Constructions and Linguistic Typology
Anton Zimmerling, Ekaterina Lyutikova
April 2024 

This paper reconsiders the notion of construction and its applications in linguistic typology. Constructions are language-specific parts of morphosyntax. Claims about mental lexicon and mental grammar are orthogonal to the typology of constructions. The claims that all constructions are language-specific and all constructions are idiomatic are potentially conflicting. If one accepts the hypothesis that there is no variation in logical structure, the meaning of most constructions can be decomposed into the universal component directly or indirectly based on logical categories, for example, the meaning of yes-no question, the meaning of verification, the meaning of goal, the meaning of concession, and the non-universal component resulting from language-specific partition of semantic structure. Typology provides the diagnostics for classes of comparable constructions, while cross-linguistic comparison of isolated constructions explores the idea that they can belong to the same class if they are derived the same way.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/008028 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	Typology of Morphosyntactic Parameters. 2023. Vol. 6. Iss. 2, 13-30. DOI: 10.37632/PI/2023.26.91.001
keywords:	typology, constructions, cross-linguistic variation, semantics, morphology, syntax
Downloaded:	245 times

 

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