Edited by Evie Coussé, Steffen Höder, Benjamin Lyngfelt and Julia Prentice
[Constructional Approaches to Language 37] 2023
► pp. 145–178
Within various frameworks interested in domain-specific language, like language for specific purposes (LSP) research and discourse linguistics, the insights provided by CxG-theory have led to the question of whether constructions can have domain-specific manifestations. Even though many linguists would, intuitively, answer this question positively, little empirical research can be found to back up this hypothesis, which is especially true for Scandinavian linguistics. To this aim, we conducted a contrastive (Swedish – Norwegian – Dutch) corpus-based analysis of existential constructions (e.g., Eng., there are some books on the table) within the specialized domain of weather reports. The analysis sets out to uncover (a) what their contextual-constructional features are, (b) how these can be linked to the domain and (c) whether these features appear across different languages.