Publications

Publication details [#7236]

Leino, Jaakko. 2008. Constructional Reorganization (Constructional Approaches to Language 5). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. vi, 152 pp.

Abstract

The present volume consists of several novel and different applications of the Construction Grammar framework to areas such as language change, variation, and the internal organization of grammar. The book is a collection of articles which bring together the framework of Construction Grammar and the constantly changing language system. Thereby, two main questions are addressed which are of paramount interest to linguists working with the notion of grammatical construction: Where do constructions come from? And, how are the grammatical constructions in a given language organized to form the coherent whole which we refer to as “grammar”? The book connects the latest developments in grammatical theory and Construction Grammar with empirical findings and data, language-specific research traditions, and cross-language issues. It is aimed at linguists interested in Construction Grammar, constructional approaches to grammar more generally, language variation and change, and the internal architecture of grammar. (Publisher Book Description) Table of contents (provisional) 1. Grammar as a Construction Site Jaakko Leino 2. Resolving form-meaning discrepancies in Construction Grammar Hans C. Boas 3. Language change, variability, and functional load: Finnish genericity from a constructional point of view Pentti Leino and Jan-Ola Östman 4. Precategoriality and argument structure in Late Archaic Chinese Walter Bisang 5. Variations in Japanese honorification: Deviations or a change in the making Yoshiko Matsumoto 6. Constructing reasoning: The connectives för att (causal), så att (consecutive) and men att (adversative) in Swedish conversations Jan Lindström and Anne-Marie Londen