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Constructions: a new theoretical approach to language

Trends in Cognitive SciencesPublished 1 May 2003
Adele Ε. Goldberg
Citations1,707
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score4.51
SNIP5.51

TL;DR

Researchers in this field argue that unusual constructions shed light on more general issues, and can illuminate what is required for a complete account of language.

Abstract

A new theoretical approach to language has emerged in the past 10-15 years that allows linguistic observations about form-meaning pairings, known as 'constructions', to be stated directly. Constructionist approaches aim to account for the full range of facts about language, without assuming that a particular subset of the data is part of a privileged 'core'. Researchers in this field argue that unusual constructions shed light on more general issues, and can illuminate what is required for a complete account of language.

Keywords

PsychologyArts and Humanities