Within the framework of Cognitive Linguistics (Lakoff, 1987; Langacker 1987; Talmy 2000), this study shows that Frame Semantics and Field Semantics can and should work together to better inform the study of Grammatical Constructions. By combining these approaches, not only is one able to more thoroughly describe the syntactic topology of the frame, one may also more accurately describe the lexical structure of the associated field. The combination results in two pictures, a network of constructions employed for expression of a concept and a network of metaphors employed in the field. The data examined are from the frame-field STEAL-BORROW and are taken from the World Wide Web and Google Usenet archives. Although both Fillmore (1985) and Lakoff (1987) evoke sets of "similar" words as a fundamental part of their research, neither proposes a methodology for capturing such lexical structure. Fillmore's Frame Semantics is the analytical model used in the description of Grammatical Constructions (Lakoff, 1987; Kay & Fillmore, 1999) and Idealised Cognitive Models is the framework used by Lakoff in the description of Conceptual Metaphors (Kovecses 1986, Lakoff 1987, 1993). Despite the clear parallels between Lakoff's work on cognitive domains (essentially based on sets of conceptually similar lexemes) and Fillmore's research on Semantic Frames(essentially based on sets of functionally similar lexemes), neither scholar examines the lexical structure per se. Our hypothesis is that both the identification of Conceptual Metaphors and Grammatical Constructions should "fall-out" from an onomasiological field study. The ensuing study demonstrates the feasibility of this proposal with a study of the lexical field of stealing.

Significant Syntax: A paradigmatic approach to Construction Grammar PDF

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