Date: Wednesday, 27 November 2024, 13:15 pm to 14:45 pm
Venue: Kollegienhaus KH 2.012
About: This event is organized by the RTG Dimensions of Constructional Space.
Title: The Constructicon in Cross-Linguistic Perspective
About the speaker: Holger Diessel is a Professor of English Linguistics at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena. His recent work investigates the structure of the constructicon and cross-linguistic variation in grammatical constructions, combining insights from linguistic typology, first language acquisition, language change, and usage-based theory.
Abstract
Drawing on his research in usage-based construction grammar, Diessel challenges the traditional view of the constructicon as a taxonomy of hierarchically related grammatical patterns, arguing instead for the central role of horizontal relations within the constructional network. This talk explores how these relations, motivated by the general cognitive principles of similarity and contrast, give rise to construction families and paradigms and provide a powerful framework for understanding cross-linguistic phenomena such as markedness and word order correlations. Using network diagrams, the talk will demonstrate how processes of grammaticalization and analogy shape individual constructions, resulting in families of horizontally related constructions that account for recurring cross-linguistic patterns in word order.