Table of contents
Preface
Chapter 1.
Introduction
1.1
Why Construction Grammar
1.2
What is Construction Grammar
1.3
What is a construction
1.3.1
Definitions of construction
1.3.2
Simple words as constructions
1.3.3
Complex words as constructions
1.3.4
Idioms as constructions
1.3.5
Schematicity of constructions
1.3.6
Collocations as constructions
1.3.7
Lexico-grammatical space
1.4
How do we learn constructions
1.4.1
Segmentation and pattern finding
1.4.2
Entrenchment and pre-emption
1.5
How do constructions combine
1.6
Form and meaning in Construction Grammar
1.7
Construction Grammar as a model of linguistic description
Chapter 2.
Conventional wisdom
A chapter some readers might want to skip
2.1
The purpose of this chapter
Reminding you of things you already know
2.2
Word classes
2.3
Phrases, clauses and sentences
2.4
Clause constituents
2.5
Semantic roles
Chapter 3.
Sentence type constructions
3.1
Starting with children
3.2
From illocution to the semantic properties of different sentence
types
3.3
Basic sentence type constructions
3.3.1
Subject and predicate
3.3.2
Declarative and interrogative constructions
3.3.3
Imperative constructions
3.3.4
Exclamative constructions
3.4
Sentence type fragments
3.5
The role of sentence type constructions in CASA
Chapter 4.
The roles of verbs
4.1
Introduction
4.1.1
Language acquisition and adult language use
4.1.2
A methodological question
4.2
Expressing different degrees of certainty
4.2.1
Yes, no, possibly or perhaps
4.2.2
The English modals
4.2.3
Form and meaning of modal constructions
4.2.4
Combining modal and other constructions
4.3
Using verbs to refer to time
4.3.1
Problems of the morphological analysis of English verb forms
4.3.2
Tense and person constructions
4.3.2.1
Present and past-tense constructions
4.3.2.2
Combining tense constructions with other constructions
4.3.3
Referring to the future
4.3.3.1
Referring to future time with the
will
construction
4.3.3.2
The
be-going-to-v construction
4.3.4
Other multi-word constructions used to express ‘time’
4.4
The
progressive construction
4.5
The
perfective construction
4.5.1
Form and meaning of the
perfective construction
4.5.2
Relating the
perfective construction to other
constructions
4.6
The
passive construction
4.6.1
Active and passive
4.6.2
Combining the passive construction with other constructions
4.7
More complex combinations
4.8
Subjunctive mood constructions
4.9
Negation and the
do-support construction
Chapter 5.
Who does what to whom
Argument structure constructions
5.1
General introduction
5.1.1
Ways of looking at argument structure
5.1.2
The emergence of argument structure constructions
5.1.3
Argument structure constructions at different levels of
abstraction
5.1.3.1
Valency constructions and pre-emption
5.1.3.2
Participant roles and argument roles
5.1.3.3
Levels of knowledge associated with argument structure
constructions
5.2
The CASA framework of argument structure constructions
5.2.1
Specification of argument structure constructions in CASA
5.2.2
Specification of argument slots
Subj-, Obj- and Attr-arguments
5.2.3
Why Subj does not automatically mean SUBJ
5.2.4
Argument roles
5.2.5
Names of constructions
5.2.6
Subj-arguments
5.3
A one-argument construction
The English
intransitive construction
5.4
æffector and
æffected
Monotransitive constructions
5.4.1
Monotransitive constructions
5.4.1.1
The
monotransitive construction with
Obj
NP
5.4.1.2
Monotransitive constructions with clausal objects
5.4.2
Introducing a
recipient
Ditransitive constructions
5.4.2.1
The
ditransitive construction with
Obj
NP
5.4.2.2
Ditransitive constructions with clausal objects
5.5
Motion constructions
5.5.1
Self-motion and caused-motion
5.5.2
caused-motion and
to-recipient
constructions
5.6
Attribute and resultative constructions
5.6.1
subject-attribute constructions
5.6.2
object-attribute constructions
5.6.3
A note on resultative constructions
5.7
Constructions with prepositional objects
5.7.1
General characterization
5.7.2
change-of-state and
into-causative
constructions
5.7.3
focus-area and
reference-area
Obj
PP:about and Obj
PP:on
5.7.4
Communication partners
to-recipient/goal and
with-partner
5.7.5
Instrument and emotion
5.7.6
The English
conative construction
5.7.7
desired-thing constructions
5.7.8
The nature of prepositional objects
