James P Blevins
Biographic Data
| ID | 819967 |
|---|---|
| NAME | James P Blevins |
| GIVEN NAMES | James P |
| FAMILY NAME | Blevins |
| SIGNATURE | BLEVINS J P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Cambridge |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9409-3740 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 68 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Cognitive approaches to uniformity and variability in morphology
This special issue of Cognitive Linguistics reexamines the notions of uniformity and variability within morphological systems from a cognitive linguistic standpoint. It challenges traditional perspectives that regard morphological variability as mere deviations from the norm, suggesting instead that such variability is systematic and shaped by external influences including language acquisition and processing constraints. The contributions in this…
The Discriminative Lexicon: A Unified Computational Model for the Lexicon and Lexical Processing in Comprehension and Production Grounded Not in (De)Composition but in Linear Discriminative Learning
The discriminative lexicon is introduced as a mathematical and computational model of the mental lexicon. This novel theory is inspired by word and paradigm morphology but operationalizes the concept of proportional analogy using the mathematics of linear algebra. It embraces the discriminative perspective on language, rejecting the idea that words’ meanings are compositional in the sense of Frege and Russell and arguing instead that the relation…
Word and Paradigm Morphology
This volume provides an introduction to word and paradigm (WP) models of morphology and the general perspectives on linguistic morphology that they embody. The recent revitalization of WP models is placed in the larger context of the intellectual lineage that extends from classical grammars to current information-theoretic and discriminative learning paradigms. The synthesis of this tradition outlined in the volume highlights leading ideas about …
Analogy in grammar: Form and Acquisition
Parts and wholes: Implicative patterns in inflectional paradigms
Humans show an amazing ability to produce novel words based on previous experience. What analogical processes are at work in this process, and how do analogical generalizations emerge from complex morphological systems? This chapter addresses these questions with new quantitative measures. Words are construed as recombinant gestalts. The predictive value of particular words in relation to others is calculated in terms of measures of conditional e…
The post-transformational enterprise
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Word-based morphology
This paper examines two contrasting perspectives on morphological analysis, and considers inflectional patterns that bear on the choice between these alternatives. On what is termed an ABSTRACTIVE perspective, surface word forms are regarded as basic morphotactic units of a grammatical system, with roots, stems and exponents treated as abstractions over a lexicon of word forms. This traditional standpoint is contrasted with the more CONSTRUCTIVE …
Inflection Classes and Economy
Passives and impersonals
This paper argues that the term ‘passive’ has been systematically misapplied to a class of impersonal constructions that suppress the realization of a syntactic subject. The reclassification of these constructions highlights a typological contrast between two types of verbal diathesis and clarifies the status of putative ‘passives of unaccusatives’ and ‘transitive passives’ in Balto-Finnic and Balto-Slavic. Impersonal verb forms differ from passi…
Stems and Paradigms
This article presents an analysis of the conjugational systems of West Germanic that highlights the central role of two basic stem types and suggests some consequences for the description of inflectional systems in general. The analyses distinguish morphomic stems, which underlie morphosyntactically distinct word forms, from inflectional stems, which realize tense and mood features and provide the input to regular agreement rules. It is argued th…
Paradigmatic derivation
This paper proposes a class of derivational processes that define derived stem forms of basic lexemes. Non‐finite verbs and non‐absolute adjectives are identified as examples of such derivational stems, as are the stems that underlie non‐default plurals in Germanic. The paper indicates how this analysis avoids the difficulties encountered by inflectional treatments of this class of stems, and suggests a general reevaluation of the criteria that a…
Realisation-based lexicalism
Farrell Ackerman & Gert Webelhuth, A theory of predicates (CSLI Lecture Notes 76 ). Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications, 1998. Pp. xiv+402
A Lexicalist analysis of gerundive Nominals in English
Gerundive nominals in English are true categorial hybrids, combining a verbal complementation pattern with a characteristically nominal distribution and a clausal interpretation. Initial generative descriptions of gerundives attempt to resolve this conflict by assimilating these constructions to unambiguously nominal or clausal categories, or by assigning the discordant properties to different derivational levels. The alternative articulated here…
Derived constituent order in unbounded dependency constructions
This paper proposes that unbounded dependency constructions in English instantiate a surface subject-predicate structure in which the predicate is typically discontinuous. Evidence is presented supporting this discontinuous analysis over the operatorvariable structure conventionally assigned to unbounded dependencies. A model of phrase structure that sanctions discontinuous representations is outlined, along with a feature-based strategy for gene…
Word-based morphology
This paper examines two contrasting perspectives on morphological analysis, and considers inflectional patterns that bear on the choice between these alternatives. On what is termed an ABSTRACTIVE perspective, surface word forms are regarded as basic morphotactic units of a grammatical system, with roots, stems and exponents treated as abstractions over a lexicon of word forms. This traditional standpoint is contrasted with the more CONSTRUCTIVE …
Passives and impersonals
This paper argues that the term ‘passive’ has been systematically misapplied to a class of impersonal constructions that suppress the realization of a syntactic subject. The reclassification of these constructions highlights a typological contrast between two types of verbal diathesis and clarifies the status of putative ‘passives of unaccusatives’ and ‘transitive passives’ in Balto-Finnic and Balto-Slavic. Impersonal verb forms differ from passi…
Stems and Paradigms
This article presents an analysis of the conjugational systems of West Germanic that highlights the central role of two basic stem types and suggests some consequences for the description of inflectional systems in general. The analyses distinguish morphomic stems, which underlie morphosyntactically distinct word forms, from inflectional stems, which realize tense and mood features and provide the input to regular agreement rules. It is argued th…
