Grammaticalization meets Construction Grammar

Grammaticalization research has increasingly highlighted the notion of constructions in the last decade. In the wake of this heightened interest, efforts have been made in grammaticalization research to more precisely articulate the largely pretheoretical notion of construction in the theoretical framework of construction grammar. As such, grammaticalization research increasingly interacts and converges with the emerging field of diachronic construction grammar. This volume brings together articles that are situated at the intersection of grammaticalization research and diachronic construction grammar. All articles share an interest in integrating insights from grammaticalization research and construction grammar in order to advance our understanding of empirical cases of grammaticalization. Constructions at various levels of abstractness are investigated, both in well-documented languages, such as Ancient Greek, Latin, Spanish, German, Norwegian and English, and in less-described languages, such as Manchu and Mongolian.

Víctor Parra-Guinaldo, Prince Mohammad Bin Fahad University, on Linguist List 33.1464 (25 April 2022):
The present volume provides a long-awaited answer to such a fair theoretical question. Martin Hilpert’s meta-theoretical reflection aims to stimulate further discussion and the ensuing articles share this common goal by discussing empirical cases of grammaticalization that put Hilpert’s theoretical questions to the test. All constructions studied in this volume are of the semi-schematic type, which is particularly relevant to the grammaticalization/construction grammar interface. The authors are to be commended for bringing to light detailed and well-argued studies. Their analyses are of interest to advanced students and scholars of both grammaticalization and construction grammar. [...] This volume is a useful contribution to the discussion of construction grammar in the context of grammaticalization and a necessary step in the direction of diachronic construction grammar (DCxG) research.