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Article published In: Quo Vadis, Construction Grammar?
Edited by Hans C. Boas, Jaakko Leino and Benjamin Lyngfelt
[Constructions and Frames 16:2] 2024
► pp. 311–345

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Nostalgia for the future of Construction Grammar

ORCiD logo with link | Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Paris LabParis
Published online: 15 August 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cf.23013.van
Abstract
Construction Grammar is a nomadic family of theoretical approaches whose members are constantly moving in various directions. The diversity in construction-based approaches is a clear sign of a thriving and tolerant research community, but it also risks muddying the waters, leading to potential confusion. In this paper, I argue that the main source of confusion about Construction Grammar stems from the community’s gradual evolution from the traditional view of languages as static, idealized entities (the “aggregate” perspective) to the view of language as a complex adaptive system (the “population” perspective). While the aggregate perspective abstracts away as much as possible from variation and language usage, the population perspective greatly emphasizes the dynamics of language and situated communicative interactions. This paper illustrates what it means to perform constructional analyses from the population perspective; and argues that Construction Grammar is particularly well-positioned to lead the way in this new kind of linguistics, indicating that our community has a bright future ahead.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Making sense of Construction Grammar(s)
    • 2.1Variety is the spice of science
    • 2.2Caught in a riptide
  • 3.What’s in a construction?
    • 3.1L’Arbitraire de la construction linguistique
    • 3.2How to do things with constructions
    • 3.3To formalize or not to formalize
  • 4.Constructions at work
    • 4.1Frame-evoking constructions and argument linking
    • 4.2Event construals and surface generalizations
    • 4.3A final appetizer
  • 5.Nostalgic for the future
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (86)
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