Full Description
What do speakers of English know in order to produce utterances that other speakers will understand? Construction Grammar explains how knowledge of language is organized in speakers' minds. The central and radical claim of Construction Grammar is that linguistic knowledge can be fully described as knowledge of constructions, which are defined as symbolic units that connect a linguistic form with meaning. The implications of this claim are far-reaching: in Construction Grammar, not only lexical items, but also syntactic patterns are seen as symbolic, meaningful units. Instead of being meaningless structural templates, syntactic patterns actively contribute to the overall meaning of an utterance. Knowledge of language is thought of as a vast repository of interrelated symbolic units, and nothing else in addition. This book expands on this idea and familiarizes readers with the central concepts of Construction Grammar, as applied to English constructions. In the process, it explains how the theory of Construction Grammar relates to issues of language processing, language acquisition, and language variation and change.
Contents
List of tables and figures Acknowledgements To readers: Why you shouldn't pick up, let alone read, this book 1 Introducing Construction Grammar 1.1 What do you know when you know a language? 1.2 What is a construction? 1.3 Identifying constructions 1.4 Summing up 1.5 Outline of the following chapters Study questions Further reading 2 Argument structure constructions 2.1 Analysing 'simple sentences' 2.2 Argument structure 2.3 Valency-increasing constructions 2.4 Valency-decreasing constructions2.5 Relations between argument structure constructions 2.6 Summing up Study questionsFurther reading 3 Inside the construct-i-con3.1 Meaningless constructions? 3.2 The construct-i-con: a network of interlinked constructions 3.3 'Normal syntax' in Construction Grammar3.4 Summing upStudy questions Further reading4 Constructional morphology 4.1 More than a theory of syntax4.2 Morphological constructions and their properties4.3 Constructional solutions to morphological puzzles 4.4 Summing up Study questions Further reading5 Information packaging constructions5.1 The pragmatic side of Construction Grammar 5.2 Information packaging and grammar 5.3 Island constraints 5.4 Summing up Study questions Further reading6 Constructions and language processing 6.1 The quest for behavioural evidence 6.2 Evidence from language comprehension 6.3 Evidence from language production 6.4 Summing up Study questions Further reading 7 Constructions and language acquisition 7.1 Construction Grammar for kids7.2 Evidence for the item-based nature of language learning7.3 From item-based schemas to constructions 7.4 The acquisition of complex sentences 7.5 Summing up Study questionsFurther reading 8 Language variation and change 8.1 Language myths 8.2 Constructional variation8.3 Constructional variation across groups of speakers 8.4 Constructional change: variation across time 8.5 Three open questions in Diachronic Construction Grammar8.6 Summing up Study questions Further reading 9 Constructions in spoken language9.1 Overcoming the written language bias9.2 On-line syntax9.3 Emergent constructions9.4 Using constructions in spoken language9.5 Summing upStudy questionsFurther reading 10 Constructions across Grammars10.1 Diasystematic Construction Grammar10.2 Do foreign language learners also have constructions?10.3 Typological differences and their effects on L2 learners10.4 Implications for the L2 classroom10.5 Summing upStudy questionsFurther reading 11 Concluding remarks
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