Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "Connections between semantically or formally similar Dutch auxiliary constructions: the nature of horizontal links and their influence on grammar" "Timothy Colleman" "Department of Linguistics" "This project is aimed at the investigation of horizontal links in two clusters of constructions featuring the auxiliarized Dutch verbs komen ‘to come’ and krijgen ‘to get, receive’. Horizontal links, i.e. links between constructions which are not in a mother-daughter relation, constitute a topical issue in present-day construction grammar, but their nature and effects, as well as their interplay with other kinds of links that potentially structure the constructional network, are still far from understood. Through a combination of extensive synchronic and diachronic corpus investigation with a series of priming experiments, the project addresses four related clusters of research questions, viz. (i) What is the cognitive plausibility and nature of horizontal links?; (ii) What is the diachronic impact of horizontal links, i.e. in which ways can constructions connected through a horizontal link become more or less similar over time?; (iii) What is the synchronic impact of horizontal links on language processing and grammatical usage?; and (iv) What is the relation/interplay between horizontal links between schematic constructions on the one hand and less schematic, lower-level constructions and lexical items on the other hand? In investigating these clusters of issues, we will systematically distinguish between links rooted in semantic similarity and links rooted in formal similarity." "Learning Construction Grammars from Semantically Annotated Corpora or Situated Communicative Interactions" "Ann Nowe, Katrien Beuls" "Informatics and Applied Informatics" "The primary aim of this project is to investigate how construction grammars can be learned by a computational system, based on either semantically annotated corpora or communicative interactions in situated tutor-learner scenarios. If successful, the outcome of this project will constitute a major breakthrough in the field of construction grammar, as it would for the first time provide a computational model of how conventionalised form-meaning pairings (constructions) that support language comprehension and production can be constructed in a usage-based fashion. My hypothesis is that a broad spectrum of constructions, ranging from fully idiomatic to completely abstract, can be learned by a combination of storing linguistic observations as holophrase constructions, and generalising and specialising already learned constructions with respect to novel linguistic observations. I will design and implement a set of learning operators that facilitate these learning processes and release them in the form of a construction grammar learning toolkit. The outcome of this project has the potential to significantly enhance the performance of a wide variety of language technology applications and meaning-based AI systems. It would also be highly valuable as a methodological tool for usage-based linguistic research, as it would facilitate the automatic annotation of constructions in text corpora, and provide novel insights into the compositional and non-compositional aspects of language use." "Machine Learning of Computational Construction Grammars" "Piet Desmet" "Faculty of Arts, Kulak Kortrijk Campus, Comparative, Historical and Applied Linguistics, Kulak Kortrijk Campus, Public Health and Primary Care, Kulak Kortrijk Campus" "The natural languages that underlie human communication are not static and innate, but emerge and evolve through the communicative interactions of interlocutors. The emergence and evolution of linguistic systems is driven by evolutionary processes, in particular variation, selection, self-organisation and level formation. These evolutionary processes take place within the linguistic system itself (rather than in the genes of the interlocutors), on the levels of concepts, words, grammar and discourse. The main selective pressures are success in communication and a reduction of cognitive effort, while sources of variation mostly stem from the creativity and problem solving capabilities of the language users. It is one of the main goals of the research fields of emergent communication and evolutionary linguistics to precisely model the evolutionary processes that allow a population of communicative agents to establish such a conventionalised linguistic system. The evolutionary pressures involved in the emergence and evolution of concepts and words are relatively well understood, while the processes driving the emergence and evolution of grammatical systems are still to a large extent uncharted territory. In my PhD project, I will contribute to this understanding by investigating how basic grammatical structures can emerge and evolve through task-based communicative interactions in a tutor-learner scenario. More concretely, I will design and implement learning operators that allow an autonomous agent to learn basic grammatical structures as operationalised by computational construction grammar, i.e. in the form of conventionalised form-meaning