Feature-based representations of the spray/load alternation: A Formalised Lexical-Constructional Grammar account

Abstract

Formal grammars pursue the goal of describing the syntax and semantics of natural languages by using a grammatical formalism that can be interpreted computationally. The Lexical Constructional Model (LCM) (Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez & Mairal-Usón, 2008, 2011; Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez & Galera-Masegosa, 2014), despite being an integrative model that provides a well-grounded account of lexical and constructional meaning, lacks this formalism. With the aim of feeling in this gap, a specific formal grammar has been devised, Formalised Lexical-Constructional Grammar (FL-CxG) (Cortés-Rodríguez, 2021; Cortés-Rodríguez & Díaz-Galán, 2023), which pretends to offer a formalised account of the syntactic apparatus of the LCM that will make it suitable for its computational implementation. FL_CxG will provide the LCM with feature-based representations codified as attribute-value matrixes (AVMs) that reflect the lexical, semantic, and syntactic phenomena that take place in the unification processes of lexemes and constructions with linguistic entities. To illustrate the potential of FL_CxG and to contribute to the elaboration of a catalogue of AVMs, I have designed the typed feature structures of the lexeme ‘spread’ and of the combinatory locative construction and the non-combinatory applicative ‘with-construction’ in which this predicate can be integrated. These enriched AVMs include the lexical, semantic, and syntactic attributes and values that are required for the unification process of these AVMs with particular linguistic entities.