On the morning of June 4, 2021, the 2ndInternational Academic Linguistics Seminar (Speaker-2: Elizabeth Closs Traugott) and the 2021 “InternationalDistinguished Lectures” hosted by School of Foreign Languages in Henan University came to a successful ending in the audience's cloud applause. The keynote speaker at this invitation is Elizabeth Closs Traugott,Professor of Stanford University. She has delivered five lectures on the theme “Constructionalization and Grammaticalization”.More than 1,000 faculty members, postgraduates and graduate students from Henan University, and other well-known scholars from National University of Singapore, University of Leuven (Belgium), University of Oregon (U.S.A.), City University of Hong Kong, Peking University, Beihang University, Wuhan University, etc. attended the lecture.
Regardingthe first lecture, Prof. Traugott systemically introduced the development of construction grammar and its basic principles, and focused on the research practice and frameworks for the interpretation of linguistic data in language change. Duringthe second lecture, Prof. Traugott revised the characteristics of constructionalization and constructional changes. The former is the establishment of a new symbolic association of form and meaning which has been replicated across a network of language users, while the latter are modulations of contextual uses prior to and following constructionalization. Prof. Traugott also elucidated the differences and convergencies between grammaticalization and constructionalization inthe third lecture, and proposed a complementary relationship between them. Laterin the fourth lecture, Prof. Traugott presented a case study ofthe development of dative and benefactive alternations in English,it shows that differentiation as well as attraction/analogizationare keys to language change. Finally,Prof. Traugott discussed the role of subjectification and intersubjectification in the approach to language change known as constructionalization and grammaticalizationin the last lecture, from a constructionalist perspective, type and degree of (Inter)Sbjectification is predictable from the discourse function of the schema to which a particular expression is recruited.
At the end of the lecture, all the audience expressed their acknowledgement for this seminar (IALS-2), and took a photo together with Prof. Traugott on the Zoom Meeting. Prof. Traugott's lectures deepened the understanding and cognition of the internal relationship among Constructionalization, Grammaticalization and (Inter)Sbjectification, which has received unanimous acclaim from all the audience.Thesignificance of international academic exchanges is always strengthened by School of Foreign Languages (HENU), and dozens of international academic lectures are held each year in various disciplines of IALS, which will be updated by many other distinguished academic lectures in the near future.
(News Reporters: CUI Miaomiao, SHEN Mihao)
