), with a working definition of Cognitive Linguistics, its immediate relation to generative approaches to language, and an outline of the book's programme. The discussion then shifts to the history of several labels used diachronically and synchronically by prominent linguists working in the framework:
As the traditional distinction between the studies of linguistic competence and performance (Chomsky 1965) seems increasingly outdated, so is the separation between theory and practice in disciplines of linguistics equally undesirable, especially in the field of dialectology. As an illustration thereof, this paper aims to present the virtues of the alternative, underutilised approach of folk linguistics (Niezielski & Preston 2010), in the shape of a questionnaire for judgment data elicitation about various implications surrounding double modals (DM) in Borders Scots. By detailing the methodology and results of this questionnaire, carried out in January 2018, it will be shown that many dialectal phenomena in English, including multiple modality (MM), absolutely require such sources of evidence to reach a convincing state of analysis.
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