In the last chapter, we explored word constructions and the basic phrasal constructions that they appear in. In addition to that, we saw that English has a great number of schematic and substantive idioms that can best be described as constructions. In the present chapter, we continue this approach and investigate how syntactic phenomena, such as argument structure (which tells us what happened) and its interaction with active and passive voice (which represent different vantage points from which to construe events), as well as tense and aspect (when and how something happened), can be analysed within Usage-based Construction Grammar. Moreover, we also look at abstract constructions for the various clause types (e.g., declaratives, interrogatives and imperatives, all of which basically express speakers’ illocutions). Finally, we also look at how Information Structure constructions can be used to structure information in a way that is most beneficial for a specific hearer in a discourse context.

In this book, we have explored the view that there is ample empirical evidence to suggest that the full range of mental grammatical knowledge, from morphemes to abstract syntactic patterns, can best be described as constructions. We have seen that Construction Grammar can explain how children acquire English and that it provides a cognitively plausible account of the synchronic variation of Englishes across the globe as well as the diachronic changes that affected the English language over the centuries. In this final chapter, I will show you how we can bring together everything that we have learnt so far to analyse authentic constructs. As you know, outside of textbooks, constructs are often going to be fairly complex and will involve the activation of a multitude of constructions. I will, therefore, introduce you to a representation system (Constructional Approach to Syntactic Analysis; Herbst and Hoffmann 2018) that allows us to illustrate the various constructions that combine to produce complex utterances. Then, I will conclude the book by briefly discussing some phenomena that I, personally, think are currently emerging as ‘hot topics’ in constructionist research.

All Construction Grammar approaches consider constructions to be the central units of language. On top of that, virtually all approaches subscribe to Goldberg’s (2013) four tenets of (i) the lexicon–syntax continuum, (ii) the taxonomic network of organization of the constructicon, (iii) surface structure-orientation and (iv) cross-linguistic variability and generalization. Nevertheless, the various Construction Grammar approaches also differ on a couple of crucial points that result in a wide range of representational formats. In this chapter, I will outline the major differences between non-usage-based (such as Berkley Construction Grammar and Sign-Based Construction Grammar) and usage-based approaches (Parallel Architecture, Cognitive Construction Grammar, Embodied Construction Grammar, Fluid Construction Grammar and Radical Construction Grammar). Finally, the chapter will also address the question as to how the meaning pole of constructions is analysed in the various approaches – which ranges from semantic paraphrases (Cognitive Construction Grammar) over first-order predicate logic (Fluid Construction Grammar) to Frame-based approaches (Sign-based Construction Grammar).

In the previous chapter, we have seen how constructional templates can be used to license new words. But what actually is a word? I know that this might seem like a very trivial question, yet as we will see, this is one of those issues that the more you think about, the less straightforward the answer becomes. In this chapter, we will therefore take a closer look at word constructions as well as the larger compositional constructions that they can occur in (phrasal constructions). On top of that, we will also focus on constructions that appear to consist of more than one word and yet have a single non-compositional MEANING that clearly goes beyond the meaning of all its elements – idioms. In fact, since the very first Construction Grammar publications dealt with the analytic problems that idioms posed for the dominant syntactic theories of the time, this will also enable us to trace the historical development “from idioms to construction grammar” (Croft and Cruse 2004: 225).

In this chapter, we will explore constructionist approaches to language variation and change in English. As part of this, we will see how classic sociolinguistic studies can be accounted for by a usage-based constructionist perspective. Then, we will look at how Construction Grammar offers a cognitive explanation of the evolution of new first and second language varieties of English around the world. Finally, you will learn how Construction Grammar approaches analyse diachronic linguistic change.

In Chapter 2, we discussed evidence supporting a Usage-based Construction Grammar approach. Now, we move on to looking at the various types of constructions needed for a full analysis of Present-day English. We start with what is normally considered to be the smallest types of FORM-MEANING pairings, morphemes, and investigate the various parameters according to which these can be classified. In particular, we will see to what degree the classic Structuralist distinction between grammatical and lexical morphemes makes sense from a Construction Grammar point of view. Then we will look at the various ways in which Present-day English can outlinine a Construction Grammar approach to word-formation.

Language is arguably the most important cultural tool that humans have ever invented. In this book, using English as our specific object of choice, we will look at the cognitive basis of language and discover how all aspects of it, from inventing new words to uttering full sentences, rest on one central cognitive unit: the construction. As we will see in this chapter, a core property of languages is that they are complex sign systems. I will first introduce the classic definition of words as linguistic signs, that is, as arbitrary pairings of form and meaning. Next, we shall see that even morphemes or abstract syntactic patterns are best analysed as form-meaning pairings. All of these different types of signs will be captured by the notion of the construction. Besides, instead of a strict dichotomy of words and rules, we will treat language as a system that ranges from simple word constructions to complex syntactic constructions. Finally, we will explore the basic assumptions shared by all approaches that consider the construction the basic notion of syntactic analysis (so-called Construction Grammars) and outline how these differ from Chomskyan Mainstream Generative Grammar.