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1.5.ConstructionGrammar
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wayconstruction(YouTubeyourwaytofame)ortheincredulityconstruc‑
tion(Himpilotspacecraf?!)postulatemeaningsthatareimplausiblyrich.
Somecareshouldbetakentoverifytheobservedsemanticandpragmatic
efectsagainstwhatclosed-classformsarenormallycapableofconvey‑
ing.AsIwillshowbelow,manysuchfantasticallycolorfulefectscan
beexplainedascontextualinterpretationsoffarmorebasicmeanings
thataconstructionhas.However,thisisnottosaythatnomulti-word
paterncanconveycontentfulmeanings.Obviously,intermediateforms
thatsharepropertiesoflexicalandfunctionformscanbeexpectedto
contributerichersemanticcontentthanacompletelyabstractfunction
formcould.
Thissuggeststhatitshouldbepossibletopredictthedegreeof
semanticcomplexityofalanguageform.Justhowrichameaningof
aconstructionis,dependsonthedegreetowhichitissubstantive.While
completelyabstractformsarespareinmeaning,thecloseranitemisto
thelexicalendofthecontinuum(thatis,themoreitisfilledwithlexi‑
calmaterial)thericheritsmeaning.Onecorollaryofthisisthatricher
meaningsfoundtooccurinasyntacticpaternshouldbetraceableto
thelexicalmaterialembeddedinthepatern.Thatis,ifaconstructionis
claimedtoconveyanopen-class-stylecontentfulmeaning,itshouldbe
possibletopointoutalexicalitemthatispartoftheconstructionandis
responsibleforthatmeaning.
Tosumup,thepresentstudywillatempttodemonstratethefollow‑
ingfourmainpoints:
1.Thelexicon-syntacticdividemayhavebeendismissedtoosoon;
2.Themeaningsofsyntacticconstructionsaspresentedintheliterature
aretoorich;
3.Theonlyexceptionsto(2)arerelativelycontentfulmeaningsthat
arenormallyassociatedwithclosed-classforms(e.g.possession,
pathorgoal).Thesearefoundinmanyfunctionformsinmanylan‑
guages.
4.Justhowrichameaningofaconstructionis,dependsonthedegreeto
whichitissubstantive.
1.5.ConstructionGrammar
Thepresentstudywillfocusonanumberofexamplesofgrammati‑
calpaternsanalyzedwithintheframeworkofConstructionGrammar
(henceforthCxG).InlinewithCxG’stradition,itwillfollowthesymbolic
