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In:Diachronic Construction Grammar
Edited by Jóhanna Barðdal, Elena Smirnova, Lotte Sommerer and Spike Gildea
[Constructional Approaches to Language 18] 2015
► pp. 1–50

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Diachronic Construction Grammar

Epistemological context, basic assumptions and historical implications

ORCiD logo with link | Ghent University & University of Bergen
 | University of Oregon & Collegium de Lyon
Published online: 30 July 2015
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.18.01bar
The main goal of this chapter is to discuss the value of the Construction Grammar framework to solving perceived problems with diachronic syntax. As such, one part of this chapter provides a condensed review of previous research in diachronic syntax, including a brief discussion of why many linguists have doubted the value of such work. While most of this early work did not emphasize the importance of constructions to our understanding of either synchronic or diachronic syntax, we do identify earlier examples of work for which the notion of construction was crucial, although not richly developed. The bulk of the chapter then proposes ways in which a constructional perspective/theory allows us to address some of these perceived problems with the study of diachronic syntax, hence providing a research context for the individual studies published in this volume.
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2023. Meaning integration in pseudocoordination. In Constructional Approaches to Nordic Languages [Constructional Approaches to Language, 37], ► pp. 114 ff. DOI logo
Nicolle, Steve
2023. A linguistic cycle for speech orienters. Constructions and Frames 15:2 ► pp. 257 ff. DOI logo
Wu, Xia & Yicheng Wu
2023. Review of Sommerer & Smirnova (2020): Nodes and Networks in Diachronic Construction Grammar. Constructions and Frames 15:2 ► pp. 291 ff. DOI logo
Herbst, Thomas & Judith Huber
2022. Diachronic Construction Grammar – Introductory Remarks to This Special Issue. Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik 70:3 ► pp. 213 ff. DOI logo
Smirnova, Elena & Vanessa Stöber
2022. Verbo-Nominal Constructions withkommen‘come’ in German. Constructions and Frames 14:1 ► pp. 121 ff. DOI logo
Hartmann, Stefan
2021. Diachronic Cognitive Linguistics. Yearbook of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association 9:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Kuo, Yueh Hsin
2021. A constructional account of the loss of the adverse avertive schema in Mandarin Chinese. In Lost in Change [Studies in Language Companion Series, 218], ► pp. 131 ff. DOI logo
Rudnicka, Karolina
2021. The “negative end” of change in grammar: terminology, concepts and causes. Linguistics Vanguard 7:1 DOI logo
Shirtz, Shahar, Luigi Talamo & Annemarie Verkerk
2021. The Evolutionary Dynamics of Negative Existentials in Indo-European. Frontiers in Communication 6 DOI logo
Vangaever, Jasper
2021. On la voit se développant  : la construction progressive présentative du latin tardif à l’ancien français. Langue française N° 209:1 ► pp. 63 ff. DOI logo
Alba-Salas, Josep
2020. Construccionalización y obsolescencia en las colocaciones tipo caerle/venirle/entrarle en N‘agrado’. Revista de Filología Española 100:1 ► pp. 9 ff. DOI logo
Alba-Salas, Josep
2024. Rising datives: tomar ‘take’ expressions with nouns of ‘emotion’ and constructional network reconfiguration in Spanish. Folia Linguistica 58:s45-s1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Barđdal, Jóhanna, Leonid Kulikov, Roland Pooth & Peter Alexander Kerkhof
2020. Oblique anticausatives: A morphosyntactic isogloss in Indo-European. Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 56:3 ► pp. 413 ff. DOI logo
Gyselinck, Emmeline
2020. (Re)shaping the constructional network. In Nodes and networks in Diachronic Construction Grammar [Constructional Approaches to Language, 27], ► pp. 107 ff. DOI logo
Herbst, Thomas & Peter Uhrig
2020. The issue of specifying slots in argument structure constructions in terms of form and meaning. Belgian Journal of Linguistics 34 ► pp. 135 ff. DOI logo
Luraghi, Silvia, Chiara Naccarato & Erica Pinelli
2020. Theu+gen construction in Modern Standard Russian. Cognitive Linguistics 31:1 ► pp. 149 ff. DOI logo
Smirnova, Elena & Lotte Sommerer
2020. Introduction. In Nodes and networks in Diachronic Construction Grammar [Constructional Approaches to Language, 27], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Sommerer, Lotte
2020. Constructionalization, constructional competition and constructional death. In Nodes and networks in Diachronic Construction Grammar [Constructional Approaches to Language, 27], ► pp. 69 ff. DOI logo