5.8
Perspectivization of arguments
5.8.1
Actives and passives
5.8.2
Discrepancies between active and passive expressions of
arguments
5.8.3
Perspectivization
5.8.4
The mediopassive construction
5.9
Combining argument structure constructions with sentence type
constructions
5.10
Adjectival argument structure constructions
5.10.1
Argument structure constructions across word classes
5.10.2
General design of adjective argument structure constructions
5.10.3
Adjectival argument structure constructions with prepositional
phrases
5.10.4
Adjectival argument structure constructions with
that- and
wh-clauses
5.10.5
Different types of infinitive constructions with adjectives
X-BE-ADJ-TO-V CONSTRUCTIONS
5.10.5.1
difficultetc-to-infinitive
construction
5.10.5.2
willingetc-to-infinitive
construction
5.10.5.3
braveetc-to-infinitive
construction
5.10.5.4
The
surprisedetc-to-infinitive
construction
5.10.5.5
Adjective+infinitive constructions with quasi-modal
meanings
5.10.6
Impersonal constructions with adjectives
5.10.6.1
it-that-clause construction
5.10.6.2
The
it-be-importantetc-for-x-to-infinitive
construction
5.10.6.3
The
it-be-importantetc-for-beneficiary-to-infinitive
construction
5.10.6.4
The
niceetc-of-x-to-infinitive
construction
5.10.6.5
Impersonal adjective construction without PPs
5.11
Nominal argument structure constructions
5.12
A network of argument structure constructions
5.13
Argument structure in CASA and other approaches
Chapter 6.
Referring to, describing and evaluating things
Nominal constructions
6.1
Nouns and pronouns in language acquisition
6.2
Characteristics of NP-constructions
6.2.1
NPs can fill the same slots
6.2.2
NPs can be used to refer to ‘things’
6.2.2.1
Reference
6.2.2.2
Grounding elements
6.2.3
A family of NP-constructions
6.2.4
Proper nouns, count and mass nouns
6.3
Indefinite NP-constructions
6.4
Definite NP-constructions
6.4.1
the + nouns
6.4.2
Personal pronoun constructions
6.4.3
Reflexive NP-constructions
6.4.4
Reciprocal constructions
6.4.5
Genitive and possessive constructions
6.5
Demonstrative NP-constructions
6.6
Quantifying NP-constructions
6.6.1
Numerical NP-constructions
6.6.2
General quantifier NP-constructions
6.7
Ranking NP-constructions
6.8
Wh-NP-constructions
6.9
Name and title constructions
6.10
Noun phrases
6.10.1
Basic NP-constructions
6.10.2
Modifier-of-noun constructions
6.10.2.1
Premodifier-of-noun constructions
6.10.2.2
Postmodifier-of-noun constructions
6.10.2.3
Discontinuous modifier-of-noun constructions
6.10.3
A simplified, integrated view of NP-constructions
6.10.4
Shortcut representations
Chapter 7.
Using adjectives to evaluate, describe and compare
7.1
Adjectives and adverbs
7.1.1
Uses of adjectives
7.1.2
The
adjective construction
7.1.3
The
premodifier-of-noun construction
7.1.4
Item-relatedness in attributive and predicative uses
7.2
Expressing degree
7.2.1
Modifier-of-adjective constructions
7.2.1.1
Premodifier constructions
7.2.1.2
Postmodifier constructions
7.2.1.3
Discontinuous modifier constructions
7.2.2
Expressing maximum degree
7.3
Collocational parallels between adverb-adjective and adjective noun
patterns
7.4
Comparing things
7.4.1
The
comparative construction
7.4.2
The
more-than-comparison
construction
7.4.3
Ways of expressing difference and likeness
Chapter 8.
Where, when and how
Specification of circumstances
8.1
Going beyond “who does what to whom”
8.2
Constructions situating an event with respect to location and
time
8.2.1
Different ways of expressing similar meanings
8.2.2
Point of location
8.2.3
Time
8.3
Constructions detailing the way the action described is carried
out
8.4
Constructions that situate the event described within the domain of
causation and interrelatedness of ‘things’
8.5
Constructions that express an assessment of the event described by the
speaker
8.6
Constructions that situate the event described within the text
8.7
The gradient character of these distinctions
8.8
The syntactic status of adjunct constructions
8.8.1
Integration in sentences and utterances
8.8.2
Adjunct constructions
8.8.3
point in time and
point of location as adjuncts or
arguments
8.8.4
change-of-location constructions and multiple
realization
8.8.5
The (ir)relevance of the argument vs. adjunct distinction
8.8.6
Vocatives
Chapter 9.
