The last decade has seen a rise in popularity in construction-based approaches to grammar. The various approaches within the rubric 'construction grammar' all see language as a network of constructions-pairings of form and meaning. Construction Grammar, as a kind of cognitive linguistics, differs significantly from mainstream generative grammar as espoused by Chomsky and his followers. Advocates of Construction Grammar see it as a psychologically plausible theory of human language. As such, it is capable of providing a principled account of language acquisition, language variation and language change. Research in Construction Grammar also includes multidisciplinary cognitive studies in psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, and computational linguistics.

Thomas Hoffmann is Full Professor and Chair of English Language and Linguistics at the Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.; Graeme Trousdale is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at the University of Edinburgh.

• Table of Contents


• Chapter Authors


• I. Principles and methods


• 1 Construction Grammar: Introduction Thomas Hoffmann and Graeme Trousdale


• 2 Constructionist Approaches Adele E. Goldberg


• 3 The Limits of (Construction) Grammar Paul Kay


• 4 Usage-based Theory and Exemplar Representations of Constructions Joan L. Bybee


• 5 Constructions in the Parallel Architecture Ray Jackendoff


• 6 Data in Construction Grammar Stefan Th.Gries


• II. Constructionist approaches


• 7 Berkeley Construction Grammar Charles Fillmore


• 8 Sign-based Construction Grammar Laura A. Michaelis


• 9 Fluid Construction Grammar Luc Steels


• 10 Embodied Construction Grammar Ben Bergen and Nancy Chang


• 11 Cognitive Grammar Cristiano Broccias


• 12 Radical Construction Grammar William Croft


• 13 Cognitive Construction Grammar Hans Boas


• III. Constructicon: from morphemes to clauses and beyond


• 14 Morphology in Construction Grammar Geert Booij


• 15 Words and Idioms Stefanie Wulff


• 16 Collostructional Analysis Anatol Stefanowitsch


• 17 Abstract Phrasal and Clausal Constructions Thomas Hoffmann


• 18 Information Structure Jaakko Leino


• IV. Acquisition and cognition


• 19 Construction grammar and First Language Acquisition Holger Diessel


• 20 Construction grammar and Second Language Acquisition Nick Ellis


• 21 Psycholinguistics Giulia Bencini


• 22 Brain Basis of Meaning, Words, Constructions and Grammar Friedemann Pulvermüller, Yury Shtyrov and Bert Capelle


• IV. Language Variation and Change


• 23 Principles of Constructional Change Mirjam Fried


• 24 Construction-Based Historical-Comparative Reconstruction Jóhanna Barðdal


• 25 Corpus-based approaches to constructional change Martin Hilpert


• 26 Dialects, Discourse and Construction Grammar Jan-Ola Ostman and Graeme Trousdale


• 27 Constructions in Cognitive Sociolinguistics Willem Hollmann