mappings, which can range from being entirely idiomatic to being completely abstract. The resulting grammars are transparent in the sense that they are explainable in human terms, and well-adapted to the communicative needs of its users, as they have been shaped by past successes and failures in communication. The capacity for an autonomous agent to learn computational construction grammars has a potential impact in many application domains, ranging from human-robot interaction, through personal assistants, to intelligent language tutoring systems." "Form and function in usage-based construction grammar: A semantic/pragmatic analysis of clause-internal irrelevance marking in German." "Torsten Leuschner" "Department of Linguistics" "German W-immer/auch-connectives occur in universal concessive conditionals, nonspecific free relatives, and elliptical constructions. By analyzing both formal and semantic/pragmatic differences between these constructions, I will demonstrate that a more precise characterization of a construction’s function is required in order to distinguish formally similar constructions in the constructional network and explain subtle differences between them." "The grammar of imperatives and the imperatives of grammar." "Jeroen Van Craenenbroeck" "Formal and Computational Linguistics (ComForT), Leuven, Universiteit Stellenbosch" "Imperatives like Go away! or Don't touch that! are the linguistic expressions that humans use to get other humans to do, or not do, certain things (like going away or not touching something). Although imperatives are very prominent in child-directed speech, research to date has not systematically probed their significance for language acquisition. This project will address this gap in the literature, by conducting an empirically based investigation into the research hypothesis that the grammar of imperatives is pivotal in fixing core aspects of a language's grammatical character.  We will explore this hypothesis via three case studies, each focused on the interaction between a particular type of imperative on the one hand, and a core aspect of the grammatical system on the other. In addition, each case study will be comparative in nature, focusing on different varieties of Dutch and Afrikaans.   At the center of this project is a PhD-track that explores the abovementioned hypothesis in three work packages. The first focuses on negative imperatives and examines to what extent these constructions shed light on the expression of negation in the different varieties. Work Package 2 focuses on positive imperatives and the syntax of so-called `light verbs' like come and go, and Work Package 3 examines the use of modal particles like just in both positive and negative imperatives. This is a four-year project, half of which (Y1 and Y3) will be carried out at KU Leuven and the other half (Y2 and Y4) at Stellenbosch University.  " "The grammar of imperatives and the imperatives of grammar" "Theresa Biberauer, Jeroen Van Craenenbroeck" "Formal and Computational Linguistics (ComForT), Leuven" "Imperatives like Go away! or Don't touch that! are the linguistic expressions that humans use to get other humans to do, or not do, certain things (like going away or not touching something). Although imperatives are very prominent in child-directed speech, research to date has not systematically probed their significance for language acquisition. This project will address this gap in the literature, by conducting an empirically based investigation into the research hypothesis that the grammar of imperatives is pivotal in fixing core aspects of a language's grammatical character. We will explore this hypothesis via three case studies, each focused on the interaction between a particular type of imperative on the one hand, and a core aspect of the grammatical system on the other. In addition, each case study will be comparative in nature, focusing on different varieties of Dutch and Afrikaans. At the center of this project is a PhD-track that explores the abovementioned hypothesis in three work packages. The first focuses on negative imperatives and examines to what extent these constructions shed light on the expression of negation in the different varieties. Work Package 2 focuses on positive imperatives and the syntax of so-called `light verbs' like come and go, and Work Package 3 examines the use of modal particles like just in both positive and negative imperatives. This is a four-year project, half of which (Y1 and Y3) will be carried out at KU Leuven and the other half (Y2 and Y4) at Stellenbosch University." "Sabbatical Albert Oosterhof: Applied Dutch studies: Language variation and grammar studies in applied perspective" "Albert Oosterhof" "Quantitative Lexicology and Variational Linguistics (QLVL), Antwerp Campuses" "The sabbatical period is aimed at carrying out a number of sub-studies in the field of Dutch grammar, language variation and language proficiency. This will include the following:topics are published and presented:- omission of language elements in headlines: prepositions (in collaboration with research group GIST, UGent);- comparative correlatives in Dutch: constructions with the longer… the