This paper analyzes symmetric NPN constructions (e.g., day to day, face to face, step by step ) qualitatively and quantitatively by examining data from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (Davies, Mark. 2008–. The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA): 570 million words, 1990–present. http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/). The constructions’ frequency and productivity, as well as their semantics and extension potential (i.e., modification, complementation) is investigated (e.g., by conducting collostructional analysis). In terms of theoretical modeling, the paper takes a Usage-based, Cognitive Construction Grammar approach (UCCxG) and sketches the constructional network of this constructional family, postulating various constructional templates on different levels of specificity – among others – the existence of the following subtypes [CN sg,time i after CN sg,time i ] Cx (e.g., day after day, night after night ), [CN sg,measurement i by CN sg,measurement i ] Cx (e.g., inch by inch, step by step ) or [CN sg,bodypart i to CN sg,bodypart i ] Cx (e.g., skin to skin, shoulder to shoulder ). We show how these templates are vertically and horizontally connected to each other. Ultimately, we argue that in a usage-based model which strives for cognitive plausibility it is not always feasible to postulate the entrenchment of an abstract overarching schema (i.e., a ‘mothernode’) like [CN i P CN i ] Cx or even [N P N] Cx high up in the network. It is unlikely that speakers abstract such a general schema in a bottom-up acquisition process for this family. Rather, the NPN group is a constructional family characterized by many sister ties and by the absence of mother nodes from which information can be inherited.

中文翻译：

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没有母亲，坚强的姐妹和特殊的女儿：英语NPN结构的构造网络

本文通过研究当代美国英语语料库（Davies，Mark。2008–）的数据，定性和定量地分析了对称的NPN构造（例如，日常，面对面，逐步）。 ）：5.7亿个字，1990年至今。http：//corpus.byu.edu/coca/）。研究结构的频率和生产率，以及它们的语义和扩展潜力（即，修改，补充）（例如，通过进行协同分析）。在理论建模方面，本文采用了基于用法的认知构造语法方法（UCCxG），并草绘了该构造族的构造网络，假设各种结构模板具有不同的特异性水平-其中包括以下亚型的存在[CN sg，CN s之后的时间i，时间i] Cx（例如，日复一日，夜复夜），[CN sg，测量i通过CN sg，测量i表示Cx（例如，逐英寸，逐步）或[CN sg，i到CN sg，bodyi的身体] Cx（例如，从皮肤到皮肤，从肩膀到肩膀）。我们展示了这些模板如何在垂直和水平方向上相互连接。最终，我们认为，在一个基于认知的使用模型中，要努力争取认知的合理性，并不总是可行地假设像[CN i P CN i] Cx甚至是[ NPN] Cx在网络中较高。演讲者不太可能在此家庭的自下而上的获取过程中抽象出这样的一般模式。