GRK 1624: Frequency as a Determinant in Usage-based Models of Language Change, Language Processing and Language Acquisition

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The Research Training Group aims to carry out empirically rich and methodologically coordinated research on frequency effects in language, with an empirical focus on standard and non-standard varieties of European languages. Frequency is defined in terms of number of occurrences of a given linguistic structure in a particular linguistic system or sub-system (as approximated by a suitable corpus). Frequency is assumed to be a possible determinant in usage-based models of language change, language acquisition and language processing. While the default assumption is that there is a non-trivial relation between frequency of occurrence thus defined and mental and structural representation, the frequency factor will be investigated with a view both to its explanatory potential and to its limitations. In its integration of descriptive-linguistic and cognitivist approaches and its broad empirical corpus base, the envisaged research is without parallel, both on the national and international levels, and opens up a new, constructively critical approach to usage-based modelling in linguistics. The two-pronged approach - extending the breadth of empirical coverage, while at the same time increasing the sophistication of the theoretical models - is a timely one that has great innovative potential.