Derived constituent order in unbounded dependency constructions
This paper proposes that unbounded dependency constructions in English instantiate a surface subject-predicate structure in which the predicate is typically discontinuous. Evidence is presented supporting this discontinuous analysis over the operatorvariable structure conventionally assigned to unbounded dependencies. A model of phrase structure that sanctions discontinuous representations is outlined, along with a feature-based strategy for gene…
Realisation-based lexicalism
Farrell Ackerman & Gert Webelhuth, A theory of predicates (CSLI Lecture Notes 76 ). Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications, 1998. Pp. xiv+402
A Lexicalist analysis of gerundive Nominals in English
Gerundive nominals in English are true categorial hybrids, combining a verbal complementation pattern with a characteristically nominal distribution and a clausal interpretation. Initial generative descriptions of gerundives attempt to resolve this conflict by assimilating these constructions to unambiguously nominal or clausal categories, or by assigning the discordant properties to different derivational levels. The alternative articulated here…
A Lexicalist analysis of gerundive Nominals in English
Gerundive nominals in English are true categorial hybrids, combining a verbal complementation pattern with a characteristically nominal distribution and a clausal interpretation. Initial generative descriptions of gerundives attempt to resolve this conflict by assimilating these constructions to unambiguously nominal or clausal categories, or by assigning the discordant properties to different derivational levels. The alternative articulated here…
Derived constituent order in unbounded dependency constructions
This paper proposes that unbounded dependency constructions in English instantiate a surface subject-predicate structure in which the predicate is typically discontinuous. Evidence is presented supporting this discontinuous analysis over the operatorvariable structure conventionally assigned to unbounded dependencies. A model of phrase structure that sanctions discontinuous representations is outlined, along with a feature-based strategy for gene…
Paradigmatic derivation
This paper proposes a class of derivational processes that define derived stem forms of basic lexemes. Non‐finite verbs and non‐absolute adjectives are identified as examples of such derivational stems, as are the stems that underlie non‐default plurals in Germanic. The paper indicates how this analysis avoids the difficulties encountered by inflectional treatments of this class of stems, and suggests a general reevaluation of the criteria that a…
Realisation-based lexicalism
Farrell Ackerman & Gert Webelhuth, A theory of predicates (CSLI Lecture Notes 76 ). Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications, 1998. Pp. xiv+402
Passives and impersonals
This paper argues that the term ‘passive’ has been systematically misapplied to a class of impersonal constructions that suppress the realization of a syntactic subject. The reclassification of these constructions highlights a typological contrast between two types of verbal diathesis and clarifies the status of putative ‘passives of unaccusatives’ and ‘transitive passives’ in Balto-Finnic and Balto-Slavic. Impersonal verb forms differ from passi…
Stems and Paradigms
This article presents an analysis of the conjugational systems of West Germanic that highlights the central role of two basic stem types and suggests some consequences for the description of inflectional systems in general. The analyses distinguish morphomic stems, which underlie morphosyntactically distinct word forms, from inflectional stems, which realize tense and mood features and provide the input to regular agreement rules. It is argued th…
Inflection Classes and Economy
Word-based morphology
This paper examines two contrasting perspectives on morphological analysis, and considers inflectional patterns that bear on the choice between these alternatives. On what is termed an ABSTRACTIVE perspective, surface word forms are regarded as basic morphotactic units of a grammatical system, with roots, stems and exponents treated as abstractions over a lexicon of word forms. This traditional standpoint is contrasted with the more CONSTRUCTIVE …
The post-transformational enterprise
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Analogy in grammar: Form and Acquisition
Parts and wholes: Implicative patterns in inflectional paradigms
Humans show an amazing ability to produce novel words based on previous experience. What analogical processes are at work in this process, and how do analogical generalizations emerge from complex morphological systems? This chapter addresses these questions with new quantitative measures. Words are construed as recombinant gestalts. The predictive value of particular words in relation to others is calculated in terms of measures of conditional e…
Word and Paradigm Morphology
This volume provides an introduction to word and paradigm (WP) models of morphology and the general perspectives on linguistic morphology that they embody. The recent revitalization of WP models is placed in the larger context of the intellectual lineage that extends from classical grammars to current information-theoretic and discriminative learning paradigms. The synthesis of this tradition outlined in the volume highlights leading ideas about …
The Discriminative Lexicon: A Unified Computational Model for the Lexicon and Lexical Processing in Comprehension and Production Grounded Not in (De)Composition but in Linear Discriminative Learning
The discriminative lexicon is introduced as a mathematical and computational model of the mental lexicon. This novel theory is inspired by word and paradigm morphology but operationalizes the concept of proportional analogy using the mathematics of linear algebra. It embraces the discriminative perspective on language, rejecting the idea that words’ meanings are compositional in the sense of Frege and Russell and arguing instead that the relation…
Cognitive approaches to uniformity and variability in morphology
This special issue of Cognitive Linguistics reexamines the notions of uniformity and variability within morphological systems from a cognitive linguistic standpoint. It challenges traditional perspectives that regard morphological variability as mere deviations from the norm, suggesting instead that such variability is systematic and shaped by external influences including language acquisition and processing constraints. The contributions in this…
Linguistics (12 works) · Computer Science (11 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (10 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Artificial Intelligence (7 works) · Natural Language Processing Techniques (7 works) · Mathematics (6 works) · Natural language processing (6 works) · Psychology (5 works) · History (3 works)