Entrenchment in Usage-Based Theories

This work deals with the relationship between frequency in natural language use and the entrenchment of complex linguistic strings in the minds of language users. This broad issue can be broken down into two more specific guiding questions: First, is it possible to gain cognitively realistic insights into speakers' linguistic knowledge from quantitative generalisations over corpus data? Second, and maybe more importantly, what exactly should be understood by entrenchment? In the present work, these two questions, which are crucial for assessing the status and scope of usage-based theories, will be subject to detailed critical evaluation and empirical investigation using a multi-method research design.