The non-reductive nature of schemas
المؤلف:
Vyvyan Evans and Melanie Green
المصدر:
Cognitive Linguistics an Introduction
الجزء والصفحة:
C4P117
2025-12-11
35
The non-reductive nature of schemas
An important feature of Langacker’s framework, which results from positing a direct relationship between grammatical organisation and language use, is that the model is non-reductive. As we noted above, one of the factors involved in the establishment of constructions is frequency: if a particular linguistic structure recurs sufficiently frequently, it achieves the status of an entrenched unit. As a result of the process of entrenchment, schemas result that have different levels of schematicity. This means that some schemas are instances of other, more abstract, schemas. In this way, the grammar acquires an internal hierarchical organisation, where less abstract schemas are instances of more abstract schemas. For example, consider prepositions (P) like for, on and in, which are combined with a complement noun phrase (NP) to form a preposition phrase (PP). In example (4), the NP is bracketed.
The expressions in (4), to me, on the floor and in the garage, are common phrases that probably have unit status for most speakers of English. In other words, they are constructions. However, there is another schema related to these constructions, which has the highly schematic form [P [NP]] and the highly schematic meaning DIRECTION OR LOCATION WITH RESPECT TO SOME PHYSICAL ENTITY. The constructions in (4) are instances of the more abstract schema [P [NP]]. This is illustrated in Figure 4.3.
This view of grammar is non-reductive in the following way. The constructions in (4) can be predicted by the more general schema of which they are instances. However, the fact that they can be predicted does not mean that they can be eliminated from the grammar. On the contrary, the fact that expressions of this kind are frequently occurring ensures that they retain unit status as dis tinct constructions. Moreover, that fact that they share a similar structure and a common abstract meaning ensures that the more abstract schema also coexists with them in the grammar.
This non-reductive model stands in direct opposition to the generative grammar model, which places emphasis on economy of representation. This is because the generative model assumes that the rapid acquisition of an infinitely creative system of language can only be plausibly accounted for by a small and efficient set of principles. In particular, the model seeks to eliminate redundancy: the same information does not need to be stated in more than one place, as this makes the system cumbersome. According to this view, the fact that the expressions in (4) are predictable from the more abstract schema means that these instances can be eliminated from the grammar and ‘built from scratch’ each time they are used. In the generative model, the only construction that would be stored in the grammar is the abstract schema. However, this schema would lack schematic meaning and would instead have the status of an ‘instruction’ about what kinds of forms can be combined to make grammatical units. In the generative model, then, what we are calling a schema is actually a rule. While schemas are derived from language use and thus incorporate a meaning element, rules are minimally specified structural representations that predict the greatest amount of information possible in the most economical way possible.
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