Constructions at Work: The Nature of Generalization in Language

by Adele E. Goldberg, Inderjeet Mani (Editor), James Pustejovsky (Editor)

This book investigates the nature of generalization in language and examines how language is known by adults and acquired by children. It looks at how and why constructions are learned, the relation between their forms and functions, and how cross-linguistic and language-internal
generalizations about them can be explained.

Constructions at Work is divided into three parts: in the first Professor Goldberg provides an overview of constructionist approaches, including the constructionist approach to argument structure, and argues for a usage-based model of grammar. In Part II she addresses issues concerning how
generalizations are constrained and constructional generalizations are learned. In Part III the author shows that a combination of function and processing accounts for a wide range of language-internal and cross-linguistic generalizations. She then considers the degree to which the function of
constructions explains their distribution and examines cross-linguistic tendencies in argument realization. She demonstrates that pragmatic and cognitive processes account for the data without appeal to stipulations that are language-specific.

This book is an important contribution to the study of how language operates in the mind and in the world and how these operations relate. It is of central interest for scholars and graduate-level students in all branches of theoretical linguistics and psycholinguistics. It will also appeal to
cognitive scientists and philosophers concerned with language and its acquisition.

Genres: Linguistics, Language, Nonfiction

292 pages, Hardcover

First published March 15, 2001

About the author

Adele Eva Goldberg is an American linguist known for her development of construction grammar and the constructionist approach in the tradition of cognitive linguistics.

Source - Wikipedia

Reviews

[Katja · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely not an introductory book but if you know what you are looking for (e.g., how CG is different from the generative grammar and other linguistic theories, how quantifier scope is treated in CG or how island constraints can be elegantly explained from the information structure perspective) then the book is very helpful. It does not go into much detail on most topics but provides many references.

[Jakub Sláma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. I'm becoming quite a Goldberg stan.

[Klay Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm going to come back to this book, but my initial observation is a lack of understanding of verbal valency and valency changes.