Multimodal Construction Grammar issues are Construction Grammar issues
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Steven Schoonjans
Abstract
If multimodal work in terms of Construction Grammar is still rare nowadays, this is not just because the upsurge of multimodality in linguistics in general is rather recent. Attempts to include non-verbal layers of expression (especially gesture) in Construction Grammar have uncovered a number of theoretical issues that need to be reflected upon before any serious claims on the existence of multimodal constructions can be made. While some scholars take these issues as reasons for leaving the non-verbal outside of the scope of Construction Grammar, this paper shows that several of these issues are not actually related to multimodality, but rather hint at more general theoretical issues in Construction Grammar. Hence, it is argued that these issues should be seen as an incentive for rethinking and refining the notion of ‘construction’, rather than as a reason for leaving multimodality aside.
Funding
FWO-Vlaanderen (post-doctoral fellowship number 12G6215N)
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© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Multimodality and construction grammar
- Multimodal constructs – multimodal constructions? The role of constructions in the working memory
- Utterance Construction Grammar (UCxG) and the variable multimodality of constructions
- Apposition: A multimodal construction? The multimodality of linguistic constructions in the light of usage-based theory
- Is there a multimodal construction based on non-deictic so in German?
- Multimodal existential constructions in German: Manual actions of giving as experiential substrate for grammatical and gestural patterns
- On the multimodality of [all the way from X PREP Y]
- Timelines and multimodal constructions: Facing new challenges
- Multimodal form-meaning pairs for blended classic joint attention
- Multimodal rhetoric: Fictive interaction strategies in political discourse
- The “Negative-Assessment-Construction” – A multimodal pattern based on a recurrent gesture?
- The shrug as marker of obviousness
- Multimodal Construction Grammar issues are Construction Grammar issues
- Do we really need a Multimodal Construction Grammar?
Articles in the same Issue
- Multimodality and construction grammar
- Multimodal constructs – multimodal constructions? The role of constructions in the working memory
- Utterance Construction Grammar (UCxG) and the variable multimodality of constructions
- Apposition: A multimodal construction? The multimodality of linguistic constructions in the light of usage-based theory
- Is there a multimodal construction based on non-deictic so in German?
- Multimodal existential constructions in German: Manual actions of giving as experiential substrate for grammatical and gestural patterns
- On the multimodality of [all the way from X PREP Y]
- Timelines and multimodal constructions: Facing new challenges
- Multimodal form-meaning pairs for blended classic joint attention
- Multimodal rhetoric: Fictive interaction strategies in political discourse
- The “Negative-Assessment-Construction” – A multimodal pattern based on a recurrent gesture?
- The shrug as marker of obviousness
- Multimodal Construction Grammar issues are Construction Grammar issues
- Do we really need a Multimodal Construction Grammar?
