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Construction Grammar

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lightbulbAbout this topic
Construction Grammar is a theoretical framework in linguistics that posits that knowledge of a language consists of a collection of constructions, which are conventionalized pairings of form and meaning. It emphasizes the role of these constructions in understanding syntax, semantics, and the relationship between language and cognition.
lightbulbAbout this topic
Construction Grammar is a theoretical framework in linguistics that posits that knowledge of a language consists of a collection of constructions, which are conventionalized pairings of form and meaning. It emphasizes the role of these constructions in understanding syntax, semantics, and the relationship between language and cognition.

Key research themes

1. How does Construction Grammar integrate form, meaning, and use in linguistic representations to model syntax-lexicon interplay?

This research theme investigates how Construction Grammar (CxG) conceptualizes linguistic knowledge as an interconnected network of constructions that pair form and meaning across various levels—morphological, lexical, syntactic, and pragmatic. It challenges traditional modular and derivational models by proposing constraint-based, usage-influenced frameworks that unify lexicon and grammar along a continuum, enabling detailed representation of idiomatic, schematic, and creative language phenomena. Understanding this integration is crucial as it reconceptualizes the fundamental architecture of grammatical theory and interfaces between form, semantics, and use.

Key finding: Introduces Sign-Based Construction Grammar (SBCG), a declarative, constraint-based framework that eschews modular grammar separation and derivational mechanisms (e.g., movement). SBCG models grammar as a hierarchy of... Read more
Key finding: Elaborates the syntax-lexicon continuum concept, arguing that linguistic competence involves a graded continuum from lexical units through idioms to schematic grammatical patterns. The study contrasts this with generative... Read more
Key finding: Proposes Construction Morphology (CxM) within the Parallel Architecture, providing a multi-tiered framework that explicitly models morphological, phonological, syntactic, and semantic information simultaneously. This approach... Read more
Key finding: Extends Construction Grammar by allowing purely formal schemas without inherent meaning and introducing horizontal relations among lexical items beyond inheritance hierarchies. Relational Morphology integrates morphological... Read more
Key finding: Synthesizes common assumptions across varied Construction Grammar approaches, emphasizing that all linguistic knowledge comprises constructions organized in a taxonomic network with inheritance mechanisms. It clarifies... Read more

2. What mechanisms enable language learners to acquire and utilize constructions in second language acquisition, and what pedagogical insights arise?

This theme explores empirical studies demonstrating the psychological reality of constructions in L2 learners, their acquisition trajectories, and applications for language pedagogy. It investigates how learners represent constructions, how proficiency affects construction usage, and how cross-linguistic influences and constructional networks shape learning processes. The findings provide crucial evidence for the applicability of Construction Grammar in second language acquisition and suggest innovative, construction-aware teaching methodologies.

Key finding: Using sentence-sorting and corpus methods, it demonstrates that L2 learners of English, including Spanish speakers, mentally represent constructions similarly to native speakers. The studies show that learners’ sorting... Read more
Key finding: Provides empirical investigations into learner use of constructions across proficiency levels and languages, employing collostructional analysis to reveal that intermediate L2 learners show greatest success internalizing... Read more
Key finding: Develops and tests a computational algorithm that models how learners can induce construction grammars from corpus data without assuming innate linguistic structure. The model demonstrates acquisition of constructions that... Read more

3. How do Construction Grammar approaches explicate linguistic creativity and novel language use beyond established productivity?

This theme covers how Construction Grammar accounts for creativity in language, differentiating productive recombination of established constructions from deeper cognitive creativity that generates novel communicative possibilities. It examines cognitive mechanisms such as conceptual blending, competition between constructions, and usage frequency effects, framing creativity within constructional networks and mental schemas. Understanding these processes expands theoretical descriptions of language and informs models of human cognitive-linguistic capacity.