meer and influence of English;- variable article use in dialects of Dutch: proper names in Brabant and Limburg dialects;- the use of forms of address in different text genres in German and Dutch language material (in collaboration with Birgitta Meex, German language group, Antwerp Campus);- the use of forms of address in obituaries and other family announcements;- multilingualism, language policy and the debate on the language of education in the countries of the language area (incollaboration with Ulrike Vogl - UGent, Eric Mijts - University of Aruba, Sita Doerga Misier Patadien - I.O.L. Paramaribo, Nele Nivelle – Hasselt University, Lieke Nijland – Utrecht University);- a Flemish dialect as tonal language, in which the role of pitch is examined in the difference between singular and plural words with /l/ in the coda in certain western Flemish dialects (in collaboration with Kathy Rys, Institute for the Dutch Language, Leiden );- the language advice on the use of back and forth in Flemish varieties of Dutch.- imperatives in Dutch: Corpus research into participatory imperatives based on the approach of Gertjan Postma (in collaboration with Evie Coussé, University of Göteborg)- polar sensitivity, weasley constructions and other phenomena from sentence semantics in Surinamese Dutch (proposal to Sita Doerga Misier-Patadien, Paramaribo).The aim is to carry out these research plans, which have not been fully developed in recent years, during the academic year. Every topic should become an (international) publication. The aim is therefore to produce a dozen articles." "Grammatical Robotic Fabrication: Introducing A Grammar for Programming Real-Time Interaction among Human, Robot and Material" "Andrew Vande Moere" "Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics (RAM), Architecture and Design" "In architecture and design, robotic fabrication has opened up new design opportunities because it enables designers to investigate materials by versatile mechanical manipulations at various scales. The typical robotic fabrication is one-directional as that commences from the digital modeling of a predefined form to its fabrication. The requirement of digital modeling restricts the creative design space of fabrication to what can be simulated. Moreover, because digital models are based on simulating highly predictable material behaviour, one-directional fabrication workflow is limited in responding to unpredictable/emergent changes in the material. Lastly, because the planning and execution of the fabrication process require modeling and programming, the accessibility of digital fabrication is limited to expert users. Instead of this one-directional and material-agnostic fabrication design, this research introduces grammatical robotic fabrication as the core paradigm. Grammatical robotic fabrication investigates creativity, responsiveness and accessibility by facilitating iterative interaction among designer, robot, and material agents. This research’s main contribution is a declarative programming language grammar. This grammar enables the encoding of rules that capture human, robot and material input/output and relate those with each other. The rules then establish three continuous interaction cycles: human-material, material-robot and human-robot interaction. In this thesis, firstly human-material interaction was explored in terms of creativity. The human-material interaction allows an iterative and reflective fabrication process through which appearing material outcomes inspire design ideas. Secondly, the potential of rules to integrate real-time sensor feedback was investigated. The results demonstrated how real-time sensor data from material and/or robot enabled the design exploration with the material agency. Based on the sensor feedback from the material, a material-robot interaction cycle was established. This cycle allowed a responsive robotic fabrication process as the robot program was continually (re)computed based on changes in the material. Accordingly, final design forms were generated physically `with' material, instead of being digitally modelled or programmed beforehand. The next investigations focused on human-robot interaction by replacing feedback from material with human agents. As a result, the designer was able to improvisationally influence the fabrication process and to immediately see material outcomes without programming or 3d-modeling. Consequently, emergent material outcomes were explored as part of form-finding. Based on the overall results, grammatical robotic fabrication introduces a transformation of digital fabrication into an iterative design process, thereby bringing digital fabrication a step closer to crafting, where most of the knowledge is acquired by interacting materials and tools. Different from crafting, during the fabrication process, the designer relates their design preferences with the affordances/constraints of robot setup and material by rules. Consequently, the digital fabrication knowledge builds up in parallel with the rules and becomes mapped with these rules. Accordingly, the digital fabrication knowledge was represented via rule diagrams, rule notations and semantic graphs. The results