Article published In: The Wealth and Breadth of Construction-Based Research:
Edited by Timothy Colleman, Frank Brisard, Astrid De Wit, Renata Enghels, Nikos Koutsoukos, Tanja Mortelmans and María Sol Sansiñena
[Belgian Journal of Linguistics 34] 2020
► pp. 273–282
Constructions as discourse-restrained flexible prototypes
Published online: 28 May 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/bjl.00052.ost
https://doi.org/10.1075/bjl.00052.ost
Abstract
Constructions are abstractions of resources we have available as ways of expressing ourselves. The study argues
for the feasibility of seeing constructions as flexible prototypes in terms of which we categorize the world: constructions have
few if any necessary and sufficient conditions that are always applicable. As support for this view, an analysis of the
correlative TatT-construction in English is carried out, indicating that even if we can set up a dozen
characteristics of the construction, none of them are necessary for an expression to be characterized as an instance of the
construction. Furthermore, for constructional analyses to be truly usage-based, variations within prototypes have to be
explicated. A Construction Discourse approach is used to show how pragmatic and discourse factors can distinguish and afford
particular meanings and functions to non-prototypical instances of a construction.
Article outline
- 1.Constructions as resources
- 2.Prototypical characteristics of the TatT-construction
- 3.Context as external attributes
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
References
References (6)
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Morris, Charles W. 1938. Foundations of the Theory of Signs [= International Encyclopedia of Unified Sciences 1:2]. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Östman, Jan-Ola. 2005. “Construction Discourse: A Prolegomenon.” In Construction Grammars: Cognitive Grounding and Theoretical Extensions, ed. by Jan-Ola Östman, and Mirjam Fried, 121–144. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Cited by (2)
Cited by two other publications
Mithun, Marianne
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