- Oxford Handbooks in Linguistics
- Copyright Page
- Acknowledgements
- List of figures and tables
- List of contributors
- Introduction
- Conceptualizations of Grammar in the History of English Grammaticology
- Syntactic Argumentation
- Grammar and the Use of Data
- Grammar and Corpus Methodology
- Cognitive Linguistic Approaches
- Constructional Approaches
- Dependency and Valency Approaches
- Generative Approaches
- Functional Approaches
- Modern and Traditional Descriptive Approaches
- Theoretical Approaches to Morphology
- Inflection and Derivation
- Compounds
- Word Classes
- Phrase Structure
- Noun Phrases
- Clause Structure, Complements, and Adjuncts
- Clause Types and Speech Act Functions
- Tense and Aspect
- Mood and Modality
- Subordination and Coordination
- Information Structure
- Grammar and Lexis
- Grammar and Phonology
- Grammar and Meaning
- Grammar and Discourse
- Change in Grammar
- Regional Varieties of English: Non-standard grammatical features
- Global Variation in the Anglophone World
- Genre Variation
- Literary Variation
- References
- Name Index
- Subject Index
- Oxford Handbooks in Linguistics
Abstract and Keywords
This chapter discusses what a constructional approach to language can reveal about English grammar. Construction Grammar adopts a perspective that has been characterized as ‘the view from the periphery’, which pays particular attention to structures that are irregular and idiosyncratic with regard to form and meaning. A substantial body of work on such structures indicates that speakers’ knowledge of grammar contains a large number of small-scale generalizations. The constructional view openly questions whether grammar can be conceived of as a well-defined set of morpho-syntactic rules. The wider implication of a constructional view is that a clean separation of grammar on the one hand and the lexicon on the other is not a realistic representation of linguistic knowledge.
Keywords: construction, idiosyncrasy, form, meaning, knowledge of language, morpho-syntax, generalization
Martin Hilpert is an Assistant Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Neuchâtel. His research interests include Grammaticalization, Construction Grammar, and Cognitive Linguistics. He approaches these topics with the tools and methods of corpus linguistics. His monograph on Germanic Future Constructions (John Benjamins, 2008) documents change in the domain of future time reference across several languages and constructions. His book Constructional Change in English (CUP, 2013) works out how Construction Grammar can be applied to issues of language change. Martin.hilpert@unine.ch
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- Oxford Handbooks in Linguistics
- Copyright Page
- Acknowledgements
- List of figures and tables
- List of contributors
- Introduction
- Conceptualizations of Grammar in the History of English Grammaticology
- Syntactic Argumentation
- Grammar and the Use of Data
- Grammar and Corpus Methodology
- Cognitive Linguistic Approaches
- Constructional Approaches
- Dependency and Valency Approaches
- Generative Approaches
- Functional Approaches
- Modern and Traditional Descriptive Approaches
- Theoretical Approaches to Morphology
- Inflection and Derivation
- Compounds
- Word Classes
- Phrase Structure
- Noun Phrases
- Clause Structure, Complements, and Adjuncts
- Clause Types and Speech Act Functions
- Tense and Aspect
- Mood and Modality
- Subordination and Coordination
- Information Structure
- Grammar and Lexis
- Grammar and Phonology
- Grammar and Meaning
- Grammar and Discourse
- Change in Grammar
- Regional Varieties of English: Non-standard grammatical features
- Global Variation in the Anglophone World
- Genre Variation
- Literary Variation
- References
- Name Index
- Subject Index
- Oxford Handbooks in Linguistics
