Article published in:
Constructions in Applied Linguistics
Edited by Susan Hunston and Florent Perek
[International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 24:3] 2019
► pp. 324–353

Patterns, constructions, and applied linguistics

| University of Birmingham

This paper proposes an alignment between aspects of pattern grammar (Francis, 1993; Hunston & Francis, 2000) and construction grammar (Goldberg, 2006). Pattern Grammar describes the grammatical behaviour of individual words at a specific level of generality. The paper claims that grammar patterns and the groups of words identified as occurring with them can be used to propose candidate constructions. This claim is illustrated with verbs and with adjectives. The paper proposes that the term ‘construction’ be used to refer to a sub-set of instances of a grammar pattern, that sub-set identified by the occurrence of a limited set of node words. It also proposes that the Pattern Grammar reference resources that are already available be reconfigured as a constructicon. The paper discusses how constructions could be presented to (English) language teachers and learners and how a constructicon might be organised.

Keywords: Construction Grammar, pattern grammar, constructicon
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Construction Grammar
  • 3.Pattern Grammar
  • 4.Patterns and constructions
  • 5.Patterns and constructions: Verbs
    • 5.1“Verb-noun-of-noun”
    • 5.2“Verb-noun-on-noun”
    • 5.3“Verb-at-noun”
  • 6.Patterns and constructions: Adjectives
  • 7.Applying constructions: The dictionary and the constructicon
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 27 August 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.00015.hun
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