Key finding: Argues that traditional notions of productivity within Construction Grammar capture partial creativity but fail to explain generation of entirely novel, untemplated utterances. By integrating Conceptual Blending theory, the... Read more
Key finding: Surveys interdisciplinary perspectives on verbal creativity within constructionist frameworks, highlighting that usage-based entrenchment and analogical reasoning enable incremental and transformative creative language uses.... Read more

All papers in Construction Grammar

Аннотация: В статье анализируются дискурсивные функции разговорных плеонастических конструкций где территориально и когда по времени. На основе данных корпусов НКРЯ и ruTenTen2017 показывается, что эти выражения, несмотря на свою... more
This article presents an analysis of serial verb constructions in Wa'ikhana, an East Tukanoan language, from a usage-based constructionist perspective. Four kinds of serializations are identified and described. One of them-a serialization... more
Based on the view of Cognitive Linguistics (CL) as a heterogeneous and constantly expanding theoretical field that investigates the relationship between language and cognition, this text discusses the properties that unify its different... more
Construções da língua inglesa formadas por verbo e partícula expressam significados variados, como resultatividade e movimento causado, além de serem encontradas em enunciados com diferentes graus de idiomaticidade. Este capítulo dá... more
One line of research in constructional analysis has supported (on occasion controversially – cf. Boas 2005; Goldberg & Jackendoff 2005) an upgraded role for lexical constructions headed by verbs, since verb senses are often associated... more
Talmy (2000) describes force dynamics as a conceptual category that captures how entities interact with respect to applying force, resisting or overcoming force, blocking force, or removing blockage. In language, force dynamics manifests... more
This study analyzes the English comparative alternation (morphological prouder and periphrastic more proud) with regard to adjective-specific variability. Substantial empirical evidence indicates that speakers redundantly represent both... more
The thesis focuses on the Ukrainian translation of BBC English-language Internet news headlines from a linguistic rhetoric perspective. The paper explains the Ukrainian rendering of English-language news discourse headlines through... more
This paper examines the revolutionary impact of Noam Chomsky's generative grammar on our understanding of human language capacity. Beginning with the publication of Syntactic Structures in 1957, generative linguistics fundamentally... more
This entry presents the state-of-the-art of research into the pathways of subjectification and intersubjectification across language histories. First, I detail the various ways in which these processes have been conceptualized by... more
Este estudio analiza las prácticas de lectura académica digital de estudiantes venezolanos de Educación Media. Basada en la Teoría de la Acción Comunicativa de Habermas y los Nuevos Estudios de Literacidad, la investigación analiza el... more
Cuando pensamos en el lenguaje, con frecuencia nos enfrentamos a una diversidad de problemas de investigación, pero también a equívocos y a falsos dilemas. Por ejemplo, tendemos a asumir que sabemos de qué hablamos, como si el fenómeno... more
Температура и явления, связанные с ней, имеют огромное значение в жизни человека и природы. Языки мира выработали для их описания различные, иногда специализированные лексические и грамматические средства в языках мира. В отношении... more
Le présent article étudie les emplois de donc au sein de l’expression des modalités énonciatives. Ainsi, nous montrons que ces usages produisent des effets spécifiques et subjectifs dans les romans de Francis Bebey en raison de la reprise... more
,blutverwandt' [sie] (110 f.). "Wird durch die Wortbildung keine neue Kategorie als ,Satzfunktion ' erzielt" (113, vulgo: Wechsel der Wortart), liegt Modifikation vor -aber fr. xvutsrponmlkj jardinier, maîtresse, brassée, courage,... more
The present paper investigates a constructional alternation currently under development in Mozambican Portuguese, arising from the constructionalization of a new passive construction (Recipient passives) alongside its standard counterpart... more
Back-formation is defined as a type of morphological change in which a base word is created ex novo paralleling an extant morphological alternation that serves as a model as in the verb to televise from the noun television. This... more
A pandemia da COVID-19 trouxe danos ainda não reparados para a sociedade, afetando variados espaços antes ocupados por indivíduos que, com exceções, nunca haviam experienciado a força avassaladora de um vírus cujo espraiamento exponencial... more
The topic of the present paper is the modifications that so-called bibleisms or biblical quotations in German and Spanish can undergo, against the background of Construction Grammar, specifically in its cognitive usage-based perspective... more
This study proposes a novel model that conceptualizes meaning as "value evaluation by a subject toward a recognized object." Meaning is understood as a state of equivalent binding among objects (physical entities, concepts, or phenomena),... more
This article, based on representative corpus data, examines the non-trivial morphosyntactic properties of the experiential predicative vsë ravno (which, as we argue, emerged under Polish influence) in the Russian language from the 17th to... more
