Construction Grammar meets Graph Theory

A network analysis of the relational behavior of Italian psych-predicates

Abstract

The paper provides a discussion of how to model constructional networks in graph-theoretic terms. We discuss the connection between graph theory and constructionist theory, and offer a linguistic and constructional interpretation for some major graph metrics. We illustrate the proposal by applying it to a network of constructions employed to create denominal psychological predicates in Italian. In particular, we employ graph metrics to asses to what extent synthetic and analytic constructions can be said to belong to the same paradigm of denominal verb formation. The results show the complex nature of the relationship between synthetic and analytic patterns: on the one hand, it seems that the constructions in the network belong to more than one paradigm, based on their structural features; on the other, such paradigms seem to be tightly linked in some domains, such as the causative one, which constitutes a bridge between constructions showing different levels of structural complexity. Overall, the analysis shows the advantages of developing a sound methodology to assess the relational behavior of constructions: in fact, it allows us to coherently describe networks of constructions, but also to operationalize concepts such as prototypicality and paradigmaticity in such networks. Nonetheless, it also shows the necessity of a careful theoretical and methodological discussion regarding the nature of objects in Construction Grammar.