Sommerer, Lotte
2020. Why we avoid the ‘Multiple Inheritance’ issue in Usage-based Cognitive Construction Grammar. Belgian Journal of Linguistics 34 ► pp. 320 ff. DOI logo
Sundquist, John D.
2020. Productivity, richness, and diversity of light verb constructions in the history of American English. Journal of Historical Linguistics 10:3 ► pp. 349 ff. DOI logo
Zehentner, Eva & Elizabeth Closs Traugott
2020. Constructional networks and the development of benefactive ditransitives in English. In Nodes and networks in Diachronic Construction Grammar [Constructional Approaches to Language, 27], ► pp. 167 ff. DOI logo
Chappell, Hilary & Jean‐Christophe Verstraete
2019. Optional and alternating case marking: Typology and diachrony. Language and Linguistics Compass 13:3 DOI logo
D’hoedt, Frauke, Hendrik De Smet & Hubert Cuyckens
2019. Constructions Waxing and Waning: A Brief History of the Zero-Secondary Predicate Construction. Journal of English Linguistics 47:1 ► pp. 3 ff. DOI logo
Johnson, Cynthia A., Peter Alexander Kerkhof, Leonid Kulikov, Esther Le Mair & Jóhanna Barðdal
2019. Argument structure, conceptual metaphor and semantic change. Diachronica 36:4 ► pp. 463 ff. DOI logo
Rosemeyer, Malte & Mar Garachana
2019. De la consecución a la contraexpectación: la construccionalización delograr/conseguir+ infinitivo. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 12:2 ► pp. 383 ff. DOI logo
Birchall, Joshua
2018. Historical change in reported speech constructions in the Chapacuran family. Journal of Historical Linguistics 8:1 ► pp. 7 ff. DOI logo
Fonteyn, Lauren & Charlotte Maekelberghe
2018. Competing motivations in the diachronic nominalization of English gerunds. Diachronica 35:4 ► pp. 487 ff. DOI logo
Gildea, Spike & Joana Jansen
2018. The development of referential hierarchy effects in Sahaptian. In Typological hierarchies in synchrony and diachrony [Typological Studies in Language, 121], ► pp. 131 ff. DOI logo
Guardamagna, Caterina
2018. Type frequency, productivity and schematicity in the evolution of the Latin secundum NP construction. In Grammaticalization Meets Construction Grammar [Constructional Approaches to Language, 21], ► pp. 169 ff. DOI logo
Hilpert, Martin
2018. Three open questions in Diachronic Construction Grammar. In Grammaticalization Meets Construction Grammar [Constructional Approaches to Language, 21], ► pp. 21 ff. DOI logo
Hilpert, Martin
2025. Construction Grammar and English Historical Linguistics. In The New Cambridge History of the English Language, ► pp. 796 ff. DOI logo
Hölzl, Andreas
2018. Constructionalization areas. In Grammaticalization Meets Construction Grammar [Constructional Approaches to Language, 21], ► pp. 241 ff. DOI logo
Nieuwenhuijsen, Dorien
2018. Changing frequencies in a constructional landscape. Diachronica 35:2 ► pp. 210 ff. DOI logo
Rosés Labrada, Jorge Emilio
2018. The Piaroa subject marking system and its diachrony. Journal of Historical Linguistics 8:1 ► pp. 31 ff. DOI logo
Colleman, Timothy
2016. A reflection on constructionalization and constructional borrowing, inspired by an emerging Dutch replica of the ‘time’-away construction. Belgian Journal of Linguistics 30 ► pp. 91 ff. DOI logo
Colleman, Timothy
2018. Distributional assimilation in constructional semantics. In Constructions in Contact [Constructional Approaches to Language, 24], ► pp. 143 ff. DOI logo
Gyselinck, Emmeline & Timothy Colleman
2016. Tracking shifts in the literal versus the intensifying fake reflexive resultative construction. Belgian Journal of Linguistics 30 ► pp. 55 ff. DOI logo
Noël, Dirk
2016. For a radically usage-based diachronic construction grammar. Belgian Journal of Linguistics 30 ► pp. 39 ff. DOI logo
Noël, Dirk
2019. The author and the text in radically usage-based diachronic construction grammar, or why historical linguists have started analysing text again. Functions of Language 26:1 ► pp. 56 ff. DOI logo
Noël, Dirk
2023. Towards a radically usage-based account of constructional attrition. In Reconnecting Form and Meaning [Studies in Language Companion Series, 230], ► pp. 123 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2021. A constructional account of the loss of the adverse avertive schema in Mandarin Chinese. In Lost in Change [Studies in Language Companion Series, 218], DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2023. Structural Priming in the Grammatical Network [Constructional Approaches to Language, 35], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 15 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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