constructeduse

Constructeduse is a neologism used in linguistics and natural language processing to describe the deliberate creation of linguistic uses that are not attested in a language's ordinary corpus. The concept emphasizes intentional design of sentences or constructions to test theories, probe model behavior, or illustrate grammatical possibilities beyond observed data.

Origins and scope: The term is not tied to a single author or tradition and appears in discussions surrounding data augmentation, experimental linguistics, and conlangs. It distinguishes constructed or synthetic uses from naturally occurring discourse.

Approaches: Researchers generate constructed uses through templates, rule-based generation, or language models guided by constraints. They may vary syntax, semantics, register, or pragmatics to explore model robustness or theoretical predictions.

Applications: In NLP, constructeduses can serve as adversarial test cases, demonstration material for teaching syntax, or datasets for evaluating generalization to rare constructions. In linguistics, they help elicit judgments about grammatical acceptability and theory testing.

Limitations: Constructeduses may be unrealistic or biased toward the creators' conventions; care is needed to avoid misrepresenting language use.

Examples: The sentence The colorless idea quietly sings in the network is an example of a constructed-use sentence with unusual metaphor and adverb placement.

See also: data augmentation; synthetic data; controlled natural language; adversarial examples; linguistics.