Joining ideas and clauses
9.1
Compression through blending
9.2
Coordination
9.2.1
Asyndetic and syndetic coordination
9.2.2
Levels of coordination
9.2.3
Additive coordination constructions
9.3
Connectors and Connection Constructions in general
9.3.1
Connectors as a word class
9.3.2
Connection constructions
9.3.3
Connection constructions with only one expressed
connectee
9.4
Reasoning in discourse
9.4.1
Discourse organization
9.4.1.1
More on addition
9.4.1.2
Sequence
9.4.2
Contrast
9.4.3
Why
Cause
9.4.4
Conditions
9.4.5
scope
9.5
Linguistic implications
Chapter 10.
Information structure constructions
10.1
Information structure and construal
10.2
Reference
Which ‘thing’ are we exactly talking about?
10.3
Topic
What are we talking about? – Focus: What’s new?
10.4
Summary
Chapter 11.
Speaking idiomatically
Prefabricated chunks as low-level constructions
11.1
Idiomaticity
11.1.1
The idiom principle
11.2
Idioms as constructions
11.3
Constructions involving particles
11.3.1
Verb-particle constructions
11.3.2
Constructions with two particles
11.4
Collocation
11.5
Small-scale constructions
11.5.1
The
let-alone construction
11.5.2
The
god-knows construction
11.5.3
The
comparative-correlative construction
11.6
Outlook
Chapter 12.
Solving problems with construction grammar
12.1
Ligature
12.2
Reporting what other people have said
12.2.1
The quotative construction
12.2.2
referring-to-source construction
12.2.3
Indirect speech
12.3
Tag constructions
12.4
Constructions with
it and
there
12.4.1
Existential
there
12.4.2
Other constructions with
there and
here
12.4.3
Constructions with impersonal
it
12.4.3.1
Weather verbs
12.4.3.2
Impersonal constructions with verbs, adjectives and nouns
Chapter 13.
Words as constructions in a constructional network
13.1
Words
13.1.1
Word-lemmata and word-forms
13.1.2
Words as nodes in networks
13.1.3
A note on polysemy
13.2
From words to word classes
Similarities between words
13.2.1
Aspects of word learning
13.2.2
Plausibility
13.2.3
Dual class membership
13.2.4
The CASA category of particles
13.2.4.1
Particles and the traditional distinction between prepositions,
adverbs and conjunctions
13.2.4.2
Complex particles
13.2.5
Adverbs
13.2.6
Determiners and pronouns
13.2.7
Wh-words
13.2.8
The limits of classification
13.2.9
Summary
13.3
CASA word classes
13.3.1
Survey
13.3.2
Words that play a part in establishing reference to a ‘thing’
13.3.2.1
Nouns
13.3.2.2
Pronouns
13.3.2.3
Demonstratives
13.3.2.4
Numerals
13.3.2.5
Quantifiers
13.3.2.6
Articles
13.3.3
Words that refer to relationships situated in time
13.3.3.1
Verbs
13.3.3.2
Modals
13.3.4
Words that have a descriptive or evaluation function
13.3.4.1
Adjectives
13.3.4.2
Adverbs
13.3.5
Words that refer to atemporal relationships
13.3.5.1
Particles
13.3.5.2
Connectors
13.3.6
Interjections
13.3.7
Items defying further classification
13.3.7.1
Who, whose, whom, which, what, why, where, when,
and how
13.3.7.2
So
13.3.7.3
As
13.3.7.4
Not
Chapter 14.
Word order
14.1
The functions of word order in English
14.1.1
Meaning, textual organization, and processing
14.1.2
Word order in construction grammar
14.2
Word order and language processing
14.2.1
Noun phrases
14.2.2
Verbs in finite clauses
14.3
Word order in argument structure constructions
14.4
The position of adjunct constructions
14.5
Inversion
Chapter 15.
Putting it all together
Blending constructions
15.1
From constructions to constructs
15.2
Combining constructions
15.2.1
Juxtaposition and superimposition
15.2.2
Conceptual Blending as the cognitive process of construct-ion
15.3
CASA construction grids
15.4
Sample analysis
Appendix I.
List of argument and other semantic roles
Appendix II.
Index of constructions (see
www.constructicon.de)
II.1
Sentence type cxns
II.2
Modal, aspect, tense and voice constructions
II.3
Argument structure constructions
II.4
Noun phrase constructions
II.5
Adjective constructions
II.6
Adjunct constructions
II.7
Other constructions
References
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