Frequency in Language: Memory, Attention and Learning

Cognitive linguists are bound by the cognitive commitment, which is the commitment to providing a characterization of the general principles governing all aspects of human language, in a way that is informed by, and accords with, what is known about the brain and mind from other disciplines. But what do we know about aspects of cognition that are relevant for theories of language? Which insights can help us build cognitive reality into our descriptive practice and move linguistic theorizing forward? This unique study integrates research findings from across the cognitive sciences to generate insights that challenge the way in which frequency has been interpreted in usage-based linguistics. It answers the fundamental questions of why frequency of experience has the effect it has on language development, structure and representation, and what role psychological and neurological explorations of core cognitive processes can play in developing a cognitively more accurate theoretical account of language.

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 01 Oct 2019).

Cover; Half-title page; Title page; Copyright page; Dedication; Contents; List of Figures; List of Table; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1 Frequency of Experience; 2 A Cognitive Perspective on Language; 3 What This Book Is Not About; 4 What This Book Is About; 1 Counting Occurrences: How Frequency Made Its Way into the Study of Language; 1.1 The Frequency Wars: the Role of Frequency in Nativist and Nurturist Frameworks; 1.2 Lexical Statistics and Word Frequency Lists; 1.2.1 A Brief Historical Overview of the Main Developments in Word Frequency Lists

1.2.2 Methodological Improvements that Would Influence (Psycho)linguistics1.3 Word Lists in Psycholinguistics: the Discovery of the Word Frequency Effect; 1.3.1 Single Word Frequency; 1.3.2 Word Frequency in Context; 1.4 Word Frequency Distributions and the Beginning of Quantitative Linguistics; 1.4.1 Zipf: a Philologist Fascinated by Word Frequencies; 1.4.2 Yule and Herdan: a Statistical Approach to Literary Style; 1.5 Summary and Outlook; 2 Measuring Exposure: Frequency as a Linguistic Game Changer; 2.1 Frequency and Usage-Based Theories of Language; 2.1.1 Bybee's Exemplar Theory

2.1.2 Goldberg's Construction Grammar2.2 Frequency …