The chapter considers the potential role of synsemantic words in Slovak and Russian phraseological constructions with a slot. Initial findings suggest that they may often function as anchors, influencing the overall semantics and... more
В настоящей статье рассматриваются дискурсивные функции сочетания как-то так, которое реализует широкий спектр значений: анафору, дейксис, хезитацию, оценку и суммиро- вание. Эти функции делятся на референциальные (анафора, дейксис),... more
This paper examines the debate between Universal Grammar and Usage-Based Linguistics. Drawing on works by Chomsky, Bybee, Evans and Levinson, and others, it argues that language is best understood as a complex adaptive system shaped by... more
Many computational models of morphology that do not presuppose hand-coding of input data (i.e., do not draw on model-external linguistic knowledge) use character-based formal representations to account for lexical processing and... more
The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of German particle verbs with the particle weg- ‘away’ as in Tattoos weglasern (lit. ‘to laser tattoos away’ within the framework of Construction Grammar (Goldberg, 1995, 2006; Ziem & Lasch,... more
A Deus, meu criador e senhor, único digno de receber toda glória, honra e louvor. À professora Doutora Maria Alice Tavares, pela orientação paciente, amiga e sábia, e por sempre ter acreditado em mim. À professora Doutora Maria Angélica... more
Neste artigo são analisadas as sentenças copulativas do russo e a variação que exibem quanto à estratégia copulativa no tempo presente. Em alguns casos, observa-se o uso da partícula eto, o que alguns estudiosos caracterizam como... more
Neste artigo, a construção de foco sentencial introduzida pela partícula focalizadora éto em russo é analisada. O arcabouço teórico utilizado para investigar esse tipo de estrutura é o da Gramática de Construções Baseada no Uso. Foram... more
This article explores the situation or how the concepts of “child” and “childhood” appear in Kurdish written and oral texts. When it comes to children and childhood, the subject comes into focus from two perspectives; First, the child as... more
Symbolsk og indeksikalsk kasus i nutidsdansk -resumé Engelske låneords rolle i dansk fonologi Reklamejysk -resumé Højskolens sprog: En sprogetnografisk undersøgelse af tekst, tegn og ord på Rødding Højskole -resumé Forekomsten af stød i... more
Tanto la sintaxis como la semántica –la primera con menos dificulta des que la segunda– se desarrollaron con solidez teórica en el marco del estructuralismo o del generativismo (formalistas en principio y devenidos funcionalistas luego),... more
Las metáforas creativas han sido objeto de especial interés recientemente (Bolognesi y Werkmann Horvat, 2023), asociadas a distintas clases de inteligencia (Silvia y Beaty, 2012), géneros no literarios (Fuoli et al., 2021) y fenómenos... more
espanolLa construccion resultativa ha suscitado el interes de diversos investigadores pertenecientes a diferentes tradiciones, especialmente a las perspectivas formales, funcionales y construccionistas. Nuestra propuesta se ajusta a los... more
This article explores the constraints that underlie the functioning of motion verbs expressing movement in a particular way (e.g. skulk, scamper). Our study has been carried out in accordance with the postulates of the Lexical... more
Capítulo que traz uma análise comparativa entre os usos das construções S
[SE P, (ENTÃO) Q] E [SUPONDO QUE X] à luz da Linguística Funcional Centrada no Uso
presente capítulo visa apresentar, de modo didático, um dos principais temas da Linguística Funcionalista Norte-americana a futuros professores de língua materna: a codificação linguística de Figura e de Fundo em textos orais e escritos.... more
Os textos que compõem esta obra foram submetidos para avaliação do Conselho Editorial da Pimenta Cultural, bem como revisados por pares, sendo indicados para a publicação. Dedicamos esta obra ao Professor Dr. Sebastião Josué Votre, que... more
This article presents a distributional approach to predict the compositionality of German particle verbs by modelling changes in syntactic argument structure. We justify the experiments on theoretical grounds and employ GermaNet, Topic... more
All original audio-recordings and other supplementary material, such as any hand-outs and powerpoint presentations for the lecture series, have been made available online and are referenced via unique DOI numbers on the website... more
All original audio-recordings and other supplementary material, such as any hand-outs and powerpoint presentations for the lecture series, have been made available online and are referenced via unique DOI numbers on the website... more
All original audio-recordings and other supplementary material, such as any hand-outs and powerpoint presentations for the lecture series, have been made available online and are referenced via unique DOI numbers on the website... more
All original audio-recordings and other supplementary material, such as any hand-outs and powerpoint presentations for the lecture series, have been made available online and are referenced via unique DOI numbers on the website... more
All original audio-recordings and other supplementary material, such as any hand-outs and powerpoint presentations for the lecture series, have been made available online and are referenced via unique DOI numbers on the website... more
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