Contrastive Studies in Construction Grammar

The papers in this volume provide a contrastive application of Construction Grammar. By referencing a well-described constructional phenomenon in English, each paper provides a solid foundation for describing and analyzing its constructional counterpart in another language. This approach shows that the semantic description (including discourse-pragmatic and functional factors) of an English construction can be regarded as a first step towards a "tertium comparationis" that can be employed for comparing and contrasting the formal properties of constructional counterparts in other languages. Thus, the meaning pole of constructions should be regarded as the primary basis for comparisons of constructions across languages – the form pole is only secondary. This volume shows that constructions are viable descriptive and analytical tools for cross-linguistic comparisons that make it possible to capture both language-specific (idiosyncratic) properties as well as cross-linguistic generalizations.

Wei-lun Lu, Masaryk University, in Studies in Language Vol. 38:2 (2014), pp. 413-420:
All in all, Contrastive Studies in Construction Grammar is a highly welcomed collection of studies that brings together the contrastive approach and the Construction Grammar approach. It highlights the primary role played by the semantic/functional/notional pole of constructions in linguistic research and theorizing, and presents cases of application of Construction Grammar to cross-linguistic investigation. This is the first book of its kind, and will be a recommended reading both for cognitive-functional linguists, typologists, students in the above fields, and scholars in related disciplines such as translatology and communication studies.