show these representations potentially enable both novice and expert designers to access digital fabrication knowledge without the necessity of sharing codes or in-person explanations. This thesis contributes to deepening and broadening current discussions about creativity, responsiveness and accessibility in the fields of robotic fabrication, computational making, and human-computer interaction. These contributions not only open new design opportunities with the material agency but also provide a generalisable workflow that structures responsive and improvisational robotic fabrication. This generalisable workflow of grammatical robotic fabrication poses a potential for more transparent data collection by representing digital fabrication knowledge. The grammatical robotic fabrication paradigm forms the preliminary step towards making human-fabrication collaboration possible for solving open-ended and uncertain tasks in application fields ranging from product to construction scale. In future, the grammatical robotic fabrication paradigm potentially supports the development of smart systems that can co-act with humans, not only by guiding but also by suggesting new opportunities." "The grammar of upbringing beyond the Western epistemologies: Registers of upbringing in Vietnam from 2000s to 2020s" "Stefan Ramaekers" "Education, Culture and Society, Education and Society" "In the last four decades, tremendous effort has gone into developing a scientifically grounded way of raising children, known as ‘parenting’, largely founded in developmental and neuro-psychology. Partly in response, an existential-pedagogical account of raising children has been developed, centred around the concept of ‘upbringing’. Despite their state-of-the-art nature in the field of child-raising, both accounts have been developed within the context of Western countries and have not yet addressed the global import of, in particular, ‘parenting’ to Eastern countries and its localized configurations. Hence, two knowledge gaps are: (1) a lack of a critical examination into how the ‘parenting’ discourse arrives and settles in a non-Western context, and (2) a lack of local counter- narratives to the settlement of the ‘parenting’ discourse. Taking place in Vietnam, this project aims to (1) give an account of localized configurations of ‘parenting’ in a specific Eastern context and (2) (re)construct local counter-narratives that respond to ‘parenting’. By doing so, this project not only challenges the existing Euro-centric literature of raising children, but also pushes forward the field of Family Pedagogy into the postcolonial turn in social sciences and humanities research. Ultimately, the project’s outcomes are devoted to empowering parents and adults at large, particularly in Belgium and Vietnam, to think and act critically for their children’s and the world’s future." "The development of the absolute construction in English: the interaction between internal and external factors of change." "Hubert Cuyckens" "Functional and Cognitive Linguistics: Grammar and Typology (FunC), Leuven, Quantitative Lexicology and Variational Linguistics (QLVL), Leuven" "This PhD aims to provide a comprehensive, corpus-based study of the development of the absolute construction (AC) in English, from its earliest attested instances in Old English up to the present. Present-day English (PDE) examples are '""That's better,"" he said, his spirits raising a little.' and 'With the teacher refusing to comply, Barry took the matter to the dean'. The specific objectives/research questions guiding this study can be formulated as follows. First, the project wishes to provide a full descriptive account of the AC's development; this descriptive component shows that the AC is characterized by fluctuating frequency, changing semantics and register distribution, growing structural flexibility and increasing productivity. These changes are best viewed as multi-causal developments which are the result of language external and language internal factors combined. Second, specific attention is devoted to three more general issues. The first is the AC's much debated origin, which is here claimed to be a case of selective frequential copying from Latin. The second is the question why English is the only Present-day Germanic language to make extensive use of the AC. The explanation is argued to lie in i. the special functional niche occupied by certain PDE ACs, ii. the fact that more possibilities for structural priming and form/function overlap are available to PDE ACs, iii. the fact that English has become more unbounded over time and iv. the fact that English prescriptivism has encouraged rather than discouraged the use of ACs. The third and final general issue concerns the development of augmentation, with specific attention being devoted to the role of the verbal gerund. It is thereby argued that the development of with-absolutes is a clear instance of grammatical constructionalization characterized by increasing schematicity, new constructional types and some loss of compositionality. Methodologically, the project makes use of extensive corpus research and statistics in order to report reliable results."