Constructive Linguistics for Computational Phraseology: the Esperanto Case

Abstract

This paper presents the application of the constructive adpositional grammars (CxAdGrams) to phraseological units, through the special case study of Esperanto. Constructive linguistics is an approach to human language analysis that considers constructions, themselves being paradigms of language-in-use, as the first units. Unlike other constructional approaches, constructive linguists apply formalisms in understanding linguistic phenomena. The adpositional paradigm is the most developed formalism in constructive linguistics, which is understandable by humans and machine-readable at the same time. The term ‘constructive’ should also be understood in formal terms, as the adpositional paradigm is based on constructive mathematics, and in particular on topos-theory. From a theoretical perspective, CxAdGrams describe human languages in terms of constructions, described adpositional trees (in short, adtrees). This paper aims to explain why such an interpretation of constructions in terms of adtrees can be useful for a deeper understanding of phraseology. Esperanto is the case study chosen so to give an empirical base to CxAdGrams. In particular, we illustrate the problematisation of its phraseology as well as the advantages of Esperanto in setting up workable prototypes in a short time.