Constructions as grammatical objects
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Brian Nolan
Abstract
It is now accepted that constructions exist at all levels in grammar from clausal syntax to word level morphology and even within the lexicon itself where lexical items themselves may be viewed as constructions. Constructions may also encompass lexical, semantic and pragmatic information. The semantics and/or pragmatics are not predictable from the set of lexical items in the construction. There is now recognition that the RRG account of constructions is a significantly under-utilised resource (Nolan 2013, 2012a, b, 2011). As functional linguists, the important empirical questions are: (1) How does the theory understand a construction? (2) What does a construction contain? (3) How do the constructions relate to the grammar and other constructions? (4) To what extent is our grammatical knowledge organized in constructions? (5) Do constructions include information about form, function and meaning? (6) Are constructions organized in a structured network? This paper proposes a view of constructions as structured grammatical objects and we motivate this account with new evidence of constructions from Modern Irish.
Abstract
It is now accepted that constructions exist at all levels in grammar from clausal syntax to word level morphology and even within the lexicon itself where lexical items themselves may be viewed as constructions. Constructions may also encompass lexical, semantic and pragmatic information. The semantics and/or pragmatics are not predictable from the set of lexical items in the construction. There is now recognition that the RRG account of constructions is a significantly under-utilised resource (Nolan 2013, 2012a, b, 2011). As functional linguists, the important empirical questions are: (1) How does the theory understand a construction? (2) What does a construction contain? (3) How do the constructions relate to the grammar and other constructions? (4) To what extent is our grammatical knowledge organized in constructions? (5) Do constructions include information about form, function and meaning? (6) Are constructions organized in a structured network? This paper proposes a view of constructions as structured grammatical objects and we motivate this account with new evidence of constructions from Modern Irish.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
- Controller-controllee relations in purposive constructions 1
- Transitivity, constructions, and the projection of argument structure in RRG 23
- Constructions in RRG 41
- A constructional perspective on clefting in Persian 67
- Radical Role and Reference Grammar (RRRG) 103
- Constructions as grammatical objects 143
- Constructions in Role and Reference Grammar 179
- Towards a model of constructional meaning for natural language understanding 205
- Meaning construction, meaning interpretation and formal expression in the Lexical Constructional Model 231
- Constructions in the Lexical Constructional Model 271
- From idioms to sentence structures and beyond 295
- Index 331
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
- Controller-controllee relations in purposive constructions 1
- Transitivity, constructions, and the projection of argument structure in RRG 23
- Constructions in RRG 41
- A constructional perspective on clefting in Persian 67
- Radical Role and Reference Grammar (RRRG) 103
- Constructions as grammatical objects 143
- Constructions in Role and Reference Grammar 179
- Towards a model of constructional meaning for natural language understanding 205
- Meaning construction, meaning interpretation and formal expression in the Lexical Constructional Model 231
- Constructions in the Lexical Constructional Model 271
- From idioms to sentence structures and beyond 295
- Index 331
