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THE ENGLISH PHRASE-AS-LEMMA CONSTRUCTION: WHEN A PHRASE MASQUERADES AS A WORD, PEOPLE PLAY ALONG.

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Title: THE ENGLISH PHRASE-AS-LEMMA CONSTRUCTION: WHEN A PHRASE MASQUERADES AS A WORD, PEOPLE PLAY ALONG.
Authors: GOLDBERG, ADELE E.1 adele@princeton.edu, Shirtz, Shahar2 sshirtz@asu.edu
Source: Language. Jun2025, Vol. 101 Issue 2, p291-320. 30p.
Subject Terms: *Grammatical categories, *Nouns, Quotation marks, Adjectives, Grammar
Abstract: This article examines the English phrase-as-lemma (PAL) construction, which treats phrases syntactically as if they were words (e.g. a don't-mess-with-me driver). We argue that it is important to acknowledge and represent the construction's unique syntax directly rather than trying to shoehorn it into a more familiar grammatical category such as Noun or Adjective. PALs do not share the same distribution as other categories, and critically, their unique syntax influences their interpretation in predictable ways, which we demonstrate with survey data (N = 685). In particular, PALs convey the type of meaning associated with individual English words--lemmas--and thus evoke semantic frames that are presumed shared common knowledge. We further predict that the shared common knowledge and the use of quotes encourages PALs to be interpreted as witty and sarcastic. We show that a full analysis of PALs requires a family of constructions that includes certain conventional instances and productive subtypes. Because the construction's special form and function are intimately related, we predict that comparable PAL constructions should appear in other, unrelated languages. While the PAL construction is not terribly frequent in any language, the implications we draw are quite broad: our knowledge of language is rich and complex, providing subtle means for language users to indicate familiarity with listeners while conveying their message. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Language is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Database: Education Research Complete
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  Data: THE ENGLISH PHRASE-AS-LEMMA CONSTRUCTION: WHEN A PHRASE MASQUERADES AS A WORD, PEOPLE PLAY ALONG.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22GOLDBERG%2C+ADELE+E%2E%22">GOLDBERG, ADELE E.</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo><i> adele@princeton.edu</i><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Shirtz%2C+Shahar%22">Shirtz, Shahar</searchLink><relatesTo>2</relatesTo><i> sshirtz@asu.edu</i>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Language%22">Language</searchLink>. Jun2025, Vol. 101 Issue 2, p291-320. 30p.
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  Data: *<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Grammatical+categories%22">Grammatical categories</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Nouns%22">Nouns</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Quotation+marks%22">Quotation marks</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Adjectives%22">Adjectives</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Grammar%22">Grammar</searchLink>
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  Data: This article examines the English phrase-as-lemma (PAL) construction, which treats phrases syntactically as if they were words (e.g. a don't-mess-with-me driver). We argue that it is important to acknowledge and represent the construction's unique syntax directly rather than trying to shoehorn it into a more familiar grammatical category such as Noun or Adjective. PALs do not share the same distribution as other categories, and critically, their unique syntax influences their interpretation in predictable ways, which we demonstrate with survey data (N = 685). In particular, PALs convey the type of meaning associated with individual English words--lemmas--and thus evoke semantic frames that are presumed shared common knowledge. We further predict that the shared common knowledge and the use of quotes encourages PALs to be interpreted as witty and sarcastic. We show that a full analysis of PALs requires a family of constructions that includes certain conventional instances and productive subtypes. Because the construction's special form and function are intimately related, we predict that comparable PAL constructions should appear in other, unrelated languages. While the PAL construction is not terribly frequent in any language, the implications we draw are quite broad: our knowledge of language is rich and complex, providing subtle means for language users to indicate familiarity with listeners while conveying their message. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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  Data: <i>Copyright of Language is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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        Value: 10.1353/lan.2025.a962899
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        Text: English
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